Some enlightening Zen Stories

Richard,
It seems the old master is simply being a mirror. What the young warrior said was directed back at him.
 
I did read other people's reaction to the story. I particularly liked this comment:
 
"It's not what happens to you that matters, it's what happens in you."

You are all tooo kind;  i just cut and paste this stuff !!

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

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

ORIGINAL: zenmember

You are all tooo kind;  i just cut and paste this stuff !!

 
Which takes intention and initiative!  I appreciate you and your stories!
 
I had several thoughts about the last story.  I thought of that saying (but couldn't remember all of it) about "old age and treachery."  I think the old warrior knew who he was, didn't have to prove anything, and let the young warrior's arrogance be his undoing.  (I hope to get to this kind of self-knowledge someday, wish me luck!)
 
Lori

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

Richard, do you REALLY "just cut and paste this stuff"? I think you have some ideas of your own about the meaning of these stories because they do catch your attention. I also think you enjoy our sometimes fumbling answers!
 
Edda

Peace and joy!

Oops, caught again !!!  Of course, we all know 'there is nothing new under the sun.'
AND, There's a wee bit of truth/good in everything, isn't there??
 
I wish you both every success in your journey but remember, that part about "old age and treachery" could prove to be somewhat of a myth.
 
Actually, I've just started to re-read Shunryu Suzuki's "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" and it is amazing to realize how many new interpretations jump out at you, even on the fifth reading.

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

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

There once was a monastery that was very strict. Following a vow of silence, no one was allowed to speak at all. But there was one exception to this rule. Every ten years, the monks were permitted to speak just two words. After spending his first ten years at the monastery, one monk went to the head monk. "It has been ten years," said the head monk. "What are the two words you would like to speak?"
"Bed... hard..." said the monk.
"I see," replied the head monk.
Ten years later, the monk returned to the head monk's office. "It has been ten more years," said the head monk. "What are the two words you would like to speak?"
"Food... stinks..." said the monk.
"I see," replied the head monk.
Yet another ten years passed and the monk once again met with the head monk who asked, "What are your two words now, after these ten years?"
"I... quit!" said the monk.
"Well, I can see why," replied the head monk. "All you ever do is complain."
 
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"We must be the change we want to see in this world."

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

Richard, I definitely take sides with the monk who quit. It seems to me that the last line, i.e. what the head monk says, was added simply for the sake of a funny ending. If you forget about it, we may argue that the monk who left was enlightened. He must have been - after 30 years of bearing all kinds of hardship in complete silence! 

Juliana
_____________________________
Speak Peace in a World of Conflict

Juliana;
 
Let's hear it for the underdog.  The Master is supposed to do no harm.  However, if you read the "other responses", this is not a true traditional zen story.  You got it right, it's a take off from a western joke.
 
best wishes, rj

A priest was in charge of the garden within a famous Zen temple. He had been given the job because he loved the flowers, shrubs, and trees. Next to the temple there was another, smaller temple where there lived a very old Zen master. One day, when the priest was expecting some special guests, he took extra care in tending to the garden. He pulled the weeds, trimmed the shrubs, combed the moss, and spent a long time meticulously raking up and carefully arranging all the dry autumn leaves. As he worked, the old master watched him with interest from across the wall that separated the temples.

When he had finished, the priest stood back to admire his work. "Isn't it beautiful," he called out to the old master. "Yes," replied the old man, "but there is something missing. Help me over this wall and I'll put it right for you."

After hesitating, the priest lifted the old fellow over and set him down. Slowly, the master walked to the tree near the center of the garden, grabbed it by the trunk, and shook it. Leaves showered down all over the garden. "There," said the old man, "you can put me back now."

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

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This priest not only took meticulous care of the garden but tried to make it too perfect by arranging the fallen leaves. The Zen master taught him not to try to improve upon nature, to let the leaves fall where they may. The priest also seemed to try to impress his special guests with the exquisite care, but the Zen master brought him, and the leaves, down to earth.

In reflecting on this story it also occurred to me that we may become too concerned about tidying up the house for guests, trying to make a good impression, rather than to let it be seen in its lived-in condition. Our home is meant to be an inviting, comfortable place, not one where one is afraid to sit down or use the guest towels.

Edda

Peace and joy!

Richard, I hope you do not think I am transgressing (right word?) on your territory, by telling a Zen story? I found it in "Wabi Sabi, The Art of Everyday Life", which was recommended on the book thread by Barbara G.

"Tenno Dogo had a disciple called Soshin. When Soshin was taken in as a novice, it was perhaps natural of him to expect lessons in Zen from his teacher the way a school boy is taught at school. But Dogo gave him no special lessons on the subject, and this bewildered and disappointed Soshin. One day he said to the master, "It is some time since I came here, but not a word has been given me regarding the essence of the Zen teaching."  Dogo replied, "Since your arrival I have ever been giving you lessons on the matter of Zen discipline."
"What kind of lesson could it have been?"
"When you bring me a cup of tea in the morning, I take it; when you serve me a meal, I accept it; when you bow to me, I return it with a nod. How else to you expect to be taught in the mental discipline of Zen?"
Soshin hung his head for a while, pondering the puzzling words of the master. The master said, "If you want to see, see right at once. When you begin to think, you miss the point."

Juliana
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True humanness consists of a continuous series of tiny acts executed with absolute sincerity and largeness of heart. Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Juliana;
 
I love that little book.  Recently, I discovered it at a Bookstore/Coffree Shop we drop into on occasion.  I've picked it up each time and read snippets. To that end, I believe I have finished it and started to reread it.   Someday I may buy it and bring it home.
 
It talks of the true essence of being which is symbolized in the Tea ceremony.  Four aspects of this essence are Wa-Kei-Sei-Jaku; harmony, respect, purity and tranquility.  These are also the definition of Wabi-Sabi itself.
 
I'm glad you decided to share it.
 
 

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

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

When the spiritual teacher and his disciples began their evening meditation, the cat who lived in the monastery made such noise that it distracted them. So the teacher ordered that the cat be tied up during the evening practice. Years later, when the teacher died, the cat continued to be tied up during the meditation session. And when the cat eventually died, another cat was brought to the monastery and tied up. Centuries later, learned descendants of the spiritual teacher wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat for meditation practice.

      

People's reactions to this story:

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

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

Thank you for this one, Richard! I like it for its relevance to the present. It seems to me that we keep "tied up cats" in various organizations. I know about several in my religion, but there are also people who point to them and do whatever they can to work for change.

Juliana
_____________________________
Speak Peace in a World of Conflict

Richard, I agree with Juliana. There may be also some "tied-up cats" in our own lives. We get into the habit of doing something for a good reason, and continue when that reason no longer applies!
 
Edda

Peace and joy!

very true; do you think this is why the story is told??

Richard, it might very well be at least one reason!
 
Edda

Peace and joy!

Maybe another reason is that the noisy cat is like our thoughts.  Anyone who has a cat knows that tying it up doesn't make it quieter.  Thoughts are that way too.  If you try to resist them, they become stronger, louder, more distracting.  It's probably a better (more beneficial) discipline to learn to meditate among the "distractions" (a/k/a "life").  That practice is more likely to bear fruit in real life, it seems to me. 
 
I laughed out loud when I read this story. 
 
Lori
 
 

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

This Zen story is dedicated to Richard and Thankful One. To Richard, because of the Zen stories he has been telling us, and to Thankful One, because he keeps drawing our attention to the beauty of flowers.

One of the best-loved stories about Sen no Rikyu, the revered 16th-century tea master, involves his relationship with Hideyoshi Toyotomi, a great warlord, whom he served as an advisor on matters of art and taste.

Upon hearing of an exquisite display of morning glories in Rikyu´s garden, the warlord asked to see it. To honor the request, one morning Rikyu invited him to tea.
As the warlord walked down the garden path, there were no flowers anywhere to be seen. When he entered the tea hut, however, his eyes were drawn to a single morning glory displayed in the alcove.
Rikyu had ordered all the morning glories in the garden to be cut down that morning to focus his lordship´s attention on the single exquisite blossom.

Juliana
___________________________
Speak Peace in a World of Conflict

Juliana, what a practical story and how very wise of the tea master. A garden full of blooms blinds us to the beauty of just one. Excesses produce boredom, scarcity produces appreciation. The first flower of spring is often so much more appreciated than all the constant flowers of summer.

Richard I really liked the practically of your story and it's call to each one of us to find the "sacred tied up cats" in each of our own lives. This provides true spiritual growth and intimacy with the divine rather than spiritual intimacy with all of our "sacred tied up cats" that have become our gods.

A blessed weekend to all.

Yesterday is gone forever.Tomorrow may not come. Live Fully each moment today. Look for Good Things that Happen to you Every Day.

I keep coming back to the idea of "tied up cats," it's easy for me to see "tied up cats" in organizations and institutions, but I seem to have blind spots at seeing my own (as I imagine most of us do).  But I think I found one and feel compelled to share it.  It's not so much something I've made "sacred," but it's a long held belief based on fear, and the story I told myself about it became very rigid and I gave it a lot of power. 
 
My parents are getting quite elderly, and I've been fearing the day I would have to take care of one or both of them, unable to see how it could be done.  I had this whole story about the numerous reasons it couldn't be done, and didn't know what I would do.  This week my father was ill, he's better now but at the time it was looking like I was going to have to take one of those first steps and speak with his doctor, which just got my whole head going to the impossible future.  After visiting him, I was so anxious I spent some time just trying to breathe and center myself, and over the course of just a few minutes, those old beliefs about what was possible or impossible seemed to fall away a little at a time.  I realized it's not impossible.  Challenging, yes, but by no means impossible.  When the time comes, it will take adjustments, but I can do this.  My father, in particular, will resist, but I needn't fear that the way I have.  It might be a transformative experience for me, and most of my life I've fought those (at least initially).  What would happen if I embrace this and let it change things, and change me?  I have a feeling I might be finding out soon.  Thanks for letting me share that "tied up cat." 
 
Love,
Lori

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

Dear Lori, I think I can understand much of the "tied up cat" of fear in regard to your parents' anticipated needs. Thank you for sharing your tought about this with us.
At first the idea of taking care totally of another person seems overwhelming. I had a few lessons this past year. Last year Easter, when Leon fractured his hip joint, he spent quite some time in the hospital. I realized then and there that life would never be the same. I kept wondering how I would manage. The day the ambulance brought him home and he and I were alone in the house, I felt somewhat anxious wondering if I had thought of everything needed. I had to take it day by day, and after a while, I felt pretty competent caring for Leon without much outside help. The things I needed to do I had not learned in Medical School! Had you asked me a year ago if I could do this I would have very much doubted it. I learned that I have many more inner resources than I had realized. I think this would be true of you as well. Fear lets our imagination run wild and "ties us up". I think also that we have to be patient with ourselves. Letting go of fear is far easier said than done!
 
To untying our "tied up cats"!
 
Much love,
Edda

Peace and joy!

To Lori, Edda and our "tied up cats";

Firstly, I never in my wildest dreams would have picked this story to get so much mileage.  I'm guessing that in it's simplicity, it has wide appeal.

Secondly, if we take a step back and re-read the comments that it has triggered; we realize that we are all talking about living in the moment, now, here, presence, awareness, being centered; whatever you wish to call it.  The present moment is all we have and usually there is no problem within it that we cannot attend to.  Just remember to keep breathing, as in be aware of what you are feeling/experiencing, hold on to your inner space, do not give credence to the toughts that arise.  You are not your thoughts!! Lori, that is what you are telling us you experienced is it not; "those old beliefs about what was possible or impossible seemed to fall away a little at a time."

from The Lamp of Wisdom:

"Free from self will, with detached intellect,
They are aware of the self, even with their hands at work.
Neither afraid of the world nor making the world afraid,
They are free of greed, anger and fear."

best regards, rj

Edda and Richard, thanks so much for your responses.  I think that needing to stay in the moment is exactly what is at work here; and this morning as I re-read your previous post, Richard, about holding the constant, I thought of why my thinking was able to start shifting.  I realized that a lot of what I feared was being in the "adult" position with my parents, while they've always kept me childlike in their minds.  (My parents appear to be the only people I know who see me as incompetent, which I know is much more about them than it is about me.)  "Holding the constant" is about being at peace with all because of "knowing who I am," and knowing that if I must give up some of what I "do" to make space for my parents, it doesn't compromise who I "am." (Thought I'd done battle with that demon long ago, but here it is again.)  I have noticed a shift in my interactions with them also, being able to just listen and attend and NOT feel compromised by their view of me.  It doesn't matter what they think of me.  I want to be the kind of person who takes care of her parents.  My ego needn't get in the way.
 
Edda, thanks for sharing your experiences with Leon, it helps me remember I'm not the only one in this boat.  Many have gone before me and survived!  Richard, thanks for your wisdom, as always.
 
Love and hugs,
Lori

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

Lori,thank you for sharing about one of your "tied up cats." It is always amazing to me how the one bible statement "the truth shall set you free" is such a gift. It is always so much easier to avoid and hold onto a fear than it is to face them. It is one of those things that I always look forward to with dread (lol) about a private nine day directed retreat. Usually there are so many "tied up cats" that are set free, many of which I would have avoided looking at but am always glad I couldn't. It is amazing how much we are capable of when the time comes. Perhaps that is the gift of getting older, as one reflects back and so clearly sees all those "tied up cats" that either life or another individual helped me untie, I am amazed at how I ever got through it. When my parents were where yours are now, with my father I had a two year old and with my mother, in the beginning stages of her care, they were eight and four. I have no doubts that if and when the time comes, you will rise to the challenge. There will be many times where you will just stop to breathe and center yourself, but life has a way of working itself out when we allow it. Prayers continue for you and your two choir friends. May you be blessed as you walk with them during these difficult times.

Yesterday is gone forever.Tomorrow may not come. Live Fully each moment today. Look for Good Things that Happen to you Every Day.

Betty, thanks for your words of support.  I can't imagine how you did it with such small children.  I'm really glad to be relieved of this particular "tied up cat."  I liked what you said about how "either life or another individual" helped you untie some of yours.  I find that I've often needed to be "suffering" enough to see things differently, if that makes any sense.  Though I think that's changing.  When it came to thinking about taking care of my parents, I needed (among other things) to shift priorities to see things differently.  And I think I needed a good role model.  I've recently become acquainted with a woman who's taking care of her parents in some very creative ways.  Maybe the possibilities worked their way into my psyche.  Either way, some of the answers came to me when I really needed them. 
 
Love and hugs,
Lori

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

A monk set off on a long pilgrimage to find the Buddha. He devoted many years to his search until he finally reached the land where the Buddha was said to live. While crossing the river to this country, the monk looked around as the boatman rowed. He noticed something floating towards them. As it got closer, he realized that it was the corpse of a person. When it drifted so close that he could almost touch it, he suddenly recognized the dead body - it was his own! He lost all control and wailed at the sight of himself, still and lifeless, drifting along the river's currents. That moment was the beginning of his liberation.


                    

                       People's reactions to this story:

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

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

Richard, this story is quite a challenge. It seems this man has an out of body experience. Perhaps along his pilgrimage he was stripped of everything dead in him and now he sees the "dead self" floating by; he wails because it is painful to let it go, but as he does he discovers the Buddha he has been searching for in himself.
 
