Are You Still Carrying Her?

SOURCE:  

• https://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/03/zen-parable-are-you-still-carrying-her-jordan-myska-allen/
• https://x.com/JosiahHawthorne/status/1839736634713014647
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hara_Tanzan

KEYWORDS:  Attachments, Grace, Sin, Holiness, Compromise, Spirit, Law, Serenity, Legalism, Temptation, Grudge, Peace

A parable is told about the Buddhist monk Hara Tanzan.

Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. Heavy rain was falling. As they came around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross at an intersection.

"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

Ekido did not speak until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. 

"We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"

Who is Hara Tanzan?

Hara Tanzan (原坦山, December 5, 1819 – July 27, 1892) was a Japanese philosopher and Sōtō Buddhist monk. He served as abbot of Saijoji temple in Odawara and as professor at the University of Tokyo during the Bakumatsu and Meiji era. He was a forerunner of the modernization of Japanese Buddhism and the first (in Japan) to attempt to incorporate concepts from the natural sciences into Zen Buddhism