Its all zen to me

My friend Piyali shared these stories with me, and I couldn’t resist passing them on:)

SHOW ME YOUR EGO-MIND

One of the most famous legends spun about Bodhidharma is that the seeker Hui-k‚Äôo patiently stood deep in the nocturnal snow outside the old master‚Äôs cave, yearning for instruction. He finally hacked off his own left forearm and presented it as a demonstration of his sincere aspiration for complete enlightenment. (In Tao-hs√ºan‚Äôs earlier account, wandering bandits cut off his arm.) Bodhidharma told Hui-k‚Äôo: ‚ÄúThis enlightenment is not to be sought through another.‚Äù Hui-k‚Äôo begged to have his agitated self or mind pacified. The sage retorted, ‚ÄúShow me your self and I will pacify it.‚Äù Hui-k‚Äôo said ‚ÄúI‚Äôve sought it many years but can‚Äôt get hold of it.‚Äù Bodhidharma then declared: ‚ÄúThere! It is pacified once and for all.‚Äù Upon hearing this, suddenly Hui-k‚Äôo completely awakened to his transcendent True Nature before/beyond the ego-self. He was designated the second Patriarch of Ch’an Buddhism.

DRUNK

Japanese Zen master Sesso warned, “There is little to choose between a man lying in the ditch heavily drunk on rice liquor, and a man heavily drunk on his own ‘enlightenment’!”

PRAYER FLAG

Some monks were sitting quietly in the garden of a Buddhist monastery on a calm, beautiful day. The prayer flag on the roof started fluttering and flapping in a breeze. A young monk observed: “Flag is flapping.” Another monk said: “Wind is flapping the flag.” The third monk, the great sixth Patriarch Hui-neng, declared: “It is your minds that are flapping.” Centuries later another monk, Wu-men Hui-k’ai (1183-1260), commented on this episode: “Flag, wind, minds flapping. Several mouths were flapping!”

WHO ARE YOU?

Keiji, a long-time Zen student, approached his master and said: “I don’t see how there can be any enlightenment that sets you free once and for all. I think we just get ever greater glimpses of Buddha-nature, the vastness that is our true Reality. It’s an ever-expanding process.” The master, looking penetratingly at Keiji, replied. “That may be what you think. But what is your experience, your experience right now?” Keiji looked momentarily confused. “My experience right now, Master?” “Yes. Do you know yourself as Keiji, having ever-expanding experiences of Buddha-nature? Or do you know yourself as Buddha-nature, having the experience of Keiji?”

EMPTINESS

When Tesshu, the famous medieval samurai swordsman, was young and headstrong, he visited one Zen master after another. Once he went to visit Master Dokuon and triumphantly announced to him the classic Buddhist teaching that all that exists is empty, there is really no you or me, and so on. The master listened to all this in silence. Suddenly he snatched up his pipe and struck Tesshu’s head with it. The infuriated young swordsman would have killed the master there and then, but Dokuon said calmly, “Emptiness is sure quick to show anger, is it not?” Tesshu left the room, realizing he still had much to learn about Zen.