I have discussed with my spiritual girlfriend. What is non-interference as the essentiality of the truth of SATORI in Zen Buddhism? Despite of her own autentic inner experience, I had to engage all my creativity to explain it to her, due to conveying a truth that cannot be shared without own experience is quite a difficult procedure.
In the end, we concluded that it is a difficult process. My spiritual girlfriend argued that it is easy to live such way inside a monastery, but in commom, real life with your family, job and properties is extremely hard. Finally she asked me: "Are you live in Non-interference?" I answered herwith very big truthfully: "I have been trying..."
Let me therefore present the story of a famous koan by the renowned Japanese Zen master Hakuin Ekaku, who lived at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries (I have paraphrased the text a little bit). It is famous Zen text that my 82-year-old mother absolutely loves!
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Master Hakuin lived in a grand monastery above the town, where he led a famous and wealthy monk community. The townspeople and those from all the surrounding areas deeply respected him for his pure and virtuous life. In the town lived a family who owned a food store. Their beautiful daughter unexpectedly became pregnant.
Her angry parents pressed the girl to reveal the father's name. Out of fear and in an effort to protect the real father—who was the son of a merchant from the local fish market, with whom the girl's family was in a dispute—she named in a sudden movement of mind the revered Master Hakuin. The enraged parents stormed into the monastery where Master Hakuin was the abbot and showered the master with numerous insults. The master listened to them calmly and merely said: "So Be It."
When the child was born, the parents brought the baby to Hakuin, saying that he must take care of it. Master Hakuin accepted the child without any protest. After that he finally lost his stainless reputation, whereupon all of his disciples abandoned him, but he began to care for the child with full love. He therefore left the monastery, walked around the area teaching and begging, and faithfully shared his humble life with the child.
A year later, the young mother could bear it no longer and, consumed by remorse, confessed the truth to her parents. Ashamed, the parents ran to Hakuin, apologized profoundly, and asked for the child back. The master returned the child to them with gratitude and a smile, saying: "So Be It."
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