Zen Flesh Zen Bones is my favorite book for clearing the mind, the first part is a transcription of 101 Zen stories. The second part is called the gateless gate. This is a series of koans, which are short paradoxical statements, stories or questions that can be used to aid in meditation or to give a student something to focus on intensely, which can help with meditation. achieving enlightenment.
The last section is called 10 Bulls and is about finding your purpose. Each of the 10 bulls is a metaphor for a step on your journey and can really help you discover where you are on your path and what you need to do to move forward or what you should not do.
Below are 7 stories drawn from the 101 Zen Stories that will make you pause and think about how you view the world.
A CUP OF TEA
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He filled the visitors cup and then continued to pour.
The professor looked at the landing until he could no longer control himself. “It’s overcrowded. Nothing more goes in!”
“Like this cup,” said Nan-in, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you empty your cup first?’
SOLDIERS OF HUMANITY
Once a division of the Japanese army was engaged in a mock battle, and some officers found it necessary to establish their headquarters in the temple of Gasan.
Gasan said to his cook, “Let the officers only have the same simple dish as we do.”
This angered the army men, as they were used to very respectful treatment. One came to Gasan and said, “Who do you think we are? We are soldiers who sacrifice our lives for our country. Why don’t you treat us accordingly?”
Gasan replied sternly, “Who do you think we are? We are soldiers of humanity, with the aim of saving all living things.”
THE TUNNEL
Zenkai, the son of a samurai, traveled to Edo and became the vassal of a high official there. He fell in love with the official’s wife and was discovered. He killed the official in self-defense. He then ran away with the woman.
Both later became thieves. But the woman was so greedy that Zenkai was disgusted by it. Finally he left her and traveled far away to the province of Buzen, where he became a wandering mendicant monk.
To make up for his past, Zenkai decided to do a good deed during his lifetime. Knowing of a dangerous road over a cliff that had caused the death and injuries of many people, he decided to dig a tunnel through the mountain there.
Begging for food during the day, Zenkai worked digging his tunnel at night. When thirty years had passed, the tunnel was 700 meters long, 6 meters high and 9 meters wide.
Two years before the work was completed, the son of the official he killed, who was a skilled swordsman, found Zenkai and came to kill him in revenge.
“I will willingly give you my life,” Zenkai said. ‘Just let me finish this job. The day it is completed, you may kill me.”
So the son waited for the day. Several months passed and Zendai continued to dig. The son got tired of doing nothing and started helping with the digging. After helping for over a year, he came to admire Zenkai’s strong will and character.
Finally the tunnel was completed and people could use it and travel safely.
“Now cut off my head,” Zenkai said. “My work is done.”
“How can I cut off my own teacher’s head?” the younger man asked with tears in his eyes.
THE MOON CANNOT BE STOLEN
Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest life in a small hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut and discovered that there was nothing in it to steal.
Ryokan returned and caught him. “Perhaps you have come a long way to visit me,” he said to the prowler, “and you must not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.”
The thief was stunned. He grabbed the clothes and stole away.
Ryokan sat naked looking at the moon. “Poor fellow,” he mused, “I wish I could give him this beautiful moon.”
THE REAL MIRACLE
When Bankei was preaching at Ryumon Temple, a Shinshu priest, who believed in salvation through repeating the name of the Buddha of Love, was jealous of his large audience and wanted to argue with him.
Bankei was in the middle of a conversation when the priest appeared, but the man caused so much commotion that Bankei stopped his speech and asked about the noise.
“The founder of our sect,” the priest boasted, “had such miraculous powers that on one bank of the river he held a brush in his hand, on the other bank his servant held up a paper, and the teacher wrote down the holy name . from Amida by air. Can you do something so great?”
Bankei replied lightly, “Maybe your fox can do that trick, but that’s not the Zen way. My miracle is that when I am hungry I eat, and when I am thirsty I drink.”
NOTHING EXISTS
As a young Zen student, Yamaoka Tesshu visited one master after another. He invoked Dokuon of Shokoku.
Wanting to show off his achievements, he said, ‘The mind, Buddha and conscious beings do not exist after all. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no realization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and no receiving.”
Dokuon, who was smoking quietly, said nothing. Suddenly he hit Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe. This made the youth quite angry.
“If nothing exists,” Dokuon asked, “where does this anger come from?”
NON-ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Kitano Gempo, abbot of Eihei Temple, was ninety-two years old when he died in 1933. He tried not to be attached to anything all his life. As a wandering mendicant monk, when he was twenty, he chanced upon a traveler who smoked tobacco. While walking together on a mountain road, they stopped under a tree to rest. The traveler offered Kitano a cigarette, which he accepted, as he was very hungry at that time.
“How pleasant this smoking is,” he remarked. The other gave him an extra pipe and tobacco and they parted.
Kitano felt: “Such pleasant things can disturb meditation. Before this goes too far, I’ll stop now.” So he threw away the smoking outfit.
When he was twenty-three years old, he studied I-King, the deepest teaching of the universe. It was winter then and he needed heavy clothing. He wrote to his teacher, who lived a hundred miles away, to tell him what he needed, and gave the letter to a traveler to deliver. Almost the whole winter passed and no answer or clothing came. So Kitano resorted to the foresight of I-King, who also teaches the art of divination, to determine whether or not his letter had failed. He found that this was the case. In a letter afterwards from his teacher, nothing was mentioned about clothing.
“If I do such fine-tuning work with I-King, I might neglect my meditation,” Kitano opined. So he gave up this beautiful teaching and never again had recourse to its powers.
When he was twenty-eight, he studied Chinese calligraphy and poetry. He became so skilled in these arts that his teacher praised him. Kitano mused, “If I don’t stop now, I will become a poet, not a Zen teacher.” That’s why he never wrote another poem.