Comings and Goings

I was recently reminded of this story, during a conversation with friends. I first came upon this story in a collection of Zen teaching stories, and have since some slightly different versions, two of which I include here.

An old monk is dying. He is very near death, drifting in and out of consciousness. At one point, he opens his eyes to see some of his disciples gathered around his bedside, all looking terribly sad.
“What’s wrong?” asked the old monk. “Why are you so unhappy?”
“We are unhappy, Master, because you are going to leave us.” replied one of the younger monks.
The old monk sadly shook his head, and said, “If you still think there is a coming or a going, you have a long way to go.”

The second version is only slightly different, but I like it equally as much as the first:

An old monk is dying. He is very near death, drifting in and out of consciousness. At one point, he opens his eyes to see some of his disciples gathered around his bedside, all looking terribly sad.
“What’s wrong?” asked the old monk. “Why are you so unhappy?”
“We are unhappy, Master, because you are going to leave us.” replied one of the younger monks.
“Don’t be silly.” said the old monk. “Where would I go?”