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ZEN BUDDHISM
AN INTRODUCTION TO ZEN
WITH STORIES & PARABLES
AND KOAN RIDDLES TOLD BY
THE ZEN MASTERS & WITH CUTS
FROM OLD CHINESE INK-PAINTINGS
THE PETER PAUPER Press
Mountain VERNON & NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT © 1959
BY THE PETER PAUPER PRESS, INC.
http://preterhuman.net/texts/religion.occult.new_age/Buddism/AnIntro.ToZenBuddhism
AN INTRODUCTION TO ZEN
ZEN, a variety of Buddhism, at present flourishes in Japan, and has infused
richness into almost all of Japan'south cultural life. Before it took root in
Japan in the twelfth century, it had been for five hundred years ane of the
smashing philosophical-religious movements in China. Information technology has simply recently been
discovered by the West, cheers to the books of Professor D. T. Suzuki and to
the fascination that Japan has exercised on then many American servicemen and
tourists.
Zen has been described as a mystical pantheism, a arrangement of metaphysics
taught with riddles and blows, a sort of existentialist cult, a blandly
nonhoped-for-explained higher way of daily life. Zen is something of all of
these, just basically it is a variety of Buddhism.
Buddhism originated in India virtually 500 B.C. with the prince Siddhartha
Gautama, who gave upward his family and his sheltered life which he discovered
could not protect him from old age, illness, unhappiness and death - to seek
a higher kind of life. After seeking wisdom from others and failing to find
it, he had his own revelation of a higher life; this came as he meditated
nether the Bodhi-tree. Thereafter he taught the Truth that he had learned,
and around him gathered a group of followers that grew into the monastic
order still powerful in much of the Orient. He was known to his followers equally
the Buddha, the Enlightened One.
Buddha taught that there is an eternal, countless universe of Absolute Being,
of which we are temporary incarnations. Every bit such, we are subject to delusions
and temptations, pain and trouble, disease and death. Just past studying to
find wisdom, living to do good, and concentrating to achieve control over
mind and body, we can escape from the authorization of the physical earth, and
we can transmit a adept inheritance of karma to our afterwards incarnations. Karma
has been divers as "that moral kernel of any being which survives death and
continues in transmigration."
Buddha taught that a succcssion of beings, each improving its common
inheritance of karma, can eventually rise to an beingness entirely complimentary of
this world: the land of nirvana. Buddha himself is said to have achieved
nirvana at his death - that is, permanent enlightenment in a land gratis from
rebirth.
A thousand years afterwards Buddha, a monk from Republic of india came to China with a
modified Buddhism that was destined to become widely good in Cathay, and
eventually in Japan, under the name Zen (from the Sanscrit Dhyana and the
Chinese Ch'an). This traveler was called Bodhidharma (Bodhi= enlightenment,
Dharma = True Way), and is believed to have come to People's republic of china in 520 AD.
Following Bodhidharma, Zen was transmitted through a torso of monks and a
serial of patriarchs - each patriarch leaving his robe and begging bowl to
his chosen successor as a badge of role. The sixth patriarch was a lowly
monk who was not a scholar: his selection confirmed the fact that past this
fourth dimension Zen had go a way of life for the simple every bit well as for the studious
devotee. This was about one hundred and l years after Bodhidharma.
Zen is - without beingness worldly - a discipline more suited than classic
Buddhism to worldly men seeking a higher spiritual feel. It neglects
karma, reincarnation, and nirvana, but it still demands meditation,
Concentration and physical subject field. Its unique educational activity is that
"enlightenment" may come up to defended laymen, and that this enlightenment
may occur suddenly and intuitively non necessarily requiring years of written report
and concentration.
The achieving of enlightenment in Zen is not at all a rational or methodical
process. Information technology is completely not-rational, unexplainable, and intuitive. The
Zen training in concentration, in the characteristic cross-legged position,
and the Zen instruction of koans (non.iogical riddles and stories) are designed
to put the student in a state where he can abandon logic and make the spring
upward into enlightenment. In Japanese this country of enlightenment is called
satori.
In satori we are able to look across our immediate globe into the universe
of original, eternal, Absolute Beingness often called the Great Emptiness -
which was before our world was formed, and volition exist later on it disappears. In
this condition we lose our sense of Cocky, and know ourselves to be role of
the great Oneness of all. Knowing ourselves to be office of Absolute Being,
our ego and our bug of ego - sin, pain, poverty, fear -all dissolve.
This is salvation in Zen terms.
Having reached the land of satori, we become enlightened that everything in all
this world nearly u.s.a., all other living and non-living things, even our lowest
fauna functions, are function of Absolute Being - and are thus essentially
holy. Mountains and rocks, trees and grass-blades, elephants and microbes,
all share as in the Eternal.
This awareness permits us to become virtually our daily life with a new freedom, a
new sureness, a new sense of doing the piece of work of Absolute Being even in the
smallest or dirtiest task of the present life. It is this sense also that
makes the tea ceremony in Japan a ritual of devotion; that makes a
seventeen-syllable haiku poem a universal statement of religion; that makes a
quick brush-drawing a gesture of piety in Eternity.
Beyond this awareness that all things are role of Absolute Being and share
its holiness comes a sense of the interpenetration of all things. Each of the states
is the noon of a cone of past ancestors, and the beliefs, acts, and events
which determined them. Each of us likewise is a point from which a new cone of
individuals and events will arise, each in some part a production of what we
are. We are all a part of Absolute Being, and nosotros are all a office of each
other.
