There was an old woman in China who had supported a monk for over twenty years. She had built a little hut for him and fed him while he was meditating. Finally…
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About Wellsprings
This site is a cluster of wellsprings. Wellsprings of heartwarming anecdotes, stirring stories, age-old fables, epic tales, mythical musings, good deeds, life's lessons, inspiring insights, and much more. None of these are our own but they have something for all of us. That's why we have taken the liberty of putting them together, acknowledging the source or the author wherever we could.
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A mother’s advice
Jiun, a Shingon master, was a well-known Sanskrit scholar of the Tokugawa era. When he was young, he used to deliver lectures to his brother students. His mother heard about this and…
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Inch time foot gem
A lord asked Takuan, a Zen teacher, to suggest how he might pass the time. He felt his days very long attending his office and sitting stiffly to receive the homage of…
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Mokusen’s hand
Mokusen Hiki was living in a temple in the province of Tamba, Japan. One of his adherents complained of the stinginess of his wife. Mokusen visited the adherent’s wife and showed her…
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Sleeping in the daytime
The zen master Soyen Shaku passed from this world when he was sixty-one years of age. Fulfilling his life’s work, he left a great teaching, far richer than that of most Zen…
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The stingy artist
Gessen was an artist monk. Before he would start a drawing or painting he always insisted upon being paid in advance, and his fees were high. He was known as the “Stingy…
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The giver should be thankful
While Seisetsu was the master of Engaku in Kamakura, he required larger quarters, since those in which he was teaching were overcrowded. Umezu Seibei, a merchant of Edo, decided to donate five…
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All for name and fame
The story is that one man became a chakravartin (conqueror of the world) — and it happens only once in thousands of years that a man becomes a chakravartin. Even Alexander the…
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Cherry blossoms and the misty moon
It happened about a very famous Zen woman, her name was Rengetsu…. Very few women have attained to the Zen ultimate. This one is one of those rare women. She was on…
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Work and rest
There is an ancient story: It is said that an old follower of Lao Tzu, who was 90 years old, was busy pulling water from the well, together with his young son.…