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45. Right and Wrong
When Bankei held his seclusion weeks of meditation, pupils from many
parts of Japan came to attend.
During one of the gatherings a pupil
was caught stealing. The matter was reported to Bankei with the
request that the culprit be expelled.
Bankei ignored the case.
Later the pupil was caught in a similar act, and again Bankei
disregarded the matter. This angered the other pupils, who drew up a
petition asking for the dismissal of the thief, stating that
otherwise they would leave in a body.
When Bankei had read the petition he called everyone before him.
'You are wise brothers,' he told them. 'You know what is right and
what is not right.
You may go somewhere else to study if you wish,
but this poor brother does not even know right from wrong. Who will
teach him if I do not? I am going to keep him here even if all the
rest of you leave.'
A torrent of tears cleansed the face of the brother who had stolen.
All the desire to steal had vanished.
46. How Grass and Trees
Become Enlightened
During the Kamkura period, Shinkan studied Tendai six years and then
studied Zen seven years; then he went to China and contemplated Zen
for thirteen years more.
When he returned to Japan many desired to interview him and asked
obscure questions. But when Shinkan received visitors, which was
infrequently, he seldom answered their questions.
One day a fifty-year-old student of enlightenment said to Shinkan:
'I have studied the Tendai school of thought since I was a little
boy, but one thing in it I cannot understand.
Tendai claims that
even the grass and trees will become enlightened. To me this seems
very strange.'
'Of what use is it to discuss how grass and trees become
enlightened?’ asked Shinkan. The question is how you yourself can
become so. Did you ever consider that!'
‘I never thought of it in that way,' marveled the old man. Then go
home and think it over,' finished Shinkan.
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