A hermit was meditating on the bank of a river when he was interrupted by a young man.
“Master, I would like to become your student,” said the young man.
“Why?” the hermit asked him.
The young man thought for a while and finally said.
“Because I want to find God.”
The master jumped at it, grabbed him by the collar of his neck, took him to the water and put his head under the water.
After holding him underwater for a while, kicking and trying to free himself, the hermit finally pulled him out of the water. The young man was spitting out water and panting heavily. When he finally calmed down, the master spoke.
“Tell me, what did you want most when you were underwater?”
“The air!” replied the young man.
“Very well,” said the master.
“Go home and come back to me only when you long for God as you longed for air in water.”
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Source: https://highexistence.com/7-zen-stories-that-give-you-a-glimpse-of-enlightenment/
Friedrich Nietzsche once said: “God is dead.”
Source: https://citaty-slavnych.sk/autori/friedrich-nietzsche/
This quote, which is directly related to the above story, is an expression of humanity’s distance not only from God, but also from the spiritual world in general. All this speaks about the current development of humanity. He is not talking about whether spiritual beings have died or whether they are alive, but he is talking about man, about the stage of society when people closed in on themselves in their cognition and perception and stopped directly perceiving the higher non-physical world. It is an even deeper immersion in matter, and when a person wants to find a way to his true spiritual homeland, he must go just as deeply into himself. Not to the moon, not to space, not to the seas, oceans or India, but directly into yourself, very, very deep into your inner world. In the beginning it is an unconscious longing, an unconscious feeling for something higher than this earthly life. And that’s what this Zen story is about. Man should find within himself the desire for the higher, which is found deep within us and of which we know nothing until we discover Him deep within ourselves through our own work on ourselves and the right effort. This in itself does not mean that we are Gods, but the connection with him is within us, and the path to him does not lead through any external organized religions, associations or any earthly places, but through individual work on ourselves and in ourselves. The meaning of Nietzsche’s quote also speaks of this. This does not mean that external circumstances, teaching, conditions cannot be helpful to us, but no external help can replace our own individual inner work. However, the inner work does not end with thoughts and feelings, but only begins there.
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