Astralboobaby

A Zen Teacher saw five of his students return from the market, riding their bicycles. When they had dismounted, the teacher asked the students,

“Why are you riding your bicycles?”

The first student replied, “The bicycle is carrying this sack of potatoes. I am glad that I do not have to carry them on my back!”

The teacher praised the student, saying, “You are a smart boy. When you grow old, you will not walk hunched over, as I do.”

The second student replied, “I love to watch the trees and fields pass by as I roll down the path.”

The teacher commended the student, “Your eyes are open and you see the world.”

The third student replied, “When I ride my bicycle, I am content to chant, nam myoho renge kyo.”

The teacher gave praise to the third student, “Your mind will roll with the ease of a newly trued wheel.”

The fourth student answered, “Riding my bicycle, I live in harmony with all beings.”

The teacher was pleased and said, “You are riding on the golden path of non-harming.”

The fifth student replied, “I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle.”

The teacher went and sat at the feet of the fifth student, and said, “I am your disciple.”

The Self doesn't do - it is the foundation of existence. As the individual 'I' is merely a mental concept, and the mind is an emenation of the Self, there is no doer. The fifth student understands that he is not riding his bicycle, rather there is riding happening. He is not limiting the experience by superimposing a concept of doership.

All moving and temporary phenomena has its basis in the nonmoving and unchanging Self. Therefore action and inaction are one and the same. The fifth student rides his bicycle, and is simultaneously the perfectly still and actionless Self. These seemingly contradictory ideas, on closer examination, cannot be seperated. 

The fifth student, understanding all this, is content to experience all without attachment, letting the experience flow through his mind leaving it untouched. Like a lotus flower grown out of mud yet resting clean on the water, he rests in the world while aware of the Self underlying everything like the butter hidden in milk.

Namaste.