--The Laughing Buddha--

Anyone walking about Chinatowns in America will observe statues of a stout fellow carrying a linen sack. Chinese merchants call him Happy Chinaman or Laughing Buddha.

This Hotei lived in the T’ang dynasty. He had no desire to call himself a Zen master or to gather many disciples around him. Instead he walked the streets with a big sack into which he would put gifts of candy, fruit, or doughnuts. These he would give to children who gathered around him in play. He established a kindergarten of the streets.

Whenever he met a Zen devotee he would extend his hand and say: “Give me one penny.”

Once as he was about to play-work another Zen master happened along and inquired: “What is the significance of Zen?”

Hotei immediately plopped his sack down on the ground in silent answer.

“Then,” asked the other, “what is the actualization of Zen?”

At once the Happy Chinaman swung the sack over his shoulder and continued on his way.

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

Only a person of Zen has the real laughter in his life. Other's are just hiding their restlessness.

हँसो आज इतना कि इस शोर में 

सदा सिसकियों की सुनाई न दे ! 

Means
Laugh so much that in that noise,

No one hears the sound of moaning!

Only a meditator has real laughter in his laugh. Others are restless people!

--Christian Buddha--

A university student while visiting Gasan asked him: “Have you ever read the Christian Bible?”

“No, read it to me,” said Gasan.

The student opened the bible and read from St. Matthew: “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lillies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. … Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for things of itself.”

Gasan said: “Whoever uttered those words I consider an enlightened man.”

The student continued reading: “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.”

Gasan remarked: “That is excellent. Whoever said that is not far from Buddhahood.”

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

Zen is looking at the world with a fresh meditative eye. All the religions teach you to have blind faith over certain books which they call as scriptures. And the book which is considered as scripture by one religion is just an ordinary book for the other religions. A man of Zen doesn't affirms or criticizes all the contents of any book blindly. If something seems right to him, he will say it right. If something from the same book seems to be wrong to him, he will criticize it. A man of Zen is not a slave of any book!

-- The Great Meaning --

Zen master Muzhou asked a monk, "Where do you come from?"

The monk said, "From Liuyang."

Muzhou said, "What does the teacher there say when a student asks him about the great meaning of the Buddhadharma?"

The monk said, "He says,'Traveling everywhere without a path.'"

Muzhou said, "Does that teacher really say that or not?"

The monk said, "He really does say that."

Muzhou took his staff and struck the monk, saying, "This fool just repeats words!"

-- No Wisdom Of True Thusness --

Provincial Governor Li Ao asked Zen master Longtan, "What is the wisdom of true thusness?"
Longtan said, "I have no wisdom of true thusness."
The governor said, "I am fortunate to have met you, Master."
Longtan said, "You still speak outside the essential matter."

----!!!!----
The ultimate truth is not something which you can know. You can live it, but you cannot know it. You have lived life for so long. Can you say you know it? No! You can live your life, but cannot know it. Thinking that you can know it is a kind of ego. You have property in your locker, you have bank balance, now you want that ultimate knowledge also under your belt. This is the holy ego. No! You can only surrender to 'it', you cannot know it. And it is good that it cannot be known. If everything becomes known in the world then there will be so much boredom that people will start committing suicide. This is why Zen Master Longtan says that he doesn't know it.
Secondly, the true homage to any master is that you also meditate and become enlightened. Just paying reverence by words is a way to evade from meditation. This is why I say Buddhist are utterly against Buddha. Jainas are utterly against Mahavira. They pay homage to them but do not meditate and Buddha tried for his whole life to make everyone a Buddha, not his follower. He wanted to liberate everyone but created a new kind of bondage out of him. No! Just paying reverence will not do. Meditate. Zen means meditation.

-- Cover --

One day, Daowu picked up his hat to go out.

His fellow monk Yunyan pointed to the hat and said, "What does this do?"

Daowu said, "It has a use."

Yunyan said, "If you suddenly encountered a violent storm, then what?"

Daowu said, "It would cover me."

Yunyan said, "Does the hat also have a cover?"

Daowu said, "Yes it does, but its cover never leaks."

-- Zen Master Entering Hell --

An official asked Zen Master Joshu, "Will the master go into the hell or not?"

Joshu said, "I entered the hell long ago."

The official said, "Why do you enter hell?"

Joshu said, "If I don't enter the hell, who will teach you?"

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

Remember! To keep silent and be meditative is more comfortable for a Buddha. But if he keeps silent you will not start your inner journey, the journey of meditation. So he speaks, even though he knows that the truth cannot be conveyed in words. This is his great compassion on us.
He is himself free from all the sorrow, still he understands our pain. He sees our ignorance and the suffering caused due to it. He feels it and come to help us - to liberate us from our suffering, knowing very well that he cannot do anything. Only we can help ourselves. This is his great compassion on us.
Being a human being, still not realizing our Buddhahood is the failure of that very compassion. 
Meditate. Zen means Meditation!

-- The Strange Lecture --

Zen Master Joshu entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, "A metal Buddha does not withstand the furnace. A wooden Buddha does not withstand the fire. A mud Buddha does not withstand water. The genuine Buddha sits within you......

".. Try sitting in Zazen for twenty or thirty years, and if you still don't understand then cut off my head!..

"I heard Yaoshan say, 'People ask me to reveal it, but when I teach, it is like something taken from a dog's mouth.' What I teach is like something taken from a dog's mouth. Take what I say as dirty. Don't take what I say as clean. Don't be like a hound always looking for something to eat.

"Where is the Buddhadharma? Thousands of fellows are seeking Buddha, but if you go looking among them for a person of the Way you can't find one. If you're going to be a disciple of Buddha then don't let the mind's disease be so hard to cure.

"This nature existed before the appearance of the world. If the world ends, this will not end. From the time I saw my true self, there hasn't been anyone else. There's just the one in charge. So what is there to be sought elsewhere? At the moment you have this, don't turn your head or shuffle your brains! If you turn your head or shuffle your brains it will be lost!"