TEKISUI

A Zen master asked his young disciple to bring him a pail of water for his bath. The student brought the water and, after filling the bath bucket, threw on to the ground the little water that was left over. The master scolded him, “Why didn’t you give the rest of the water to the plants? What right have you to waste even one drop of water?” The young student attained Zen in that instant. He changed his name to Tekisui, which means a drop of water.

While the above moral would be apt for “save-water” campaigns, it holds within greater lessons for attitude towards resource management. We all know that it is the little drop of water that creates the ocean. Yet we tend to be wasteful and indiscriminate in our use of resources. We must learn to focus on waste reduction and alternate use.

We must recognize the significance of what may seem insignificant. Every drop of water counts. We must introspect and evaluate our attitude which is reflected in the way we use every resource… be it materials, be it energy or be it human resource... To be better at managing any and every resource, we must be careful to not be careless with any Tekisui!

The challenge is to live life less wastefully. The accountability is on us to look at the larger ownership of our world. Our rights to our resources come intertwined with the tag of responsibility. Ignoring the larger liability would result in nurturing our own peril. Let’s learn to deal with every Tekisui in a responsible manner.

We would BE BETTER if we do not waste…
any Tekisui at the altar of careless haste!

- Pravin K. Sabnis