Zhaozhou questioned two new arrivals at his temple.
He asked the first monk, “Have you been here before?”
The monk said, “No, I haven’t.”
Zhaozhou said, “Have a cup of tea.”
Then he asked the second monk, “Have you been here before?”
The Monk said, “Yes, I have.”
Zhaozhou said, “Have a cup of tea.”
The head monk asked, “Setting aside the fact that you told the one who’d never been here before to have a cup of tea, why did you tell the one who had been here before the same thing?”
Zhaozhou said, “Head Monk!”
The head monk responded, “Yes?”
Zhaozhou said, “Have a cup of tea.”
-Eihei Dogen, Three Hundred Koan Shobogenzo, Case 233
I wish my knee hadn’t done what it did earlier. It’s been raining like mad and I really want to go outside and ride in it. Alas, it is not in the cards for tonight.
Spent a little while studying Japanese again today. Which means that I’ve studied Japanese more in the last week than I have in all the rest of the time I’ve been in Chicago. This says two things. One, my study habits might actually stick this time. Two, I really suck at self-motivated language study.
Tomorrow I’m going to try to go downtown for dawn photography again. Never made it out on Monday. I eventually decided to snag an hour or so of sleep before the alarm went off. When the alarm rang, I rolled over, looked out the window, and somehow decided that the light was going to suck. Subsequently went back to sleep. I’m really not sure what made me decide that the light was going to suck. I don’t think there was any real reason other than my body not wanting to budge out of bed.
Today my roommate found his laser pointer. Subsequently, Charlie chased the little red dot all over the apartment to the point where he’s laying there panting. My cat is so friggin’ cute.
If I don’t get downtown for morning light, I may still go down tomorrow and hit the Museum of Contemporary art. Haven’t seen the current exhibit yet. Always some awesome stuff there. The Lee Bontecou exhibit was unbelievable. Art museums = win.
