I understand the phrase ‘It’s the silences between the notes that make the music’ and the phrase ‘It’s the empty space inside the vessel that makes the vase’, BUT I can not grasp the phrase ‘It’s the space between the bars that hold the tiger’ . I have pondered it many times. Would you please explain it to me?
Answer:
Zen koans such as this don’t necessarily have one correct interpretation. They are meant to force the mind out of linear conventional thinking into transcendent insight. This is certainly a good one to ponder for that.
When I consider this koan, I take the caged tiger as a metaphor for the trapped human mind or spirit. The bars represent physical matter and the space between them is our mind space, our non-physical mental tendencies. In this interpretation, it is not the physical limitations that bind our spirit, but actually the invisible, non-physical mental conditioning that keeps us contained in our cage.
Love,
Deepak
