Many centuries ago in Japan, an ex-warlord and his best friend were riding their horses down a dusty
road when a light rain came, that quickly passed. Then they saw a beautiful rainbow appear in the sky,
and eventually came to where one side of the colorful arc touched down on the ground. It was right
beside the road, where a monk was sitting below a blossoming plum tree. The two pulled their horses to a
halt, in order to ask the monk some questions about the local area, when they noticed that there were
tears streaming down his face, and he was smiling.
The ex-warlord asked, "Why do you cry, friend?"
"Because you can finally see me," answered the monk.
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Gettan used to say to his companions, "When you have a talking mouth, you have no listening ears.
When you have listening ears, you have no talking mouth. Think about this carefully."
Source: Zen Antics
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Wise man say, "You don't realize how much your hair weighs until you shave it all off. You don't realize
how much your fears weigh until you release them."
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A Quaker had this sign put up on a vacant piece of land next to his home: THIS LAND WILL BE GIVEN
TO ANYONE WHO IS TRULY SATISFIED.
A wealthy farmer who was riding by stopped to read the sign and said to himself, "Since our friend the
Quaker is so ready to part with this plot, I might as well claim it before someone else does. I am a rich
man and have all I need, so I certainly qualify."
With that he went up to the door and explained what he was there for. "And are you truly satisfied?" the
Quaker asked.
"I am indeed, for I have everything I need."
"Friend," said the Quaker, "if you are satisfied, what do you want the land for?"
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The Buddhist nun called Ryonen was born in the year 1779. The famous Japanese warrior, Shingen, was
her grandfather. She was considered one of the loveliest women in the whole of Japan and a poetess of
no mean talent, so already at the age of seventeen she was chosen to serve at the royal court, where she
developed a great fondness for Her Imperial Majesty the Empress. Now the Empress died a sudden
death and Ryonen underwent a profound spiritual experience: she became acutely aware of the passing
nature of all things. That was when she made up her mind to study Zen.
But her family wouldn't hear of it. They practically forced her into marriage but not before she had
extracted from them and from her future husband the promise that after she had borne him three children
she would be free to become a nun. This condition was fulfilled when she was twenty-five. Then neither
the pleas of her husband nor anything else in the world could dissuade her from the task she had set her
heart on. She shaved her head, took the name of Ryonen (which means "to understand clearly"), and set
out on her quest.
She came to the city of Edo and asked the Master Tetsu-gyu to accept her as his disciple. He took one
look at her and rejected her because she was too beautiful. So she went to another master, Hakuo. He
rejected her for the same reason: her beauty, he said, would only be a source of trouble. So Ryonen
branded her face with a red-hot iron, thereby destroying her physical beauty forever. When she came
back into Hakuo's presence, he accepted her as a disciple.
Ryonen wrote a poem on the reverse side of a little mirror to commemorate the occasion:
As a handmaid of my Empress
I burnt incense
to give fragrance to my lovely clothes.
Now as a homeless beggar
I burn my face
to enter the world of Zen.
When she knew her time had come to depart this world, she wrote another poem:
Sixty-six times have these eyes beheld
the loveliness of Autumn...
Ask no more.
Only listen to the sound of the pines
when no wind stirs.
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The great Buddhist saint Nagarjuna moved around naked except for a loincloth and, incongruously, a
golden begging bowl gifted to him by the King, who was his disciple.
One night he was about to lie down to sleep among the ruins of an ancient monastery when he noticed a
thief lurking behind one of the columns. "Here, take this," said Nagarjuna, holding out the begging bowl.
"That way you won't disturb me once I have fallen asleep."
The thief eagerly grabbed the bowl and made off -- only to return next morning with the bowl and a
request. He said, "When you gave away this bowl so freely last night, you made me feel very poor. Teach
me how to acquire the riches that make this kind of light-hearted detachment possible."
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"Oh boy! Oh boy!" cried the monk-on-probation who had just cracked the Zen Master's favorite (and
valuable) drinking cup.
The frightened youngster went to the Zen Master and asked, "Why must there be death?"
The Master answered, "Death is natural. It comes to all persons and things. We should not greet it with
fear or meet death with anger. Why do you ask?"
"Because, Master, death has come upon your cup."
Source: Zen Fables For Today
