A Zen Story A Day

What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Do you check your smart phone? Do you switch on the TV? If you start your day with a negative thought, this will impact your whole day. Just imagine how great your day will be if you start your day with a Zen Story? That's why I came up with this book - A Zen Story A Day. Start your day with a Zen Story and have a Zensational day ahead!

Now on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YN6QSFB/

As It Is

 

A monk asked, ‘What is the meaning of the coming from the West?’ 

Zen Master Mingzhen Hongtao replied, ‘It is as it is.’

~ Transmission of the Lamp, Vol. 5 (Tr. R.S. Whitfield) ~

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Zen suggests to look at the truth as it is. It doesn't support positive thinking, and it doesn't promote negative thinking. Sometimes people ask me why do Zen Masters condemn religions, gurus and scriptures so much? Why don't we see the positive aspects of them and ignore the negative things? Why are we so negative? Today's post is for so-called Positive Thinkers!

In the current times, the corona has killed so many people, and scientists are working on inventing a vaccine for it. How negative they are! Due to corona, the pollution level has reduced, and the rivers have become clean. These negative scientists should practice positive thinking and create more viruses!

Suppose you have brain-tumour and you go to the doctor. Should the doctor treat you, or should he say how negative you are? You are not looking at 5 feet 8 inches of healthy body parts and merely looking at one negative micro-sized tumour!! Practice Positive Thinking. 

Suppose you have a lovely friend who has helped you in many adverse times. One day he was drunk, and he tried to misbehave with you sister. Will you allow him to do so? How negative are you to stop him? Have positive thinking. Look at the fact that he has helped you so many times and allow him to rape your sister a couple of times. But you won't. You just want to pontificate positive thinking!

Next time if you see anyone preaching you about positive thinking, immediately slap him on one cheek and ask him to stay positive because you didn't slap him on the other cheek!!

No! Zen says, see the truth as it is. If you start ignoring the negative things, they will soon overpower the positive things too!

Sozan's Four Don'ts

Zen Master Sozan said:

Do not follow the bird's road of mind;

Do not clothe yourself before you are born;

Do not say the present minute is eternal;

Do not express yourself before birth.

All Buddha's teachings are aimed at cutting off the root of human illusions and overcoming human troubles due to self imposed boundaries. However, the minute we learn something we tend to become attached to it. For this reason Sozan prescribed four antidotes. The first is not to follow the bird's road of mind. The bird flies freely in the sky, and there is no set road to fly. But even such a way of selflessness can become attachment. Second, do not clothe yourself before you are born—do not attach even to non-attachment. Third, do not say the present minute is eternal because all things are in constant change, are continuously becoming. Every minute is real, but it is passing, and you can not hold it or say it is eternal. And, lastly, the truth is beyond time and space, and even the time before birth is within time if it is once conceptualized. Whatever becomes conceptualized loses life. It is like a live fish swimming in the water. If you catch it and take it out, the fish will die. A caught fish is a dead fish. So Sozan warns, whatever it is, no matter how good, how beautiful, or how true, do not try to catch and possess it.

Zen is the path of eternity. Down the ages all the civilizations and religions have divided the humanity. The whole world was one. Few politicians and religious gurus divided it into many pieces and now they ask us to be proud of that piece. They ask us to be proud of being Indian, American, Australian or so. They pontificate us to be proud of being Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian or so. Zen says that a person who is proud of any religion can never be religious.

Be clear about this. That which connects you with eternity is true religion and that which restricts you to a boundary and asks you to be proud of self-made prison is criminal. You are infinite sky; why become limited? Civilizations and religions want to give you ego. Don't take it because ego is the root of miseries. Realize your true face before your father and mother were born.

Is Zen explosive?

When I first read Zen stories, I was confused by the way monks became enlightened as though struck by lightning just because the master made some apparently trivial remark. "Have a cup of tea!" the master would say, the monk instantly became enlightened. Why?

Actually, it doesn't happen like that. You spend many years practicing zazen and your understanding gradually deepens. Then something may happen that causes the dam to break and lets the light flood in.

~ Zen Questions ~

~ Robert Allen ~

The Essential Sound of Emptiness

The disciple approaches the master and asks, "What is the essential sound of emptiness?"

The master replies, "What is the essential sound of emptiness?"

"You are the master. I don't know the answer, that's why I'm asking."

The master strikes him on the head. The disciple becomes enlightened.

~ The Finger and the Moon: Zen Teachings and Koans ~

~ Alejandro Jodorowsky ~

FAITH-BASED SPIRITUALITY AND EXPERIENCE-BASED SPIRITUALITY

Japanese mothers used to try to curb their children’s mischief by saying, “If you aren’t good, a spook will get you,” or “a child snatcher will come for you.”