This concept has been described in the allegory of Indra's Net: At that place is an
endless net of threads throughout the universe. The horizontal threads are
in infinite, the vertical threads are in fourth dimension. At every crossini of threads is
an individual, and every individual is a crystal bead. The smashing light of
Absolute Being illuminates and penetrates every crystal dewdrop; but besides every
crystal bead reflects not only the low-cal from every other crystal in the net
- merely also every reflection of every reflection throughout the universe.
Thus nosotros larn that we live in all other beings, all other things - and that
they live in us. Our lives are richer - and more filled with obligations -
than nosotros e'er knew before.
The post-obit stories are from the annals of Zen - tales of past masters and
patriarchs, parables used in instruction, and koans used in freeing the mind
from logic. They cannot past themselves brand you a participant in the Zen
experience, only they tin can give you pleasure as allegories and anecdotes, and
can give some bask of the intensity, spirituality, and tenacity of Zen
practitioners over the past m years and more.
The koan is a riddle without a logical respond. To the coincidental reader some of
these riddles, and the conversations which contain them, will seem utter
nonsense. But they take been preserved and revered for centuries by serious
men, so nosotros must look decper. For the same reason we cannot dismiss every bit equal
nonsense the beatings given past masters to pupils who make reasonable
answers; or the intentionally idiotic commentaries written by the master
Mumon on famous koans.
The purpose of the koans, of the beatings, of the commentaries, is to break
the heed of logic. What the chief wants of the pupil is non agreement
in whatsoever usual sense. He wants to "burst the pocketbook," and drive the pupil with
whole-souled precipitation into the Great Emptiness, the Great Stillness -
where all things stand without being touchable; where all sounds are,
without being heard.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STORIES & PARABLES
AND KOAN RIDDLES
OF ZEN MASTERS
A Primary who lived as a hermit on a mountain was asked by a monk,
"What is the Way?"
"What a fine mountain this is," the chief said in reply.
"I am not asking yous about the mountain, but about the Way."
"So long as yous cannot become beyond the mountain, my son, you cannot
accomplish the Way," replied the master.
* * *
THE MASTER Kosen drew the words "The First Principle" which are
carved over the gate of the Oaku Temple in Kyoto. He drew them
with his brush on a canvass of paper later they were carved in wood.
A student of the master had mixed the ink for him, and stood by,
watching the main's calligraphy. This educatee said, "Non then good!"
Kosen tried once again. The pupil said: "That'south worse than the start
one!" and Kosen tried again.
Afterward the sixty-4th attempt, the ink was running low, and the student
went out to mix some more. Left alone, undistracted by whatsoever
disquisitional eye watching him, Kosen made 1 more than quick drawing with
the last of the ink. When the pupil returned, he took a good await
at this latest effort.
"A masterpiece!" he said.
* * *
JOSHU asked a monk who appeared for the first time in the hall,
"Have I ever seen you hither before?" The monk answered, "No sir,
you have non."
"Then have a cup of tea," said Joshu.
He turned to some other monk. "Take I always seen you here before?" he
said. "Yeah sir, of course you accept," said the second monk.
"Then have a cup of tea," said Joshu.
Afterward, the managing monk of the monastery asked Joshu, "How is it
that you make the same offer of tea whatever the reply to your
question?"
At this Joshu shouted, "Manager, are you lot withal here?"
"Of class, principal!" the manager answered. "Then have a loving cup of
tea," said Joshu.
* * *
THE STUDENT Doken was told to go on a long journey to another
monastery. He was much upset, because he felt that this trip would
interrupt his studies for many months. So he said to his friend,
the advanced educatee Sogen:
"Please ask permission to come with me on the trip. In that location are so
many things I practice not know; merely if yous come up along we can discuss
them - in this way I can acquire as we travel."
"All right," said Sogen. "But let me enquire y'all a question: If yous
are hungry, what satisfaction to you lot if I swallow rice? If your feet
are lame, what comfort to y'all if I go on merrily? If your bladder
is full, what relief to you if I piss?"
* * *
THE Student Tokusan used to come to the master Ryutan in the
evenings to talk and to listen. One night it was very tardily before
he was finished request questions.
"Why don't you go to bed?" asked Ryutan.
Tokusan bowed, and lifted the screen to go out. "The hall is very
night," he said.
"Here, have this candle," said Ryutan, lighting one for the
student.
Tokusan reached out his hand, and took the candle.
Ryutan leaned forward, and blew information technology out.
* * *
SHUZAN held upward his staff and waved it before his monks.
"If you telephone call this a staff," he said, "you deny its eternal life.
If yous do not phone call this a staff, you deny its present fact. Tell
me just what practice you propose to phone call it?"
* * *
SEKISO said: "A man sits on superlative of a hundred-foot pole. How can he
become further up?"
A main answered: "He should reach for enlightenment. Then he can
stand up up into all 4 corners of the sky at once.
* * *
SEKKYO said to one of his monks, "Can you become concur of Emptiness?"
"I'll try" said the monk, and he cupped his hands in the air.
"That'south not very expert," said Sekkyo. "You oasis't got anything in
there!"
"Well, primary," said the monk, "please show me a improve way."
Thereupon Sekkyo seized the monk'south olfactory organ and gave it a swell yank.
"Ouch!" yelled the monk. "Yous hurt me!"
"That'southward the fashion to get hold of Emptiness!" said Sekkyo.
