The Big Mistake Zen Story
- Solien
- Dec 11, 2025
- 2 min read
Today we enter… The Big Mistake. A story that looks humorous from afar, but carries one of the most precise blades in all of Zen.
It exposes the part of you that clings to blame, the part that thinks awakening is about being right, and the part that confuses mistake with identity.
Let’s step in — slowly, cleanly.
Let the Story Unfold
A monk once said to Master Baso:
“I have made a big mistake.”
Baso replied:
“Make it again.”
Sit With the Meaning
The monk believes awakening depends on correctness, on purity, on flawless performance.
He thinks the “big mistake” disqualifies him.
Baso doesn’t soothe him. He doesn’t correct him. He doesn’t ask for details.
He doesn’t even care what the mistake was.
He cuts directly through the illusion behind the confession:
The belief that enlightenment is a moral achievement. The belief that error contaminates your path.The belief that spirituality is about getting everything right.
Baso says:
“Make it again.”
Not because mistakes are desirable, but because your clinging to not making them is the real prison.
Zen points toward a freedom much larger than perfection:
A freedom where mistakes don’t define you. A freedom where shame doesn’t collapse the path. A freedom where you stop worshipping correctness and start meeting your life as it is.
Baso’s teaching is simple and devastating:
You are not here to become flawless.You are here to stop confusing flawlessness with awakening.
Turn Inward With Your Parts
Is there a part of you that believes spiritual worth comes from getting everything “right”?
What happens inside when you imagine making a mistake and not being punished or diminished for it?
Which protector panics at the idea of loosening control, fearing everything will fall apart?
Is there an exile underneath, carrying shame from an old “big mistake” it was never allowed to release?
Let Expression Rise
IFS Journaling
Write to the part that feels it must prevent mistakes at all costs. Ask it what it fears would happen if it ever relaxed its vigilance.
IFS Parts Art
Draw your “mistake.” Not the content — the feeling of it. Is it heavy, sharp, chaotic, tight? Let the image show you what the part carries.
Somatic IFS
Sit with your breath low and slow.
Bring to mind a time you felt you “failed.”
Notice where your body tightens around this memory.
Breathe into that place as if offering space,not correction.
And if none of these feel right… simply rest with the story. let the silence do the holding.
Stay here with your parts as long as you like, and we’ll meet again in the next story.
Continue Exploring the Zen Stories
Comments