I remember being scolded like that myself as a child. Spirituality based on faith follows a similar model of trying to guide people using certain images and ideas. On the other hand, spirituality based on experience leads people to peace by having them perceive reality clearly, thereby ridding them of fear:

Wither’d pampas grass —

that was all it really was,

the ghost that I saw.

…

Zen is at the forefront of experience-based religions. I often say that Zen is not a religion. But if salvation is considered the task of religion, it is. However, unlike faith-based religions, Zen rejects concepts and beliefs as a means of knowing the truth. Instead it aims to help us perceive reality and to find peace of mind based on that reality. Reality is what we really are: namely, our True Self. When we discover what we are, we experience peace of mind and continue to live day by day in infinite tranquility and complete satisfaction. What more do we need?

~ Zen: The Authentic Gate ~

~ Zen Master Koun Yamada ~

Zen Stick

To attain to awareness, first, a student has to bear many whacks from a Zen Master, whenever the student slips into heedlessness. This book is a collection of such weird stories where the Zen masters teach zen with their stick. A MUST-READ for serious investigators of Zen!

Zen Stick: A Collection of 91 Weird Zen Stories

Solution

A man used to complain to his teacher that he couldn’t meditate.
‘I can’t hold my thought on it for long. I start thinking about what we’ll be having for breakfast or about some argument we’ve had in the family or about whether I shall be transferred at work.’
One day the teacher suddenly flared up and shouted, ‘I am a fool to have taken on a fool like you at all!  I’m going to finish with you. Why should I go on?  Come back tomorrow and unless you can give me one good reason why I should still see you, you can take your things and go.’
The pupil tried to stammer out an apology but the teacher cut him short and physically pushed him out.
That night the man couldn’t sleep: he was wondering what he could do to get the teacher to keep him on as his student.  He had great respect for the teacher and really wanted to continue under him.  Next day he brought a present for him and timidly gave it to the attendant who then announced his name. The teacher came out quickly and said, ‘Come in and sit down.  How have you been?’ The man answered, ‘I couldn’t sleep for thinking how I could appeal to you – please keep me on. I can’t think of a good reason, but please keep me on as your student.’
‘You couldn’t sleep for thinking about it? That’s good, that’s what you needed,’ the teacher told him. ‘When you have trouble with your mind, think back to that and meditate with the same concentration. You’ve learned what it is to meditate’.

-- Fooling --

Having entered the Dharma Hall for a formal instruction, Zen Master Yunmen said:

“Get out, get out of here! You’re fooling each other without end!”

Then Master Yunmen asked the assembly: “Is even to say what I just said a mistake?”

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The truth cannot be given  to you. You have to experience it yourself in deep meditation. So whatever can be said to you is false in one sense. If you understand that all these Zen Stories are nonsense and only your meditation is the essential thing then you are the true student of Zen. If you are not meditating and merely reading these stories then you are doing nothing else but just deceiving yourself. Don't do that!

-- Dedication --

You must take the two characters birth-death, paste them on your forehead, and demand of yourself a clear understanding of this matter.

~ Zen Master Wuzu Fayan (1024-1104) ~

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Go crazy for meditation. Remain focused and work hard. Anything less than insanity is not acceptable!!

Hard Work

The great Zen Master Dao-an [1312-1385] sat alone in a quiet room for twelve years, exerting his spirit to the utmost in meditation: only then did he attain spiritual awakening.

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A great deal of hard work and dedication is needed in the path of Zen. Work hard on meditation. Merely reading these stories will not help!

-- The Hearty Laugh --

The great Zen Master Weiyan of Yaoshan, like many well-known Zen Masters, came to be identified by his place of residence, and so he was called Yaoshan. One evening, Yaoshan went for a walk in the hills. Suddenly, the clouds and fog parted, and the moon could be seen shining brightly in the sky. On seeing this, Yaoshan let out a hearty laugh. It was so loud that it could be heard for miles in all directions. ----!!!!---- You don't value what you have got. If people could see the moon once in 100 years, then there would have been so much crowd every 100 years just to watch the moon. But since it is available every day, you don't value it. This is why there is so much misery in your life. You are not aware enough. You are not meditative enough. If you start appreciating what you have, there can be happiness in your life too!

-- The Words --

The Prime Minister invited the Master Huang-po to the city and presented his own written interpretation of Zen to him. The Master took it and put it on the table. He did not read it. After a short silence, he asked the Prime Minister, "Do you understand?"

The minister: "I do not understand."

The Master: "It would be better if you could understand immediately through inner experience. If it is expressed in words, it won't be our teaching."

----!!!----

The Buddha didn't read a single post on this page, yet he got enlightened. We have read so much about Zen, yet we are not! If you understand that all the posts here are nonsense and only your meditation is what matters, then you are a true student of Zen!