* * *
BODHIDHARMA left his robe and bowl to his called successor; and
each patriarch thereafter handed information technology downwardly to the monk that, in his
wisdom, he had chosen as the next successor. Gunin was the fifth
such Zen patriarch. Ane twenty-four hour period he announced that his successor would
be he who wrote the all-time verse expressing the truth of their sect.
The learned chief monk of Gunin's monastery thereupon took castor
and ink, and wrote in elegant characters:
The body is a Bodhi-tree
The soul a shining mirror:
Polish it with study
Or grit will tedious the prototype.
No other monk dared compete with the primary monk. But at twilight
Yeno, a lowly disciple who had been working in the kitchen, passed
through the hall where the poem was hanging. Having read it, he
picked up a brush that was lying nearby, and below the other poem
he wrote in his rough hand:
Bodhi is non a tree;
There is no shining mirror.
Since All begins with Null
Where tin can dust collect?
Later that dark Gunin, the fifth patriarch, chosen Yeno to his
room. "I take read your poem," said he, "and have chosen you as my
successor. Here: take my robe and my bowl. But our main monk and
the others will be jealous of you and may do you damage. Therefore I
want y'all to exit the monastery tohight, while the others are
asleep."
In the morning the chief monk learned the news, and immediately
rushed out, post-obit the path Yeno had taken. At midday he
overtook him, and without a word tried to pull the robe and bowl
out of Yeno's easily.
Yeno put down the robe and the bowl on a rock by the path. "These
are only things which are symbols," he said to the monk. "If y'all
want the things so much, delight take them."
The monk eagerly reached down and seized the objects. Only he could
not budge them. They had become heavy as a mountain.
"Forgive me," he said at concluding, "I really want the pedagogy, not
the things. Will y'all teach me?"
Yeno replied, "Stop thinking this is mine and terminate thinking this
is not mine. Then tell me, where are yous? Tell me also: what did
your face wait like, earlier your parents were born?"
* * *
Goso said: "Suppose you meet a Zen master on the road. You can't
talk to him. You can't stand there silent. What can yous do?"
[To this koan, one of Mumon's comments was: "Whack him one!"]
* * *
A FAMOUS soldier came to the master Hakuin and asked: "Main,
tell me: is there really a heaven and a hell?"
"Who are yous?" asked Hakuin.
"I am a soldier of the swell Emperor's personal guard."
"Nonsense!" said Hakuin. "What kind of emperor would take y'all
around him? To me you lot look similar a beggar!" At this, the soldier
started to rattle his big sword in anger. "Oho!" said Hakuin. "So
you have a sword! I'll wager it'southward much too dull to cut my head
off!"
At this the soldier could non agree himself back. He drew his sword
and threatened the master, who said: "At present you know one-half the
answer! Y'all are opening the gates of hell!"
The soldier drew back, sheathed his sword, and bowed. "Now you lot
know the other half," said the master. "You lot have opencd the gates
of heaven."
* * *
THE STUDENT Doko came to a Zen principal, and said: "I am seeking the
truth. In what state of mind should I train myself, and then as to find
it?"
Said the principal, "There is no mind, so you cannot put it in whatever
state. At that place is no truth, so you cannot railroad train yourself for information technology."
"If there is no heed to train, and no truth to find, why practise you
have these monks gather before you every day to study Zen and
train themselves for this study?"
"But I haven't an inch of room hither," said the master, and so how
could the monks gather? I accept no tongue, so how could I call them
together or teach them?"
"Oh, how can you prevarication like this?" asked Doko. "Simply if I take no
tongue to talk to others, how can I prevarication to you?" asked the main.
Then Doko said sadly, "I cannot follow y'all. I cannot understand
you.
"I cannot empathise myself," said the master.
* * *
BASO said to a monk, "If I encounter you have a staff, I will give it to
you. If I come across you have no staff, I will accept it away from you.
* * *
THE Instructor Nansen institute two groups of monks, from the East hall
and the Westward hall, squabbling over the buying of a pet cat. He
picked up the cat, waved information technology in the air over his head, and said to
the quarrelers:
"Say a good word if you want to save the cat!" No one said a word.
Nansen went to the kitchen, brought back a big cleaver, and
chopped the cat in half. He gave half to each group.
That nighttime when Joshu returned to the monastery, Nansen told him
the story. Joshu said naught; simply he took off his sandals,
balanced them on his head, and walked away.
Nansen said aloud, "Joshu could have saved the cat."
* * *
LITTLE Toyo was only twelve years sometime. Merely since he was a pupil at
the Kennin temple, he wanted to be given a koan to ponder, just
similar the more advanced students. And then 1 evening, at the proper
time, he went to the room of Mokurai, the main, struck the gong
softly to announce his presence, bowed, and sat before the chief
in respectful silence.
Finally the master said: "Toyo, show me the audio of two hands
clapping."
Toyo clapped his hands.
"Good," said the master. "At present show me the sound of ane manus
clapping."
Toyo was silent. Finally he bowed and left to consider this
problem.
The next night he returned, and struck the gong with one palm.
"That is non correct," said the primary. The next night Toyo returned
and played geisha music with 1 hand. "That is not right," said
the master. The next night Toyo returned, and imitated the
dripping of water.
"That is not right," said the chief. The adjacent dark Toyo
returned, and imitated the cricket scraping his leg. "That is
even so not right," said the master.
For ten nights Toyo tried new sounds. At last he stopped coming to
the master. For a year he idea of every sound, and discarded
them all, until fnally he reached enlightenment.
