1. A cup of tea

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868 - 1912), received a university professor who came to enquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "What are you doing?!? It is so full it is overflowing!"

"Like this cup." Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

2. The Stone Mind

Hogen, a Chinese Zen teacher, lived alone in a small temple in the
country. One day four traveling monks appeared and asked if they
might make a fire in his yard to warm themselves and sleep for the
night.

While they were building the fire, Hogen heard them arguing about
subjectivity and objectivity. He joined them and said: "There is a
big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?"

One of the monks replied "From the Buddhist viewpoint everything is
an objectification of the mind, so I would say that the stone is
inside my mind."

"Your head must be very heavy." observed Hogen, "if you are carrying
around a stone like that in your mind."

3. The Muddy Road

Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain had just abated and the world around them was very wet.

Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl crying her heart out.
She was dressed in a beautifully embroidered silk kimono with
matching sash and was standing on the bank of an overflowing little
stream.

"Why are you crying?" immediately asked Tanzan.

In between her tears the girl replied "There is a wedding in the
village, and these clothes are the only fine clothes I have - and if
they get wet they will be ruined!" with which a further deluge of
tears ensured.

"Come on girl" said Tanzan at once. He hoisted her up, stepped into
the stream, waded across and deposited her dry and safely on the
other side. Her tears quickly evaporated into smiles of joy, she
gave thanks and skipped off to the village.

Ekido never spoke a word for the rest of the day - until they reached
a Temple to sleep for the night. There, he could no longer contain
himself. "We monks are not supposed to have any dealings with
females! Especially not young and pretty ones like her. Why did you
do that?"

"Put her down," said Tanzan "I put her down hours ago."

4. Killing

Gasan was instructing his adherents one day: "Those who speak against killing and desire to spare the lives of all conscious beings are
right. It is good to even protect the lives of animals and insects.
But what about those persons who kill time, what about those who are
destroying wealth, and those who destroy political economy? We
should not overlook them. Furthermore, what of the one who preaches without enlightenment? He is killing Buddhism."

5. Publishing the sutras

Tetsugen was a devotee of Zen in Japan and one day he decided to
publish the sutras. At that time the sutras were only available in
the Chinese language. It was an awesome undertaking as wood blocks had to be made and there were to be seven thousand copies made.

He began this enterprise by travelling and collecting donations. As
would happen in this kind of undertaking - he received donations of
varying sizes. Mostly he got a few small coins but occasionally he
would receive a donation of gold coins numbering in the hundreds. He would thank each donor equally - regardless of the size of the
donation and after about 10 years he was ready to begin the task.

Just at that time it so happened that the Uji river overflowed and
famine quickly followed. Instead of beginning the printing of the
books, Tetsugen used the money he collected for the publishing to
save other people from starvation. After he did this, he restarted
his enterprise and began collecting donations again.

Several years ensured and an epidemic spread throughout the country. And yet again, instead of publishing, he gave away the money to help his people.

He started his work for the third time. It took twenty years but he
finally realized his wish. Those wood blocks that produced the first
edition of sutras still exist today. They can be seen in Kyoto at
the Obaku monastery.

The Japanese tell their children that Tetsugen made three sets of
sutras, and that the first two invisible sets surpass even the last.

6. Temper

A Zen student came to Bankei and complained: "Master, I haven a
totally uncontrollable temper. How can i cure this?"

"Hmmmm." replied Bankei. "You have something highly unusual. Let me
see what you have."

"Err I can't show you it right now." answered the student.

"So when will you be able to show it to me?" Bankei asked.

"It happens unpredictably, " replied the student.

"Then it must not be your true nature." concluded Bankei "If it were
you would be able to show it at any time. When you were born you did
not have it, and your parents did not give it to you. Think that over."

7. Eating and Dressing

A monk one asked Master Bokuju "we have to dress and eat every day. How can we escape from all that?"

The master replied "We dress, we eat."

The monk was puzzled and said he did not understand. The master
replied: "if you do not understand, put on your clothes and eat your
food."

8. The lost key

This story I first found in a collection of Sufi stories by Idris Shah - but I have also seen this as a Buddhist story as well.

One night a neighbor of Mullah Nasrudin was walking home and found
Mullah squatting on the ground beside a lamppost evidently looking
for something.

"What's the matter mullah?" asked the concerned neighbor.

"I have lost my keys" replied mullah

"Oh! Here let me help you." and the kindly neighbor got down on his
knees and started searching for Mullah's keys as well. After some time spent looking the neighbor straightened up and quite puzzled asked "are you sure you dropped your key's here?"

"Oh, I didn't drop them here." replied Mullah.

"Where did you drop them ?!?" exclaimed the now bewildered neighbor.

"Over there" and Mullah pointed to the front of his house that was in darkness.

"So why are you looking for them here ??!!??" exclaimed the now
exasperated neighbor.

"Because the light is over here." replied mullah.

9. About Trying

Roshi Anshin placed a small box in his palm. "TRY to take it out of my hand." he said.

She reached out for the box and picked it up.

"No . . . no." Anshin stopped her, "You didn't listen carefully. I said . . . TRY to take it out."

