"Immediately the confusion disappeared."

William Martin, 
The Tao of Forgiveness, Part 1

Master Dave sat across the small table from his student, Alex, at The Happy Frog Cafe. They were enjoying hot tea served in pottery mugs that were warm in their hands on a cold, wet coastal morning. As usual, neither had yet spoken, allowing the meeting to begin in comfortable silence.

Master Dave broke the silence with a question. "Well, Alex, who are you today?" Expecting the usual "How are you?" or "What would you like to talk about?" Alex was unable to respond. He stumbled and stuttered for a moment.

Master Dave rose from his chair and said, "Let's meet again tomorrow," picked up his mug of tea, and walked back to the kitchen.

Alex spent the day in confusion. "I'd better come up with an answer to that question by tomorrow," he thought. The question seemed fraught with existential meaning and he pondered potential answers carefully. He searched for some response that would sound "Zen" and profound, but everything he came up with sounded silly and phony.

The next morning Alex awoke and lay in bed in his usual early-morning fog. The question "Who am I?" appeared in his consciousness. "Well," he thought, "I'm someone who is quite confused about who he is." Immediately the confusion disappeared. "I'm someone who's confused!" he said aloud. He bounded out of bed and whistled his way into the kitchen to put on a pot of hot water for tea. As he was watching the gas flame begin to caress the bottom of the teakettle he realized he was no longer someone who was confused. "I'm someone preparing tea," he thought.

The morning unfolded in an ever-shifting awareness of changing "selves." "Someone making mush, someone taking a shower, someone thinking about work in the garden, someone afraid of getting sick . . ." At times he was vaguely aware of "Someone" compassionately watching all the "someones" come and go.

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