A great official, Riko, once asked the Zen Master Nansen to explain the old koan of the goose in the bottle.
"If a man puts a gosling into a bottle," said Riko, "and feeds him until he is full-grown, how can the man get the goose out without killing it or breaking the bottle?"
Nansen gave a great clap with his hands and shouted: "Riko!"
"Yes, Master," said the official with a start.
"See," said Nansen, "The goose is out!"
It is only a question of seeing and awakening. The goose is in prison. Are you and I also in a daily prison of our needless fears, habitual behavior, untested assumptions, or countless stories--fragments of our creative imagination that cause us to suffer?
We stay in prison so long as we struggle with these stories, trying to solve them in our habitual ways. But what if we simply notice them and let them dissolve into thin air?
In working with the goose in the bottle what if you simply hang out with the koan, befriend it, as did the anthropologist, Diane Fossey, with her beloved gorillas? In the beginning she tried hard, went after them, and they ran away. Soon, however, she learned a new way; simply to be with them, and they, in curiosity, approached her. Try hanging out with the goose in the bottle. Let your mind simply DISSOLVE into it. What do you discover? Post your insights on: https://www.facebook.com/julian.gresser
You can begin to have fun creating your own enso. All you need do is visit your nearby art shop and buy a few brushes and sumie ink, and start playing! What if your enso starts becoming “smart,” feeding back insights to you as you enter and explore different realms of consciousness?
Here are some useful links to get you going: