Some enlightening Zen Stories

This is so true.......but I find it so hard to do.  Jude

Love is the only way

I really like that last story.  I aspire to that kind of serenity, to still be who one really is, regardless of circumstances.
 
I use that technique as a therapist fairly often (encouraging them to spill all their anger, and then being able to engage them in a conversation).  Most of the time, it works really well.  It's hard sometimes for me to sit with my own discomfort in the face of the other person's intense anger, but it ends up being worth it in the end. 
 
Lori

To truly listen is to perfect one's own virtue.

I'm glad you like these stories; here's another

A renowned Zen master said that his greatest teaching was this: Buddha is your own mind. So impressed by how profound this idea was, one monk decided to leave the monastery and retreat to the wilderness to meditate on this insight. There he spent 20 years as a hermit probing the great teaching.

One day he met another monk who was traveling through the forest. Quickly the hermit monk learned that the traveler also had studied under the same Zen master. "Please, tell me what you know of the master's greatest teaching." The traveler's eyes lit up, "Ah, the master has been very clear about this. He says that his greatest teaching is this: Buddha is NOT your own mind."


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"We must be the change we want to see in this world."

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

Perhaps these monks - we - shouldn't accept another's statement, no matter how distinguished this person is, withouth further examining it.
Then, perhaps, the master gave each monk what he needed at that time.

Edda

Peace and joy!

Very profound Edda!  I like that!
 
As a much younger woman I spoke with a pastor who had just preached a very different interpretation of a particular Biblical passage than I had heard previously.  I asked him how I was to know which one to believe.  He said, "Believe both -- in that each is an interpretation given by a man of faith based on how God has inspired."  Then he continued, "But take to heart the interpretation that inspires YOU!"
 
Love,
Lolly

OR,  perhaps we just hear what we need to hear at the time !

"We must be the change we want to see in this world."

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

Exactly!
 
Edda

Peace and joy!

Namaste fellow Zen members.
I have been appreciating all your insights given
in your posts....Sorry to be away have been
receiving message through my body to rest and
self care.
The latest story reminds me of my favorite passage.
 

The Master arrives when the Student is ready!

 
And I have this happen to me all the time...when I
am ready to receive the teaching or idea etc. it arrives.
Have a great day!!
Be open on the middle path!!!
Hope coach
Barbara T.

Our Glory Is not In Never Falling
Our Glory Is Rising Every Time We Fall
Confuscious

One of master Gasan's monks visited the university in Tokyo. When he returned, he asked the master if he had ever read the Christian Bible. "No," Gasan replied, "Please read some of it to me." The monk opened the Bible to the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew, and began reading. After reading Christ's words about the lilies in the field, he paused. Master Gasan was silent for a long time. "Yes," he finally said, "Whoever uttered these words is an enlightened being. What you have read to me is the essence of everything I have been trying to teach you here!"

This story reminds me of when I gave a gift of an Italian wood Rosary to Rev. Tanaka, the Zen Priest at Sokoji in Hiroshima; he responded, "Does this mean I have to learn to say the Holy Mary thing?"


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I'd also like to think that Jesus would have said the same thing if he were to be introduced to particular Buddhist texts, or Zen, or Hindu, etc. 

I had a good chuckle yesterday. I saw a poster promoting what is called Christian values.  It's a nice poster and I totally agree about the importance of those values.  But the way the poster is written, it kinda' suggests that those are exclusively Christian values (such as integrity, justice, etc.).  I had a good laugh.   (You have to learn to laugh at those things when you live in the buckle of the Bible belt.)

Lori

To truly listen is to perfect one's own virtue.

Ah, exclusivity, the bane of human kind. { lol, \;) }

love ya Lori, rj

love ya' back, Richard!
 
Lately I haven't been able to respond to your posts as often as I'd like, but just want you to know I'm reading them and appreciating them!
 
Hugs!
Lori

To truly listen is to perfect one's own virtue.

I'm feeling the need to clarify my last post, in case someone should misread my meaning and feel offended.  I wasn't making a statement about Catholicism or Christianity. It was simply an example of our human tendency to find differences among ourselves instead of similarities.  I had become aware of the poster just yesterday, so it was fresh on my mind as an example of that. 

Lori

To truly listen is to perfect one's own virtue.

I didn't have any trouble with that.  Sorry if I triggered some of your misgivings, rj

You didn't, something else did. 
 
 

To truly listen is to perfect one's own virtue.

Lori, I would have thought you were picking up on some interpretations rather than the original message. (if you follow me?!!! ) I'm not good at explaining what I mean sometimes.  Jude

Love is the only way

Lori, I get from this story what you do - there are human values and ideas that are common to all traditions, expressed in different words using different images and stories. No one has a monopoly on them.
 
Love,
Edda

Peace and joy!

Jude, yes, you're probably right.  My first sentence was in regard to the story.  The rest was not connected to the story so much.
 
Lori

To truly listen is to perfect one's own virtue.

               
 
After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful champion challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and then split that arrow with his second shot. "There," he said to the old man, "see if you can match that!" Undisturbed, the master did not draw his bow, but rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the mountain. Curious about the old fellow's intentions, the champion followed him high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm spanned by a rather flimsy and shaky log. Calmly stepping out onto the middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master picked a far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean, direct hit. "Now it is your turn," he said as he gracefully stepped back onto the safe ground. Staring with terror into the seemingly bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target. "You have much skill with your bow," the master said, sensing his challenger's predicament, "but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot."
 

 

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"We must be the change we want to see in this world."

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

What a great story!  Mastering the mind regardless of the circumstances.  Kinda' like golf!  Skill means nothing if you can't still the mind.
 
Lori

To truly listen is to perfect one's own virtue.