Sake & Zazen

A Zen Koan.

A Zen teacher celebrated with his students, drinking sake and whiskey until after midnight, then rose the next morning before dawn.

Peevish, he expressed annoyance that his students had not risen in time to do zazen before morning service.

When they murmured that their sluggishness might be accounted for by all the drink, the teacher snapped at them — “Sake is one thing, and zazen is another! They have nothing to do with each other!”