He returned respectfully to the master. Without hit the gong,
he sat downward and bowed. "I take heard sound without audio," he
said.
* * *
A MONK came to the main Nansen and asked, "Tell me, is there
some teaching that no main has e'er taught?"
Nansen said, "There is."
The monk asked, "Can yous tell me what information technology is?"
Nansen said, "It is non Buddha. It is not things. It is non
thinking."
* * *
BUTSUGEN said to his disciples; "Each of you has a pair of ears,
but what have y'all ever heard with them? Each of you lot has a rima oris,
merely what take y'all ever said with it? Each of y'all has eyes, but
what accept you lot ever seen with them? No, no! You lot accept never heard,
never spoken, never seen, never smelled.
"But in such a case where do all these colors, shapes, sounds,
smells, come from?"
* * *
WHO is the Buddha? What is the Buddha? Here are some of the
answers given by various masters to this question:
Something of dirt, with gold-leafage.
The one in that location in the hall.
He isn't Buddha.
The mountains are traveling over the sea.
Look at that three-legged donkey.
Dry shit.
The mouth is the gateway of woe.
The best creative person doesn't know how to pigment him.
The bamboo grove out in back.
* * *
THE Principal Gutei made a exercise of raising his finger whenever he
explained a question most Zen. A very young disciple began to
imitate him, and every time Gutei raised his finger when he
preached, this boy would enhance his finger too. Everybody laughed.
One day Gutei caught him at it. He took the boy's paw, whipped
out a knife, cut off the finger and threw it away. The boy walked
off howling.
"Cease!" shouted Gutei. The boy stopped, and looked at the master
through his tears. Gutei raised his finger. The boy raised his
finger. And then all of a sudden he realized it wasn't there. He hesitated a
moment:
And then he bowed.
* * *
THE Principal Ikkyu showed his wisdom even as a child. Once he broke
the precious heirloom teacup of his teacher, and was greatly
upset. While he was wondering what to practise, he heard his teacher
coming. Quickly he hid the pieces of the loving cup nether his robe.
"Master," he said, "why practise things die?"
"It is perfectly natural for things to die and for the affair
gathered in them to separate and disintegrate," said the teacher.
"When its time has come up every person and every thing must go.
"Principal," said little Ikkyu, showing the pieces, "information technology was time for
your loving cup to go.
* * *
WAKUAN stood in front end of a picture of Bodhidharma. In the picture
Bodhidharma was wearing a beard.
"Now why doesn't that beau wear a beard?" asked Wakuan.
* * *
IN TETSUGEN'S time the holy Buddhist books in Chinese had never
been published in Japanese, and Tetsugen thought they should be
prepared and so for his own countrymen. He planned to have several
thousand copies printed from hand-engraved woodblocks, and went
from town to town to collect donations so this great work could become
ahead. After ten years he had the money needed, and started to
have the blocks cutting.
Just then the Uji river flooded, and at that place was famine in the land.
Tetsugen took the money he had collected, and bought rice for the
starving people. So he started out to collect his funds once again.
Whether the donation was a little one or in coins of gold, he was
equally grateful. Afterward some years, he had the money again.
So an epidemic passed over the state. Thousands of families
were left without support. So Tetsugen spent all the coin he had
collected, helping the helpless. When it was all gone, he started
collecting information technology again.
Finally his slap-up project was accomplished, and he died content.
Tetsugen's edition of the holy books in Japanese can however be
seen. But those who know, say that the kickoff two editions, which
have never been seen, far surpass the third.
* * *
THE MASTER Nan-in had a visitor who came to enquire virtually Zen. Only
instead of listening, the visitor kept talking about his own
ideas.
After a while, Nan-in served tea. He poured tea into his visitor's
loving cup until information technology was total, then he kept on pouring.
Finally the company could not restrain himself. "Don't yous see
it'southward full?" he said. "You lot can't get any more in!"
"Just so," replied Nan-in, stopping at last. "And similar this cup,
you are filled with your own ideas. How tin you lot expect me to give
you lot Zen unless you offer me an empty cup?"
* * *
A Chief was asked the question, "What is the Way?" by a curious
monk.
"It is correct before your eyes," said the master.
"Why exercise I non see it for myself?"
"Because you are thinking of yourself."
"What virtually you: do you see it?"
"So long as you see double, saying I don't and you lot do, and then on,
your eyes are clouded," said the master.
"When there is neither 'I' nor 'You,' can one see information technology?"
"When there is neither 'I' nor 'You,' who is the one that wants to
encounter it?"
* * *
THE NUN Chiyono studied for years merely was unable to find
enlightenment. Ane moonlight night she was carrying an old pail,
filled with water. She was watching the full moon reflected in
this water, when the bamboo strip that held the pailstaves broke.
The pail fell all autonomously; the water rushed out; the moon's
reflection disappeared. And Chiyono found enlightenment. She wrote
this verse:
This way and that style
I tried to keep the pail together
Hoping the weak bamboo
Would never intermission.
All of a sudden the bottom fell out:
No more water:
No more moon in the water:
Emptiness in my hand!
* * *
A Pupil came before the master Bankei and asked to be helped in
getting rid of his violent temper.
"Show me this atmosphere," said Bankei. "It sounds very fascinating."
"I oasis't got it right now, and then I tin can't prove it to yous, said the
pupil.
"Well then," said Bankei,"bring information technology to me when you accept it."