She looked confused. She reached out for the box and slowly picked it up again..

"No. . . I said TRY." Anshin smiled.

She was even more confused . . . she reached out for the box and couldn't decide whether to take it out or not.

A broad grin appeared on Anshin's face.

"You see . . . it is impossible. There is no such thing as TRY . . . there is only DO or NOT DO."

10. Buddha and Cow Dung

The famous Chinese poet Su Tung-po (1036-1100) in the Song Dynasty wrote very simple Chinese Poems based on Buddhist Philosophy, as he himself is a very religious person. He was appointed to the position of the Director of Literature in the Imperial Court.

One day he visited a Buddhist Temple and meditated with the Monk Buddhastamp. After a little while, Su asked the Monk: "Look at me, Venerable. I am sitting here meditating. What do I look like?"

Buddhastamp examined Su closely for a while and said, "Officer, you are very solemn, radiant and gentle. You look like a Buddha Stature." Su was very pleased and elated with the answer.

After a while, Buddhastamp asked Su, "Officer, I am sitting here meditating also. What do I look like?"

Mr. Su thought for sometine, this Monk is always in the upperhand whenever we debated on any subjects. Now, I got the opportunity to beat him. So, he replied, "You look like a heap of cow dung, Venerable." On hearing this, the Monk simply smiled and did not argue with him at all.

Thinking that he had won the debate, Mr. Su went about telling everybody in town how he triumph over the monk, until his younger sister heard of it and enlightened him, "My dear brother, you had lost the debate completely."

"What!? I am very sure the Monk was fooled this time. Why do you say so?"

"Dear brother," said Miss Su, "the Monk's heart was filled with Buddha nature, therefore he saw you as a Buddha. But your heart was filled with cow dung, and therefore you saw him as a heap of cow dung."

11. Back to basics

A zen nun became very famous in Japan for her ability to help people. Many people went to see her with their problems and ask her advice. Most of these people only needed to see her once - rarely did they have to come back a second time.

She was asked what was her secret - what it was that she told these people that came to her for help.

She replied, "I don't understand what all this fuss is about - it is very simple. The first time someone comes to me I ask them 'Have you cleaned your house?' and if they come a second time I ask them 'Have you done your washing?'"

12. One size doesn't fit all

A novice monk was newly ordained in a zen monastery. As the weeks went by he lost weight, his energy went down, his pallor became sickly, he never smiled, he became apathetic and lackadaisical to the extent that the abbot became quite worried about him and called him into his study.

"I am very concerned about you - I do not think you are suited to the monastic life" he told the monk. "I am very concerned with your health and I really think you should leave".

"Oh please don't ask me to leave Roshi!" exclaimed the monk "This is what I want to do and I do not want to do anything else!"

"But I am really concerned that you will not survive - from your appearance and general demeanour - I don't think you will live for too much longer" replied the abbot.

"Just give me one more chance!" pleaded the monk "I am sure things will change."

"All right." said the abbot "I will give you another 4 weeks - if things do not change after 4 weeks and you have not improved, you will have to leave - agreed?"

"Agreed" replied the monk.

From that moment things started to change. Over the next few days the monk began to show signs of improvement and as the weeks went he progressed inwardly and outwardly. His colour returned, he gained a little weight, he began to smile again and became quite enthusiastic and diligent in his practice as well as in his monastic duties.

The abbot was keeping a watchful eye on him and when the 4 weeks came and went he did not call him in for another meeting as he decided it was unnecessary and the monk was no longer in any danger. In fact, the abbot became quite pleased with his progress.

Months went by and the monk was doing really well and made his first major breakthrough. The abbot called him into his study to begin his next phase of instruction. But he couldn't resist asking the question . . .

"Tell me, what caused the change in your condition here after we spoke last?"

"Oh please Roshi - don't let me have to answer that!" exclaimed the monk.

"Why not?"

"You will ask me to leave if I tell you!" the monk worriedly replied.

"No no no!" said the abbot "I won;t ask you to leave and I really want to know."

"Why do you want to know? Is it not enough that I overcame my initial difficulties and have reached this point?" pleaded the monk.

"I want to know because I am very curious and more importantly, if another monk shows similar signs I can advise him to do what you have done" replied the abbot.

"Well, after the lights were all turned off and all the other monks went to sleep I crept outside and climbed the wall." The monk was clearly showing signs of distress as he answered.

The abbot just smiled and signed for him to continue.

"I then went to the village." continued the monk.

"Uh-huh" commented the abbot "and what did you do there?"

"Err. . . I went to the inn." replied the clearly unhappy monk.

"Yes . . . and . . .?" prodded the abbot.

"Well I ate lots of meat" replied the monk, clearly reluctant to continue.

"Look." said the abbot "stop beating around the bush and tell it to me all"

In a rush the monk blurted out "I also sang, danced, drank, made love to women and generally partied every night then I crept back here and went to sleep and have been doing so ever since!"

"Ahhhhhh" said the abbot

"Are you now going to ask me to leave?" asked the now distraught monk"

"Not at all" smiled the abbot "I want you to continue what you have been doing" and he then proceeded to instruct the monk in his next set of practices.