Friday, 31 January 2025
Thursday, 30 January 2025
PRACTICE - ZEN STORY
Zen Story: Practice
One day a small boy was playing near the river when he saw an old man with a long beard seated in the sand. The boy moved closer and watched as the old man drew a perfect circle into the sand.
“Hey, old man, how did you draw such a perfect circle?” asked the boy.
The old man looked at the boy and said, “I don’t know, I just tried, and tried again…here, you try.”
The old man handed the stick to the boy and walked away. The boy began drawing circles in the sand. At first his circles came out too wide, or too long, or too crooked. But as time went by the circles began to look better and better.
He kept trying and then, one bright morning, he drew a perfect circle into the sand. Then he heard a small voice behind him.
“Hey old man, how did you draw such a perfect circle?”
Reflection
This elegantly structures Zen story centers on the circle as a shape and symbol of perfection. The literal circle in the sand represents the necessity of repeated effort (practice makes perfect), while the narrative circle of the story (beginning and ending with a small boy on the beach) represents the circular nature of life.
Sometimes in modern times we view success or perfection as a destination at the end of an arrow-straight line; we see ourselves at the beginning of the road, or the bottom of a mountain, and we can picture our destination clearly, glittering far away and out of our reach. In this mindset, reaching our goals can be intimidating, causing us to lose the focus needed to practice whatever it is we want to become better at, such as art, meditation, yoga, or perhaps attitudes of kindness and love.
However, if we look at life as a circular path, a line without beginning or end, then we can learn to shift or focus away from the “final destination” at the end of the road and towards the gently curving slope of the absolute present moment. This viewpoint makes the journey towards perfection a little less imposing!
CAUSE & EFFECT - ZEN STORY
Zen Story: Cause and Effect
There lived an old farmer who had worked in his fields for many, many years. One day, his horse bolted away. His neighbors dropped in to commiserate with him. “What awful luck,” they tut-tutted sympathetically, to which the farmer only replied, “We’ll see.”
Next morning, to everyone’s surprise, the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How amazing is that!” they exclaimed in excitement. The old man replied, “We’ll see.”
A day later, the farmer’s son tried to mount one of the wild horses. He was thrown on the ground and broke his leg. Once more, the neighbors came by to express their sympathies for this stroke of bad luck. “We’ll see,” said the farmer politely.
The next day, the village had some visitors – military officers who had come with the purpose of drafting young men into the army. They passed over the farmer’s son, thanks to his broken leg. The neighbors patted the farmer on his back – how lucky he was to not have his son join the army! “We’ll see,” was all that the farmer said!
HIDDEN MEANINGS - ZEN STORY
Zen Story: Hidden Meanings
A young Zen student was on his way to buy vegetables at the market for his monastery. On the way, he encountered a student he had seen occasionally, from a monastery some distance from his own.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“Where my legs direct me”, replied the other fellow nonchalantly.
Our young fellow turned this answer over in his mind – surely there was some meaning hidden in its depths? Back at the monastery, he recounted this conversation to his elderly master, who said: “You ought to have asked the boy what he’d do if he didn’t have any legs.”
The next day, the student chanced upon the other boy again. “Where are you going?” he asked, and before the boy could reply, he continued, “Oh, I know…wherever your legs direct you, I suppose!”
“Nope!” came the unexpected response. “Today, I am going to follow the wind!” This reply threw the student into so much confusion that his mind went blank. Back again at the monastery, he related the incident to his teacher.
“You should have asked him what he’d do if no wind was blowing,” remarked the old man.
A few days later, the student came upon the other boy once more in the market. Aha! Here was his Zen moment!
“So where are you off to this time? Where your legs go or where the wind blows, I suppose. But, what if…”
“Neither of the two,” replied the boy, with a cheeky grin. “Today, I am here to buy vegetables!”
GREAT WAVES - ZEN STORY
Zen Story: Great Waves
Long ago there lived a famous wrestler whose name meant “Great Waves.” He was massively strong and knew the art of wrestling. In private bouts he defeated even his teacher, yet in public was so bashful that even his students threw him down.
Troubled, the wrestler decided to visit a Zen temple for help. There, a wise teacher advised him.
“Great Waves is your name,” said the teacher. “So spend tonight in the temple. Imagine that you are water. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid. You are those powerful waves sweeping over everything in sight. Do this and you will never again be defeated.”
The teacher left. The wrestler sat still, trying to imagine himself as water. His mind wandered but soon he began to feel more and more like moving waves. As night advanced the waves grew taller and taller. They swept away the flowers and rushed over the statues. Before dawn the temple was nothing but the tide of a vast ocean.
In the morning the teacher found the wrestler in meditation with a slight smile on his face. He patted the man’s shoulder. “Now nothing can disturb you,” he said. “You are those waves. You will sweep everything before you.”
The same day the wrestler entered and won a prestigious tournament, and was never defeated again.
Thoughts:
Sometimes the most challenging opponents we face live inside of us. The confidence we need in life does not reside in temples on mountaintops. When we look with honesty inside our own hearts, that is where we find the self-belief we seek.
IMPERMANENCE - ZEN STORY
Zen Story: Impermanence
A revered Zen teacher once approached the king’s palace late at night. The guards did not stop him as he made his way inside to where the king was seated upon his throne. The king recognized him too.
“Welcome, sir. What do you want?” the king asked.
“I wish to sleep in this inn tonight”, said the teacher.
Taken aback, the king snorted, “This is no inn! It is my palace!”
The teacher politely asked, “If I may ask, who owned this palace before you?”
“Why, my father, of course! He is dead now.”
“And who lived here before your father?””
“My grandfather, naturally. He’s dead too.”
“This building where people live for some time and go away, did you say that it is not an inn?”
WALKING ON WATER - ZEN STORY
Zen Story: Walking on water
Three monks sat by a lake, deep in meditation.
One stood up and said, “I’ve forgotten my mat.” Stepping on to the waters before him, he walked across to the other side, where their small hut stood. When he returned, the second monk said, “I just remembered I haven’t dried my washed clothes.” He too, strode calmly across the water to the other bank and returned in a few minutes the same way.
The third monk watched them intently. Figuring that this was a test of his own skills, he loudly declared, “So you think your abilities are superior to mine! Watch me!” and scurried to the edge of the river bank. No sooner did he put his foot in than he fell into waist-high water.
Unfazed, he waded out and tried again. And again and again, to no avail. After watching this performance in silence, one of his fellow monks asked the other, “D’ you suppose we should tell him where the stepping stones are?”
FIRST PRINCIPLE - ZEN STORY
Zen Story: First Principle
The Obaku temple in Kyoto has a carving over the gate which says “The First Principle”. The 200-year-old carving, with exceptionally large letters, is admired by many as a masterpiece of calligraphy. It is the work of Kosen, the master carver.
Kosen would sketch the letters on paper and they would be carved on wood by his workmen. Now, Kosen had a rather audacious student who prepared large quantities of ink for his master. He was often very critical of his master’s technique.
“Not good enough!” said he, about Kosen’s first attempt.
“How about this one?” asked Kosen after his second drawing.
“That’s worse than the previous one!” exclaimed the bold pupil.
Kosen wrote out eighty four sheets of “The First Principle”, but none met with the student’s approval. Then the young man stepped out of the room for a few minutes. Kosen thought to himself “Here’s my chance to escape his sharp eye!” Freed of distraction, he hurriedly wrote “The First Principle”.
The student returned. “Brilliant! A masterpiece,” he exclaimed.
Wednesday, 29 January 2025
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