"But I tin't bring it merely when I happen to take it," protested
the student. "I'd surely lose information technology once again before I got it to you.
"In such a case," said Bankei, "it seems to me that this temper is
not part of your true nature. If it is non role of you, information technology must
come into you lot from outside. I propose that whenever it gets into
you, you beat yourself with a stick until the temper tin't stand
information technology, and runs abroad."
* * *
A NEW monk came up to the master Joshu. "I have merely entered the
brotherhood and I am broken-hearted to learn the first principle of Zen,"
he said. "Volition you lot please teach information technology to me?"
Joshu said, "Accept yous eaten your supper?"
The novice answered, "I accept eaten." Joshu said, "At present wash your
bowl."
* * *
BODHIDHARMA sat facing a wall for ix years of meditation. At one
time a Confucian monk came to him for didactics. But Bodhidharma
sat unmoving and unspeaking for seven days and nights, while the
monk pleaded for his attending. Finally the monk could stand no
more than, and to show his sincerity, he took a slap-up sword, cut off
his arm, and carried it to Bodhidharma.
He said: "Here is a token of my sincerity. I have been seeking
peace for my soul for many years, and I know that yous can show me
how to discover it."
Bodhidharma said, "Do not bring me your arm. Bring me your soul,
so I tin can give it peace every bit you request.
"But that is the very problem," said the monk,
"I cannot grasp my soul or find information technology, much less bring it to you.
"You see," said Bodhidharma, "I have given you peace of soul."
* * *
A GREAT official came to the master Takuan request for help in
passing his days more eventfully. All day long, he explained, he
saturday receiving supplications and reports, and he found it all very
dull. Takuan took castor and paper, and wrote eight Chinese
characters. Translated, they said:
No day comes back over again:
1 inch of fourth dimension is worth
A foot of jade.
* * *
KOKUSHI called to his attendant: "Oshin!"
Oshin replied, "Yes."
Kokushi called "Oshin!"
Oshin replied, "Yes."
Kokushi called again, "Oshin!"
Oshin replied again, "Yes."
Kokushi said, "I apologize for all this calling of your name. Only
in truth yous should apologize to me!"
* * *
MATAJURA wanted to become a corking swordsman, but his begetter said
he wasn't quick enough and could never learn. So Matajura went to
the famous dueller Banzo, and asked to get his student. "How long
will it take me to become a master?" he asked. "Suppose I became
your retainer, to be with you every minute; how long?"
"10 years," said Banzo.
"My male parent is getting old. Earlier ten years have passed I will
have to return dwelling house to take care of him. Suppose I work twice every bit
difficult; how long volition information technology take me?"
"Thirty years," said Banzo.
"How is that?" asked Matajura. "First you say ten years. And so when
I offer to work twice equally difficult, you lot say information technology will take three times as
long. Let me brand myself articulate: I will work unceasingly: no
hardship will exist besides much. How long will information technology take?"
"Seventy years" said Banzo. "A pupil in such a bustle learns
slowly."
Matajura understood. Without asking for any promises in terms of
time, he became Banzo'south servant. He cleaned, he cooked, he done,
he gardened. He was ordered never to speak of fencing or to touch
a sword. He was very lamentable at this; but he had given his promise to
the master, and resolved to go along his word. Three years passed for
Matajura as a servant.
One day while he was gardening, Banzo came up quietly backside him
and gave him a terrible whack with a wooden sword. The next day in
the kitchen the aforementioned blow roughshod again. Thereafter, day in, day out,
from every corner and at whatsoever moment, he was attacked past Banzo's
wooden sword. He learned to live on the balls of his feet, ready
to dodge at any movement. He became a body with no desires, no
thoughts - only eternal readiness and quickness.
Banzo smiled, and started lessons. Before long Matajura was the greatest
swordsman in Japan.
* * *
THE MASTER Getsuan said: "Keichu, the first wheelmaker, made 2
wheels. Each had fifty spokes. Suppose you cutting out the hubs? Would
at that place nonetheless exist a wheel?"
* * *
JOSHU asked the teacher Nansen, "What is the true Mode?"
Nansen answered, "Everyday way is the truthful Way."
Joshu asked, "Can I report it?"
Nansen answered, "The more than you study, the farther from the Style."
Joshu asked, "If I don't report it, how can I know information technology?"
Nansen answered, "The Way does not belong to things seen: nor to
things unseen. It does not belong to things known: nor to things
unknown. Do not seek it, study information technology, or name it. To discover yourself on
information technology, open yourself wide as the sky."
* * *
YAMAOKA, a master of Zen and a peachy fencer, served as tutor to
the Emperor. But he always wore old ragged wearing apparel, for he opened
his house to the poor, and gave them everything he had.
The Emperor was bellyaching thatYamaoka came to him with old clothes,
so he gave the principal some gilded coins proverb, "Become, my son, and buy
new clothes." The primary thanked him; merely the next mean solar day he returned
in the same old outfit.
"And where are the new apparel?" asked the Emperor.
"I bought them," said the main, "But I gave them to other
children of your Majesty who are not so rich equally I."
* * *
THE MASTER Tozan was weighing some flax. A monk came upward to him in
the storeroom and said, "Tell me, what is Buddha?"
Tozan answered, "Here: five pounds of flax."
* * *
THE MASTER Foso Hoyen said, "They say that Buddha during his
lifetime uttered five 1000 and forty-8 split up truths.
