[Buddha-l] What's in the tea...

[Julia Milton]

--- Jerrold Davis <jerroldm at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Can anyone give me the source for the Dharma story
> about a man who visits a magician, who serves him a
> cup of tea.  The visitor then experiences a whole
> life time in a moment only to find that the tea is
> still hot and he hasn't actually gone anywhere.  I
> may have the particulars wrong, but it's something
> like that.  Thanks in advance. 

I don't know that story, but it reminds me of this
one:

One day Saraha asked his wife for some radish curry.
She prepared the dish, but in the meantime Saraha
entered a deep meditation from which he did not emerge
for twelve years. He then immediately asked for his
radish curry. His wife was astonished, "You have been
in meditation for twelve years; now it is summer and
there are no radishes." Saraha then decided to go to
the mountains for more meditation. "Physical isolation
is not a real solitude," replied his wife. "The best
kind of solitude is complete escape from the
preconceptions and prejudices of an inflexible and
narrow mind, and, moreover, from all labels and
concepts. If you awaken from a twelve-year samadhi and
are still clinging to your twelve-year-old curry, what
is the point of going to the mountains"? Saraha
listened to his wife and after some time attained the
supreme realization of the Mahamudra. 

- From Keith Dowman, _Masters of Mahamudra_, State
University of New York Press, 1985

(And I know this is gloriously missing the point, but
ever since hearing this story, I've wanted that radish
curry recipe ;-)

Julia


		
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