![]() ![]() When Bankei was preaching at Ryumon temple, a Shinshu priest, who believed in salvation through the repetition of the name of the Buddha of Love, was jealous of his large audience and wanted to debate with him.īankei was in the midst of a talk when the priest appeared, but the fellow made such a disturbance that Bankei stopped his discourse and asked about the noise. Then, when the young man stepped outside for a few moments, Kosen thought: “Now is my chance to escape his keen eye,” and he wrote hurriedly, with a mind free from distraction. Kosen patiently wrote one sheet after another until eighty-four First Principles had been accumulated, still without the approval of the pupil. ![]() Worse than before,” pronounced the pupil. “That is not good,” he told Kosen after the first effort. As Kosen sketched the letters a bold pupil was with him who had made several gallons of ink for the calligraphy and who never failed to criticize his master’s work. When the master drew them he did so on paper, from which workmen made the larger carving in wood. They were drawn by Kosen two hundred years ago. The letters are unusually large, and those who appreciate calligraphy always admire them as being a masterpiece. When one goes to Obaku temple in Kyoto he sees carved over the gate the words “The First Principle.” “Are you still carrying her?” The First Principle “We monks don’t go near females,” he told Tanzan, “especially not young and lovely ones. Then he no longer could restrain himself. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.Įkido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. A heavy rain was still falling.Ĭoming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection. Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. ”Wait!” Said the young man, “You don’t understand! I’m-” ![]() The fellow said, “No, listen, I mean if I really work at it, how long-” The Zen master looked him up and down and said, “Ten years.” We thought this was perfect for Lifehacker:Ī fellow went to a Zen master and said, “If I work very hard, how soon can I be enlightened?” Thirty YearsĪ variation of this story is also known as The Taste of Banzo’s Sword. If one clings to what others have said and tries to understand Zen by explanation, he is like a dunce who thinks he can beat the moon with a pole or scratch an itching foot from the outside of a shoe. Or, as Mumon wrote in his introduction to The Gateless Gate, a thirteenth century collection of Zen koans:Įven such words are like raising waves in a windless sea or performing an operation on a healthy body. Zen carries many meanings, none of them entirely definable. As Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki write in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, from which many of the stories below have been compiled: Only you can meditate upon them to realize the insights within them. We’re not going to try to explain the stories, because that would be missing the point: The stories themselves are the experience. Here are seven of our favorite Zen stories. These stories are often puzzling and may seem nonsensical, but ponder them yourself and you might emerge wiser and more self-aware. By Melanie Pinola: For centuries, Zen masters have used stories and koans, or paradoxical riddles, to help students realize their true nature… ![]()
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