They include the truth of Emptiness and the truth of Beingness. They
include the truth of sudden enlightenment and the truth of gradual
enlightenment. Are not all these yea-sayings?
"But on the other hand, Yoka in the Song of Enlightenment says
there are no beings and no Buddhas; sages are sea-bubbling; and
great minds arc merely the flickerings of lightning. Are non all
these nay-sayings?
"Oh my disciples, if y'all say Yea, yous deny Yoka; if y'all say Nay,
you contradict Buddha. If Buddha were here with you, how would he
solve this trouble?
"If we knew where we stand, we would question Buddha every
morning, and greet him every dark. Simply as we don't know where we
stand, I volition let you into a secret: When I say this is so,
perhaps information technology is non a yea-saying. When I say this is non and then, perhaps
it is not a nay-saying. Plough to the East and see the holy Western
State; confront S to see the Northern Star."
* * *
TWO MONKS, Tanzan and Ekido, were walking down a muddied street in
the urban center. They came on a lovely young girl dressed in fine silks,
who was afraid to cross considering of all the mud.
"Come on, girl," said Tanzan. And he picked her upwardly in his arms,
and carried her across.
The two monks did not speak again till nightfall. And then, when they
had returned to the monastery, Ekido couldn't keep quiet whatever
longer.
"Monks shouldn't go virtually girls,' he said ­p; "certainly not
cute ones similar that one! Why did you do information technology?"
"My beloved fellow," said Tanzan. "I put that daughter down, way back in
the city. It's you who are notwithstanding conveying her!"
* * *
JOSHU was a chief who started to study Zen when he was sixty.
When he was lxxx he establish enlightenment. They say that he taught
for forty years thereafter.
Once a student asked old Joshu: "You teach that we must empty our
minds. I have nothing in my heed. At present what shall I do?"
"Throw it out!" said Joshu.
"But I have null. How can I throw it out?"
"If you tin can't throw it out, carry it out! Drive it out! Empty it
out! Simply don't stand in that location in front of me with nothing in your
heed!"
* * *
OF THE Zen maxim: "Buddha preached for twoscore-nine years, but his
tongue never moved," the master Gensha said:
"Pious teachers say that Buddhism helps us in every possible style,
merely recall: how can it assistance the blind, the deaf, or the dumb? The
bullheaded cannot see the instructor'south staff that is raised earlier them.
The deaf cannot hear the instructor's words, no affair how wise. The
dumb cannot ask their questions or speak their understanding. And so
since nosotros cannot assist these people, how can nosotros say Buddhism helps
in every possible way? What good is it?"
Many years later a monk asked the principal Ummon to explicate these
words of Gensha. Later making the questioner prostrate himself and
then rise, Ummon poked at him with his stick. The monk jumped
back.
"Ah-ha!" said Ummon, "I see yous are not blind!" Then he told the
monk to come forward, which he did.
"Ah-ha!" said Ummon, "I meet you are not deafened!" Then he asked the
monk if he understood what all this to-do was about. The monk said
he did not.
"Ah-ha!" said Ummon, "I see you are not dumb!"
* * *
A WRESTLER named O-nami, Swell Waves, was immensely strong and was
highly skilled in the art of wrestling. In private he defeated
even his very teacher, but in public his ain young pupils could
throw him.
In his trouble he went to a Zen master who was stopping at a
nearby temple past the sea, and asked for counsel.
"Cracking Waves is your name," said the chief, "so stay in this
temple tonight, and listen to the waves of the sea. Imagine yous
are those waves. Forget that y'all are a wrestler, and become those
huge waves sweeping everything before them." And the instructor left.
O-nami remained. He tried to think only of the waves, but he
idea of many things. So gradually he did think only of the
waves. They rolled larger and larger as the nighttime wore on. They
swept away the flowers in the vases before the Buddha. They swept
away the vases. Even the bronze Buddha was swept abroad. By dawn the
temple was only surging water, and O-nami sat there with a faint
smile on his face up.
That 24-hour interval he entered the public wrestling, and won every tour. From
that mean solar day, no i in Japan could ever throw him.
* * *
THE OFFICIAL Riko once asked Nansen to explicate to him the onetime
problem of the goose in the bottle. "If a human puts a gosling into
the canteen" he said, "and feeds the gosling through the
bottle-cervix until it grows and grows and becomes a goose, and then
there but is no more than room inside the bottle, how can the man get
it out without killing the goose, or breaking the bottle?"
"Riko!" shouted Nansen, and gave a great clap with his hands.
"Yes, primary," said the official with a first.
"See!" said Nansen, "the goose is out!"
* * *
MAMIYA was a worldly man, just he thought he ought to study Zen. And so
he went to a cracking teacher, who told him to concentrate on the
famous koan: "What is the sound of ane hand?" Mamiya went away,
and came back a week later, shaking his caput. He could not get it.
"Get out!" said the chief. "You are not trying difficult enough. You
withal call up of money and food and pleasure. It would be amend if
y'all died. Then you might larn the answer."
The next week Mamiya came back again. When the master asked him:
"Well, what is the sound of one manus?" he clutched at his heart,
groaned, and fell down dead.
"Well, you've taken my advice and died," said the primary. "But
what about that sound?"
Mamiya opened ane middle. "I oasis't solved that yet," he said.
"Dead men don't speak," said the primary. "Become up, and get out!"
* * *
THERE were two Zen temples in the boondocks of Kyoto, and each had a
bright young student who was sent on errands. The North temple
sent its boy every day to purchase vegetables. On his way he was met past
the boy of the South temple.