Isn't liberation the letting go of all the "dead" stuff that ties us up so that the "true self" is set free???
 
Edda

Peace and joy!

Let me get this straight, are we still talking about
"tied up cats?"
 
pretty much falls into line, doesn't it.

Richard, yes, it seems all "tied" together!
 
How do you understand this story?
 
Edda

Peace and joy!

Richard, perhaps it is the order in which both stories were posted. It just seems that the monk's devoting many years to his search to find the Budda was his own personal "tied up cat." Finding the Budda seems to be hold the same type of religious significance as tying up the cat. It is so much easier to attempt to find our answers and solutions outside ourselves than to look inward. As Shakespeare so aptly wrote--"The fault, dear Brutus, lies not within our stars but within ourselves."

Yesterday is gone forever.Tomorrow may not come. Live Fully each moment today. Look for Good Things that Happen to you Every Day.

The monk in the story confuses the living Buddha with the true Buddhahood within himself. To interpret this I turn to the opening verse of the Issa Upanishad. I realize there are Christian, Islamic and Buddhist scriptures which relate this concept as well but, this is the first that comes to mind.
" The lord is enshrined in the hearts of all.
The lord is the true reality.
Rejoice in him through renunciation,
Covet nothing for all belongs to the lord.
Thus working may you live a hundred years,
Thus alone, can you work in total freedom."
My understanding of this story at this stage in my existance is that each of us is pure spirit; that spark of life energy that we all share in common within the universe. Our self image is the manufactured version of who we are as posited by our ego; which possibly bears no true relationship with who we are. Upon realizing this we symbolicly separate from that little voice in our head to discover our true self and essentially kill our ego. This is symbolized by what the monk saw as his his dead human remains in the river of life. We immediately experience a response to this loss which we assume to be lost opportunities/potential. When, in actual fact we can begin again from pure spirit to take a position of awareness and enjoy each and every moment of our true potential going forward.

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

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

Today, a departure from John Suler's stories to take a look at an interesting picture with a story
 
 
 
enjoy, rj

I like that!

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

A student went to his meditation teacher and said, "My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I'm constantly falling asleep. It's just horrible!"
"It will pass," the teacher said matter-of-factly.
A week later, the student came back to his teacher. "My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It's just wonderful!'
"It will pass," the teacher replied matter-of-factly.




People's reactions to this story:

This story illustrates an important point. One should stay with one's practice no matter how it feels on a particular day. It is not about feeling but about faithfulness and discipline.
 
This reminds me of St. Teresa of Avila talking about some sisters who stayed away from communal prayer because they had a headache, were having one or might get one!
 
Edda

Peace and joy!

To me this story reflects the realities of impermanence.  Everything (comfort/discomfort, sorrow/joy) passes, everything's in process. 
 
Lori

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

Four monks decided to meditate silently without speaking for two weeks. By nightfall on the first day, the candle began to flicker and then went out. The first monk said, "Oh, no! The candle is out." The second monk said, "Aren't we not suppose to talk?" The third monk said, "Why must you two break the silence?" The fourth monk laughed and said, "Ha! I'm the only one who didn't speak."





People's reactions to this story:

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

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"

The monks in this story seem to be looking to each other for enlightenment, not to the candle within their own heart. That candle never goes out.

We read that the candle went out on the very first day, so the monks did not have enough time to leave the "group" space with the other monks and enter their own private, sacred space.

So often in life I make a resolve to do something, but then I look at what others think, and if they say conditions aren't right (the candle is not lit) I go along with them, rather than continuing with my own resolve.

I love this story. I am a new member and I am finding wisdom everywhere here.

Gaia

Welcome to the forum, I'm sure you will enjoy it.
Please read back on this thread to see other stories and read other people's reactions to the stories.
 
gassho, rj

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

Please light a Candle in the "zendo"