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Drop all 'isms'
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Mind of a Sage
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Judging a saint
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The Fake Monk
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Rinzai's Answer
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Mystic Rengetsu
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Zen
Master Sekito
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Zen Sage & Thief
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Zen Master in Jail
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Buddha’s message
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The Game of Chess
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Innocence is Divine
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Master's Compassion
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Knowledge is Trouble
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Respond with awareness
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Tetsugen
3 set of
sutras
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You are already a Buddha
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Sound of one Hand Clapping
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Master waits 4 right Moment
- Stories 1 - 2
- Stories 3 - 4
- Stories 5 - 7
- Stories 8-9
- Stories 10
- Stories 11
- Stories 12-14
- Stories 15-16
- Stories 17-18
- Stories 19 - 21
- Stories 22 - 24
- Stories 25 - 27
- Stories 28 - 32
- Stories 33 - 36
- Stories 37 - 38
- Stories 39 - 41
- Stories 42 - 44
- Stories 45 - 46
- Stories 47 - 48
- Stories 49 - 50
- Stories 51 - 53
- Stories 54 - 56
- Stories 57 - 59
- Stories 60 - 61
- Stories 62 - 64
- Stories 65 - 66
- Stories 67 - 68
- Stories 69 - 72
- Stories 73 - 75
- Stories 76 - 78
- Stories 79 - 82
- Stories 83 - 86
- Stories 87 - 89
- Stories 90 - 91
- Stories 92 - 94
- Stories 95 - 97
- Stories 98 -101
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95. A Letter to a Dying Man
Bassui wrote the following letter to one of his disciples who was
about to die:
The essence of your mind is not born so it will never die. It is not
an existence, which is perishable. It is not an emptiness, which is
a mere void. It has neither color nor form. It enjoys no pleasures
and suffers no pain.
'I know you are very ill. Like a good Zen student, you are facing
that sickness squarely. You may not know exactly who is suffering,
but question yourself: What is the essence of this mind? Think only
of this. You will need no more. Covet
nothing. Your end which is endless is as a snowflake dissolving in
the pure air.'
96.A Drop of Water
A Zen master named Gisan asked a young student to bring him a pail
of water to cool his bath. The student brought the water and, after
cooling the bath, threw on to the ground the little that was left
over.
'You dunce!' the master scolded him. 'Why didn't you give the rest
of the water to the plants? What right have you to waste even a drop
of water in this temple?'
The young student attained Zen in that instant. He changed his name
to Tekisui, which means a drop of water.
97. Teaching the Ultimate
In early times in Japan, bamboo-and-paper lanterns wee used with
candles inside. A blind man, visiting a friend one night was offered
a lantern to carry home with him.
'I do not need a lantern,' he said. Darkness or light is all the
same to me'
‘I know you do not need a lantern to find your way,' his friend
replied, 'but if you don't have one someone else may run into you.
So you must take it.'
The blind man started off with the lantern and before he had walked
very far someone ran squarely into him. 'Look out where you are
going!' he exclaimed to the stranger. 'Can't you see this lantern?'
‘Your candle has burned out brother,' replied the stranger.
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