"Where are you going?" asked the South temple male child.
"Wherever my feet will deport me," replied the other.
This answer silenced the Due south temple boy, and he went dorsum and
told the story to his teacher. Not to be outdone by the rival
pupil, the teacher suggested: "When you meet that male child tomorrow,
ask him the aforementioned question. He volition give you the same answer, and
then you say: 'Suppose you lot had no feet then where would you be
going?' That will prepare him!"
The next 24-hour interval the 2 boys met. The boy from the South temple said:
"Where are you lot going?"
"Wherever the wind will blow me," replied the other.
This once again silenced the boy from the South temple, then he went dorsum
to consult his teacher. "I tell you what," said the teacher,
"tomorrow you enquire him: 'suppose in that location is no wind?'"
The next day the 2 boys met again. The male child from the Due south temple
said: "Where are you going?"
The other answered, "To buy vegetables."
* * *
KYOGEN said to his pupils: "Zen is a homo hanging from a tree over
a cliff. He is holding on to a twig with his teeth. His hands concord
no co-operative. His anxiety find no branch. Up on the cliff-edge a man
shouts at him: 'Why did Bodhidharma come from Jndia into China?'
"If he fails to respond he is lost. If he answers, he dies. What
must he practise?"
* * *
THE Educatee Shichiri was reciting the sutras when a robber entered
his room, put a knife to his back, and demanded his money. "Over
there in the box," said Shichiri, going on with his recitation.
As the robber was leaving, Shichiri said, "Exit me some for my
taxes; they are coming effectually tomorrow to collect." Then the robber
put back some of the money and started to leave.
"Don't you thank someone who makes you a souvenir?" asked Shichiri. So
the robber thanked him, and went off.
A few days afterward the robber was defenseless; and among other
confessions, he said he had robbed Shichiri. Merely Shichiri refused
to show against him. "I made him a gift of some coin," he
said. "And he thanked me for it. That was all."
The robber served a prison term. When he was freed, he went
directly to Shichiri. "Will y'all be my teacher?" he said.
* * *
THE MONK Zuigan used to kickoff every day by saying to himself out
loud: "Principal, are you at that place?"
And he would answer himself, "Aye sir, I am!"
And so he would say, "Amend sober up!"
Again he would reply, "Aye sir! I'll do that!"
Then he would say, "Look out now; don't let them fool you!"
And he would answer, "Oh no, sir, I won't! I won't!"
* * *
A RICH merchant asked the main Sengai for a good saying that
would help preserve the prosperity and happiness of his family.
The master took brush and ink, and wrote:
Granddad dies
Father dies
Son dies
The merchant was aroused. "What kind of evil spell are you writing
against my family unit?" he demanded of Sengai.
"It is no evil spell," said Sengai, "just a hope for your greatest
practiced fortune. I wish that every man of your family shall alive to
be a grandfather. And I wish that no son may die before his
father. What truer happiness than life and decease in this order can
any family desire?"
* * *
SUBHUTI, a disciple of Buddha, had reached the enlightenment of
Great Emptiness, where the Eternal Existent and the passing unreal are
i. Sitting under a tree in this enlightenment, he found flowers
drifting down on him from the tree. And he heard voices. "We are
praising your eloquence on Emptiness," said these voices like
gods' voices.
"But I accept not spoken of Emptiness," murmured Subhuti.
"Y'all have not spoken of information technology. We accept not heard it. This is truthful
Emptiness," said the voices, and the flowers brutal like pelting.
* * *
THE Principal Ryokan lived in a poor little hut on a mountainside.
One moonlight night he came domicile and found a burglar looking for
something to steal. But Ryokan was a hermit who owned nothing.
"Poor swain," he said to the robber. "You have come a long way
and take found zip. Simply I don't want you to leave me
empty-handed. Delight take my wearing apparel." And Ryokan stripped, and
handed the clothes to the robber.
"Poor fellow," said naked Ryokan, going outdoors again when the
inconsiderate robber had left, "How I wish I could have given him
this wonderful moon."
* * *
A NEW monastery was to be opened, and the primary Hyakujo had to
decide which of his monks should be put in charge. So he called
the monks together, filled a vase with water, and said to them:
"Which i of you can say what this is without giving its proper noun?"
The chief monk, who expected to be given the new mastership, spoke
commencement. "Information technology stands upright, it is hollow inside, but information technology is not a
wooden shoe," he said.
Another monk said, "It is not a pond, because information technology tin be carried."
And so the cook, lowest of the monks, arose. He kicked over the vase
with his foot, and so the water ran out on to the floor. He had shown
how to achieve emptiness.
Hyakujo gave him the job.
* * *
Ane WINDY solar day two monks were arguing nigh a flapping banner.
The first said, "I say the imprint is moving, non the current of air."
The second said, "I say the wind is moving, not the banner.'
A third monk passed by and said, "The air current is not moving. The
banner is not moving. Your minds are moving."
* * *
HERE is a story the Zen masters sometimes told: There was an old
woman who was born in the same town as Buddha, merely ever since she
had been a trivial daughter she had been afraid to confront him, although
everyone assured her he was a very holy man. Every time she
idea she might meet him, she ran away. I day she was on the
road which led to boondocks, and she saw approaching a venerable man in
a saffron robe. It was the Buddha. She was terrified. She couldn't
run, only she refused to look. She covered her optics with her two
easily - but wonder of wonders! the tighter she covered her eyes,
the clearer she saw the Buddha betwixt each of her clenched
fingers. Tell me, who was the onetime lady?
