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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No loving-kindness
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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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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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 idea of I
A disciple of a Zen Master was meditating for twenty years. Again and again he would bring his experiences, and the Master would throw him out saying, “This is all rubbish! Go…
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Try to pick it up
A Zen Master dropped his handkerchief and said to one of his disciples who was just sitting there, “Try to pick up the handkerchief. Try to pick it up.” Immediately the disciple…
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Which is worthless in life?
Once it happened that Buddha asked one of his disciples, “Can you find anything which is worthless in life? If you can, then bring it.” The disciple thought for many days and…
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The real and the ideal
When a Zen master was weeping at the funeral of his favourite disciple, a young monk who saw him took him to task, saying, “I would have thought that you were beyond…
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‘Put your hands on the top of your heads’
I have come across a very beautiful Zen story. Listen to it attentively; it is your story. Behind a temple there was a field where a lot of squashes (vegetables of the…
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The eight winds
The Buddhists say there are eight winds. They are gain and loss, praise and ridicule, credit and blame, and suffering and joy. If you aren’t aware of them, they will blow you…