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1.
.Banishing
a Ghost
2. Bell Teacher
3. Books
4. Christian Buddha
5. Chasing Two Rabbits
6. Cliff Hanger
7. Concentration
8. Destiny
9.Dreaming
10. Egotism
Page 2
11. Elephant and Flea
12.Empty Your Cup
13.Enlightened
14.Full Awareness
15.The Gift of Insults
16.Going With the Flow
17.Gutei's Finger
18.Holy Man
19.I Don't Know
20.Is That So
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21. It Will Pass
22. Just Two Words
23. Knowing Fish
24. Learning the Hard Way
25.Master Piece
26.May Be
27.The Moon Cannot Be Stolen
28.The Stone Cutter
29.The Most Important Teaching
30.Moving Mind
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31. Nature of Things
32. Nature's Beauty
33. No More Questions
34. Not Dead Yet
35. Obsessed
36. Paradise
37. Practice Makes Perfect
38. Present Moment
39. Prosperity
40. Ritual Cat
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41.Searching For Buddha
42. Self Control
43. Sounds of Silence
44. Successor
45. Spider
46. Surprising the Master
47. Tea Combat
48. Tea or Iron
49. Transient
50. True Self
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51.A Useless Life
52.Wanting God
53.When Tired
54.Without Fear
55.Working Very Hard
56.The Block Head Lord
57.True Reformation
58.Temper
59.Stone mind
60.The Real Miracle
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61.Nothing Exists
62.No Work ,No Food
63.True Friends
64Living Buddha and Tubmaker
65.Time To Die
66.Zen Dialogue
67.Story Teller's Zen
68.Midnight Excursion
69.A Letter To Dying Man
70.A Drop Of Water
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71.Teaching the Ultimate
72.Trading Dialogue for Lodging
73.The Voice of Happiness
74.Open Your Own Treasure House
75.No Water ,No Moon
76.Calling Card
77.Every Thing Is Best
78.Mukusen's Hand
79.Joshu's Zen
80.The thief Who Became Disciple
Page9
81.Right and Wrong
82.Black Nosed Buddha
83.Shallowness
84.Impoverishment
85.Challenge
86.Wisdom
87.Service
88.Selflessness
89.Salvation
90.Detachment
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91.The Sound of One Hand
92.My Heart Burns Like Fire
93.Eshun's Departure
94.Reciting Sutras
95.Three Days More
96.Everything is the Best
97.Inch Time Foot Gem
98.A smile in His Life Time
99.Every Minute Zen
100.Flower Shower
101.Publishing the sutras
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ZEN STORIES
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81.Right and Wrong
When Bankei held his seclusion-weeks of meditation, pupils from many parts of
Japan came to attend. During one of these 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 desire
to steal had vanish
***********************
82.Black-Nosed Buddha
A nun who was searching for enlightenment made a statue of Buddha and covered it
with gold leaf. Wherever she ent she carried this golden Buddha with her.
Years passed and, still carrying her Buddha, the nun came to live in a small
temple in a country where there were many Buddhas, each one with its own
particular shrine.
The nun wished to burn incense before her golden Buddha. Not liking the idea of
the perfume straying to others, she devised a funnel through which the smoke
would ascend only to her statue. This blackened the nose of the golden Buddha,
making it especially ugly.
***********************
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83.Shallowness
A journalist one day asked the Master to name one thing that characterizes the
Modern World.
The Master unhesitatingly replied, "People every day know more and more about
the Cosmos and less and less about themselves."
And to an astronomer who held him spellbound with the wonders of modern
astronomy the Master suddenly said, "Of all the millions of strange objects in
the universe the black holes and quasars and pulsars? the strangest,
unquestionably, is the self!"
*******************
84.Impoverishment
When a disciple came from a faraway country, the Master asked, "What are you
seeking?"
"Enlightenment."
"You have your own treasure house. Why do you search outside?"
"Where is my treasure house?"
"This seeking that has come upon you."
At that moment the disciple was Enlightened. Years later he would say to his
friends, "Open your own treasure house and enjoy your treasures."
*****************
85.Challenge
An easygoing disciple complained that he had never experienced the Silence that
the Master frequently commended.
Said the Master, "Silence only comes to active people."
*******************
86.Wisdom
It always pleased the Master to hear people recognize their ignorance.
"Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance," he
claimed.
When asked for an explanation, he said, "When you come to see you are not as
wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you are wiser today."
*****************
87.Service
The master was known to favor action over withdrawal. But he always insisted on
"Enlightened" action.
The disciples wanted to know what "Enlightened" meant. Did it mean
"right-intentioned"?
"Oh no," said the Master. "Think how right-intentioned the monkey is when he
lifts a fish from the river to save it from the watery grave."
*******************
88.Selflessness
An affluent industrialist said to the Master, "What do you do for a profession?"
"Nothing," said the Master.
The industrialist laughed scornfully. "Isn't that laziness?"
"Heavens no. Laziness is mostly the vice of very active people."
Later the master said to his disciples, "Do nothing and all things will be done
through you. Doing nothing really takes a lot of doing. Try it!"
*******************
89.Salvation
"Is salvation obtained through action or through meditation?"
"Through neither. Salvation comes from seeing."
"Seeing what?"
"That the gold necklace you wish to acquire is hanging round your neck. That the
snake you are so frightened of is only a rope on the ground."
***************
90.Detachment
It intrigued the disciples that the Master who lived so simply would not condemn
his wealthy followers.
"It is rare but not impossible for someone to be rich and holy," he said one
day.
"How?"
"When money has the effect on his heart that the shadow of that bamboo has on
the courtyard."
The disciples turned to watch the bamboo's shadow sweep the courtyard without
stirring a single particle of dust.
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