* * *
THE Principal Tosotsu built three gates and made the monks laissez passer
through them. The first gatewas the study of Zen. By studying Zen
you tin can see your own true nature. But where is information technology?
By going through the 2d gate, y'all tin can free yourself from birth
and death. But when y'all are a corpse, how can you free yourself?
Going through the third gate, your torso separates into the four
elements. But where are you?
* * *
WHILE Bankei was preaching quietly to his followers, his talk was
interrupted by a Shinshu priest who believed in miracles, and
idea salvation came from repeating holy words.
Bankei was unable to proceed with his talk, and asked the priest
what he wanted to say.
"The founder of my religion," boasted the priest, "stood on one
shore of a river with a writing brush in his manus. His disciple
stood on the other shore belongings a sail of newspaper. And the founder
wrote the holy name of Amida onto the paper across the river
through the air. Can you do anything and then miraculous?"
"No," said Bankei, "I can exercise only petty miracles. Like: when I am
hungry, I eat; when I am thirsty, I drinkable; when I am insulted, I
forgive."
* * *
A NUN, who searched for enlightenment in many temples, always
carried with her a little Buddha she had carved for herself out of
wood, and which she had covered with gold leaf. It was very
pretty.
1 twenty-four hour period she came to stay at a temple where at that place were many
Buddhas. Whenever she burned incense earlier her golden Buddha, she
begrudged the others whatsoever of the savor, and so she e'er used a
little funnel that carried the smoke of the incense straight to
her Buddha's nose. Inside a week her Buddha was laughable - his
face no longer was gilded leaf, but black smut.
* * *
A MONK asked the primary Joshu: "Does a dog too possess a Buddha
nature, or does he not?"
Joshu fabricated his famous koan: "United nations-affair!"
* * *
THE DISCIPLE Seihei in one case asked the master Suibi if he would please
tell him the bones principle of Buddhism. He did this by request:
"Why did Bodhidharma come out of India into China?"
"Wait," said Suibi. "Later, when at that place is no one around except us
two, I volition tell you."
During the 24-hour interval they were alone together several times, and several
times Seihei started to ask his question once more, but each time the
master put his fingers to his lips. Finally, Seihei insisted on an
respond. Suibi took him outside.
"There is no one hither. Tell me!" said Seihei.
Suibi whispered, "These bamboos here are tall. Those bamboos there
are brusque. That is why Bodhidharnia came to Cathay!"
* * *
OBAKU said to the master Hyakujo: "They say that centuries ago a
primary was reborn every bit a fox v hundred times, considering he gave
answers untrue to Zen. But now suppose a master were asked
question later question, and always gave a correct and wise Zen
answer. What happens to him?"
"Come here near me," said master Hyakujo, "and I volition reply you lot."
The student stepped up to Hyakujo, and slapped the master's face up.
He knew this was the answer the main had intended for him.
The master Hyakujo laughed. "I ever knew Persians had ruby
beards," he said, "and now I know a Persian who has a ruby-red beard."
* * *
AN OLD Zen master ever told this legend to unserious students:
Belatedly one night a bullheaded man was near to go home later visiting a
friend. "Please," he said to his friend, "May I take your lantern
with me?"
"Why carry a lantern?" asked his friend. "You won't meet any better
with it."
"No," said the blind one, "maybe non. But others will see me
ameliorate, and not bump into me. And so his friend gave the blind man the
lantern, which was fabricated of paper on bamboo strips, with a candle
within.
Off went the blind human with the lantern, and before he had gone
more than a few yards, Crack! -someone walked right into him. The
blind human being was very aroused. "Why don't you lot look out?" he stormed.
"Why don't yous see this lantern?"
"Why don't yous lite the candle?" asked the other.
* * *
WHEN Yamaoka was a brash young pupil, he visited the main
Dokuon. Wanting to impress the master, he said:
"At that place is no mind, at that place is no torso, in that location is no Buddha. At that place is
no better, there is no worse. There is no primary and there is no
student; there is no giving, there is no receiving. What nosotros think
we see and experience is not real. All that is real is Emptiness. None
of these seeming things really exists."
Dokuon had been sitting quietly smoking his pipe, and saying
cipher. Now he picked up his staff, and without alert gave
Yamaoka a terrible whack. Yamaoka jumped up in anger.
"Since none of these things really exists," said Dokuon, "and all
is Emptiness, where does your anger come up from? Think virtually it."
* * *
A PUZZLED monk once said to Fuketsu: "You say truth tin can be
expressed without speaking, and without keeping silent. How can
this be?"
Fuketsu answered, "In Southern People's republic of china in the Leap, when I was
only a lad, ah! how birds sang among the blossoms."
* * *
BUDDHA told this parable: A traveler, fleeing a tiger who was
chasing him, ran till he came to the edge of a cliff. At that place he
caught concur of a thick vine, and swung himself over the edge.
Above him the tiger snarled. Below him he heard another snarl, and
behold, there was another tiger, peering up at him. The vine
suspended him midway betwixt two tigers.
2 mice, a white mouse and a black mouse, began to gnaw at the
vine. He could see they were quickly eating it through. And so in
front end of him on the cliffside he saw a luscious agglomeration of grapes.
Holding onto the vine with one hand, he reached and picked a grape
with the other.
How succulent!
Source: https://terebess.hu/english/zen.html