Book: Zensational Stories, Volume 1

Finally, a REBELLIOUS and UNORTHODOX Book on Zen Stories. These 117 stories will give you a free thinking and motivate you to meditate!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JTPAJ34

-- The Enlightened --

Once there was a well known philosopher and scholar who devoted himself to the study of Zen for many years. On the day that he finally attained enlightenment, he took all of his books out into the yard, and burned them all!

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Truth cannot be found in scriptures. Scriptures contain only words. Truth is found in deep silence and meditation. Truth has to be found within oneself!
Down the ages religions have been deceiving the humanity by saying them that only their religion's book is the real scripture and the book of God. No book is book of God! All books are written by human beings. Read the books. It's perfectly OK to read the books no matter which religion it belongs to. But don't rely upon them. Rely upon your own meditation!

-- The Buddha Demon --

"If you seek the Buddha, you will be caught by the Buddha Demon; if you seek the patriarchs, you will be bound by the patriarch-Demon.
Whatever you are seeking, all becomes suffering."

~ Zen Master Rinzai ~

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These Zen Masters are wonderful! Such type of fun is possible only in a Zen environment. If you go to a Christian society and there you say 'Jesus Demon', or if you go to an Islam society and there you say 'Mohammad Demon', then your life is in danger!
Zen is only one which has made humor and iconoclasm religious!
Keep smiling and of course continue with the meditation by being a witness and not a seeker. All seeking becomes suffering. Don't seek. Just be a witness!

-- The Strange Teaching --                    

Zen Master Caoshan asked Venerable Qiang, “The true body of Buddha is like vast emptiness. When a thing appears there, it is like the moon reflected in water. How would you express this teaching?”
Qiang said, “It’s like a donkey looking into a well.”
Caoshan said, “You’ve said a lot, but you’ve only gotten eighty percent of it.”
Qiang said, “What would you say, Master?”
Caoshan said, “It’s like the well looking at the donkey.”

----!!!!----

Rumi has said that when he realized the truth he got to know that not only he was seeking the truth, but also the truth was seeking him! If truth keeps evading you how will you realize it?

-- Tao-wu's Greatest Depth --

Zen Master Tao-wu was sitting on the high seat of meditation when a monk came and asked, "What is the greatest depth of the teaching?"
(Means what is the ultimate truth?)
Tao-wu came down from the seat to kneel on the floor saying, "You are here after traveling from afar, but I am sorry to have nothing to answer you."

Later on Zen Master Fugai commented on this story : "Look out, brother! You are endangering yourself in the deep sea."
Later on Zen Master Nyogen said: "Yes, it is true. This monk does not realize his danger even though he is on the verge of drowning."

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There are multiple aspects of this story:
First : None of the answers to this question can be real answer. Each answer will give rise to thousand and one more questions and the original question will still remain unanswered. Understand this! If you ask me "Is there any God?", I can say either Yes or No. But whatever answer I give you, will give rise to thousand and one more questions. None of the answer is the real answer. And there are people who have faith on some answers and they have become so clinged to their answers that they find out all kinds of rationalization that their answer is right. Someone is theist, he believes in God. He can give you hundreds of rationalization for his answer. Someone is atheist, he doesn't believe in God. He can also give you hundred of rationalization for his answer. If you refute their answers, they will become angry with you because their answers are very superficial. Deep down they are suffering from their ignorance. By refuting those answers you are unveiling their ignorance. This very anger is the proof that they don't know the answer. They just believe that their answer is correct. This very anger is the proof of their ignorance.
No! Zen doesn't give you any new kind of answer. You are already filled with lot of answers. Zen is the art of making you empty of all the answers, making you empty of all the words and diving deep in silence.
Second : 'THAT' cannot be given by someone else. 'THAT' you have to find in your own meditation.
Third : The monk missed the lively truth in the master. He was looking for some words. This is how people have missed the Buddhas. They see them, they hear them, yet they miss them.
Meditate! Don't waste time in rationalizing your answers or seeking the answers outside. Without meditating, your answers may become right but YOU yourself will remain wrong!!!

--Matter of extraordinary wonder--

Zen Master Hyakujo's monastery was located on Daiyû Mountain.
A monk once asked Hyakujô, "What is the matter of extraordinary wonder?" 
Hyakujô said,"Sitting alone on Daiyû Peak!" 
The monk made a deep bow. Hyakujô thereupon hit him!

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No one can give you the truth. You have to meditate yourself. By practicing meditation you start living in the present moment. This is why master hit him to imply that no one can give anyone the truth!

-- The Seat --

A monk asked, "Teachers of our order say to 'abide' by sitting in the bodhi seat. What is the seat?"

Zen Master Changsha said, "Just now I'm sitting. Just now you're standing."

----!!!!----

Being in the present moment is the Bodhi seat!!