The sound of one hand clapping

A man observing and meditating

on his life's experiences and through that

he gets that discovery - 

the sound of a hand clapping

                           

The sound of one hand clapping is a Zen Masters’ tradition. It so happens that people come to these masters looking for answers and direction about their lives, but the answers they receive instead, is that they should go and meditate on the sound of one hand clapping. This meditation is not for an hour or so, it takes years in the course of people's lives; It stands for self discovery.

We know that clapping happens when one hand comes in contact with the other, and that creates a sound. In this context, the sound of one hand clapping is the sound within ourselves that already exist. We only need to discover it for it to give a sound. That can only be achieved, through observation and meditation of life experiences. This teaching tells us that, the answers we are searching for, is already within us and we need to discover it ourselves.

During our course of living, we encounter trials of every kind, and it is surprising to see how strong and wise one is when faced with trials. If we don't go through life trials, we wouldn’t have discovered our sounds (strenght and wisdom). The Zen Masters says that, we are meant to discover all those things on our own. That is the only way we will hear our sound. The sound that is already within, clapping to us for a good job.

In a nutshell, the sound of one hand clapping makes us find ourselves in our daily lives. We go through trials, to discover who we truly are and what we are capable of. We need to get lost to discover our path. So, when the sound of one hand clapping happens to you, it is because you have discovered something that was already in you that you never knew about yourself and if you didn’t go through that experience, you wouldn’t have known that. It is the sound of discovery.

The sound of one hand clapping has happen to me, as it happen to you? - discover it through observing and meditating on your life journey.

Source of Picture and story:

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http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Stories/Zen/Sound_of_one_Hand_Clapping.htm