Zen Stories

[david_dawei]

swats of Rin-zai:

 

1.

Huang Po asked Rin-zai if he was tired and got the reply "I just started to work, how can you say I am tired?". Huang Po hit Rin-zai with a stick. Rin-zai grabbed the stick and pushed the Huang Po to the ground. A senior monk came over and asked Huang Po how can you let a madman like that insult you? Huang Po hit the senior monk with the stick ! Rin-zai was digging the ground saying "let all other places use cremation, I'll bury you alive".

 

2.

Pointing to a pillar, master Rin-zai asked a staff officer if it was secular or sacred? The officer was silent. The master struck the column and said, "even if you could speak, it is still only a wooden post".

 

3.

Master Ren-zai addressed his followers as follows: "Listen. WHen I was with master Huang Po, I asked three times for the meaning of buddhism and was struck three times. I want those blows again, but who can give them to me now". A monk stepped forward. Ren-zai handed the monk the stick. As the monk grabbed for it, Ren-zai struck the monk.

 

4.

Master Ren-zai was in the hall and a monk asked about enlightenment. Ren-zai raised his whisk. THe monk shouted and Ren-zai struck him. Another monk asked a question and again the whisk was raised, the monk shouted and got struck. The monk then faultered in his speech. Ren-zai struck him again.

 

5.

Master Ren-zai asked a monk "where do you come from". The monk shouted. Ren-zai motioned him to sit down and the monk hesitated. Ren-zai struck him. See another monk approach, Ren-zai raised his whisk. The monk bowed low. Ren-zai struck him. Seeing another monk coming, the master raised his whisk. This monk paid no attention to the master and kept going. Ren-zai struck him.

[david_dawei]

After Hui-neng (father of modern zen), the next great figure is Mao-Tsu (originator of sudden enlightenment), and then Huang Po (considered one of the deepest thinkers), and then Lin chi / Ren-zai , founder of the sect which flourishes in Japan today.

 

Huang Po (d. 850) came from ancient Fuzhou and developed fully the idea of 'wordless transmission of zen' in his writing, "on the transmission of the mind".

 

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The master asked the young Huang Po where he had been. HP stated he was picking mushrooms at the base of the mountain. The master asked, "Did you see a tiger?" , where upon HP roared. The master picked up a axe in a pose to strike HP, where upon JP striked the master. Later the master entered the hall and said, "there's a tiger at the base of the mountain, you monks should go look. Just today I myself suffered a bit from it".

 

--

 

The prime minister invited master Huang Po to come speak, and presented a writeup of his understanding of Zen. HP took the writing and placed it on the table, did not read it and was silent. Then said, "Do you understand?". The prime minister said, "I do not understand". HP said, "it would be better if you could understand immediately through inner experience, if it expressed in words, it is not our teaching".

 

--

 

Huang Po was asked, "If you say the mind can be transmitted, then how can you say it is nothing?" HP replied, "To achieve nothing is to have the mind transmitted to you". Again, "if there is nothing, no message and no mind, how can it be transmitted?" HP replied, "nothing is obtained in the transmission of the mind, or if anything is obtained, then it is not knowledge".

[david_dawei]

Koan - An almost insoluable riddle meant to understood by means other than reasoning and deduction. To find a solution or to speak a solution is often the incorrect path. Answers often vary and usually the most illogical answers are accepted as proof of solving it.

 

1. What is the sound of one hand clapping?

 

2. Before you were born, what did your face look like?

 

3. What is the buddha nature? A= three chin of flax

 

4. What is the meaning of the first partriachs visit to the west? A= the cypress tree in the front courtyard

[david_dawei]

The reverse riddle, offered by a master as an answer to a novices question:

 

1. What do you say to one who has nothing to carry about?

master: Carry it along

 

2. What shall I do if I even have a shadow of doubt?

master: Even oneness, if held onto is wide of the mark

 

3. All things are reducible to one, but where is the one reducible to ?

master: When I was in the district of Ching, I had a rope that weighted seven chin

 

4. Please tell me how to go on with my studies?

master: Do you hear the murmur of the stream... if so, here is the entrance

 

5. Let me have a Zen theme?

master: Struck the monk

[obxtrainman]

Wow! that was pretty deep!

 

I asked Ai Ye to study thai chi. I only hope I can obtain mellowness

 

 

 

Yes, I am sure that is not a word also.

[david_dawei]

Zen stories:

 

Master: "Can you take hold of empty space"

Monk, stretches out his arms as if to hug the world.

Master: "Is that the way you do it, afterall, you have nothing?"

Monk: "What is your way".

Master grabs monk by the nose and sqeezes very hard, causing the monk to yell!

Master: "That is the way to have hold of empty space!"

 

--

 

A zen teacher stopped with four students to build a fire and rest... the students began to debate objectivity and subjectivity...

 

Zen teacher: "There is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?"

 

Student: "From the buddhist point of view everything is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind."

 

Zen teacher: "Your head must feel very heavy if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind".

 

--

 

A young student, in order to impress his master described the meaning of buddhism ... "all does not exit... true nature is emptiness... there is no giving nor receiving".

 

The master was silent for some time.. and the suddenly hit the student with his bamboo pipe. The student got outraged.

 

The master asked "If nothing exists, where did this anger of yours come from?"

 

--

 

monk: "How can I find liberation?"

master: "who binds you?"

monk: "No one binds me"

master: "Then why seek liberation".

 

--

 

monk: "How can I be freed of this bondage?"

master: "What is it that binds you, show me with your hands what is there"

monk: "there is nothing there"

master: "So I have set you free"

 

--

 

student: with clenched fists says, "Teacher, can you rid me of my anger?"

master: "come back in two days. Find this anger and bring it to me".

student returns in two days...

master: "put forth your hands and show me the anger you found".

student extends hands, open and empty.

master: "see, I have rid you of that anger".

 

--

 

"The empty mirror... if you could truly understand that, there would be nothing left here for you to look at"

[david_dawei]

Master Dogen was among the first to bring zen buddhism to Japan and was the founder of the Soto school.

 

What follows is some of his teachings:

 

----

 

There are mountains hidden in treasure. There are mountains hidden in swamps. There are mountains hidden in the sky. There are mountains hidden in mountains. There are mountains hidden in hiddenness.

 

An ancient buddha said, "Mountains are mountains, waters are waters". These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains".

 

---

 

Since there is nothing but just this moment, the time-being is all the time there is.

 

Each moment is all being, is the entire world. Reflect now whether any being or any world is left out of the present moment.

 

Do not think that time merely flies away. If time merely flies away, you would be separated from time. In essence, all things in the entire world are linked with one another as moments. Because all moments are the time-being, they are your time-being.

 

---

 

Birth is like riding in a boat. You raise the sails and row. Although you row, the boat gives you a ride and without the boat no one could ride. But you ride in a boat and your riding the boat makes it what it is.

 

At just such a moment, there is nothing but the world of the boat. The sky, the water, and the shore all are the boat's world, which is not the same as a world that is not the boat's.

 

---

 

The time when the moon appears is not necessarily night. Night not necessarily dark. Even when there is no sun or moon, there is day and night. Sun and moon are not day and night; each is as it is.

 

---

 

A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements.

[kfman]

Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom and dignity. It is not enough, as communist systems have assumed, merely to provide people with food, shelter and clothing. Human nature needs to breathe the precious air of liberty.

 

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

[HanLi]

Now I know where grasshopper lies..........

[Dan R]

Nothing is so strong as gentleness; nothing so gentle as real strength. - St. Francis de Sales