This is a beautiful Zen story about great Tibetan saint, Milarepa. He was a simple and innocent person and he followed a master who was not a master at all, but just a great scholar, very knowledgeable, had a great following. But Milarepa was not concerned with the knowledge. He loved the man, he trusted him. Although he was not trustworthy, he was not a master, Milarepa accepted him as a master to such an extent that he would walk on water.
Other disciples who were older and senior to him could not do it; they tried. They asked Milarepa, ”What is the secret?”
He said, ”No secret; I simply trust my master. I remember him and I say to him that I want to cross this river, that’s all. I don’t know how he manages.”
Naturally, jealousy arose because he was a newcomer and he was suddenly becoming the most prominent because of his doings. He would jump from the mountains without being hurt… And the reason he would always give was, ”It is my master.”
It was reported to his master. The master was very much surprised. He himself would not dare to walk on water. He was a knowledgeable scholar, but that does not make you capable of walking on water. He could not jump from mountains into valleys without being hurt. But now he was in a difficulty. He could not say, ”I am not responsible at all, it must be his own trust” – on the contrary he proved to be a very ordinary human being. He said, ”Yes, it is my name and the power of my name.”
So the disciples asked, ”Then you show us: walk on the waters.
He said, ”I will.”
He thought in his mind, ”If my name can manage it, then of course I am going to try it myself.” And after the first step he started shouting, ”Help! Help!” because he was drowning. Somehow he was pulled out.
The disciples asked, ”What happened?”
He said, ”I don’t know, I had never tried it before. Where is that Milarepa?”
Milarepa was on the other side of the river, so he came running on the water.
The master said, ”My God, you have exposed me. I cannot do it, nor can my name do it; it must be your trust. It does not matter in what, in whom.”
