Stories about Zen
7 Buddhist wisdom stories about Zen from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Also, also — Hakuin and the babyAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Girl blames mountain monk for pregnancy; he only says 'Also.' Villagers dump the baby on him; he raises it. They later apologise and reclaim the child; he says 'Also, also' and…
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One of the stories which I always recall from Zen Buddhism of this monk, I think it was Hakuin, one of my favorite stories, that he was a simple monk who lived on top of the mountain just meditating and being kind and caring to his local village. But one day in the village, there was a girl got pregnant by her boyfriend. And they weren't married. And as soon as the father saw his daughter was pregnant, he said, "Who did it? Who was responsible for you becoming pregnant?" And the girl, of course, she was in love with her boyfriend and realized if she told her father it was his boyfriend, he would probably get beaten up or maybe even killed. So she thought, "I can't I can't dob in my boyfriend. Who can I Who can I dob in?" So she thought, "The monk up the hill. He did it." So the father was just irate. "That monk, we've been looking after him. We thought he was such a great monk. He's made my daughter pregnant. That's not on." So he got all the village together and they went right up to the mountain, you know, right there and then, and they said to this monk, "You bad monk, you terrible monk, you've made my daughter pregnant. You can't do that. You thought you was a good monk." And even though he was totally innocent, all he would say is, "Also." "Also." And so he didn't actually react with any anger back or any justification. And so after a while, I mean, if people aren't reacting, you can only shout at them so long. So they all went back down to the village. But now when she gave birth, they went up again. And they said, "Law of karma, you're responsible for this baby." It was a girl. "You look after it." And they tried to dump this baby girl on a monk. And if they tried to do that on me, I wouldn't know the first thing about looking after kids. You know, you some of you have seen even today somebody came to with their little baby and they gave it to me because it's in the Thai tradition if you give like your little baby to the monk, it's like I'm like I'm the godfather. So, and I took hold of the baby hoping they'd take it away quickly enough before I don't know how to hold a baby and what it poos and get my old robe with this poof. So, I gave it back as but but this little hack word he was actually given this girl a baby girl to look after. And instead of protesting, he said, "Don't give it to me. I'm not responsible. I don't know how to look after baby girl." You know what he said? "Ah, so. Ah, so." And it's amazing that I've been taught as a monk and I know it's true. It doesn't matter what happens, you can always make it work. You know, I learned how to lay bricks, I learned how to run a monastery, I give talks to disability services and I say about that talk I gave about shipping. If you don't know that story, that at a transport conference run by when Alannah MacTiernan was the Minister for Planning, she invited me as a member of the public to this plat this uh transport conference and during the lunch break, which was after 12:00, I couldn't eat. So, all the people were having lunch and this journalist came up to me and he said, "I'm a shipping reporter." I said, "Oh, yeah." He said, "Can I do an interview with you?" I don't know anything about shipping. I've been in this ship, but that was just I think just across from uh Southampton to the Isle of Wight, not very far. But you know, I'm up for anything. So, I sort of answered the question and gave my advice on shipping. Why not? Nothing to lose. And do you know this was amazing about this story? This is true. I saw him about 6 months later, and he said, "Ajahn Brahm, you wouldn't believe the success of that article which I wrote. I called it Zen in the Art of Shipping by Ajahn Brahm, and it was syndicated in all the major shipping magazines of the world, and he got all these emails back from all these professors and experts say, 'We don't know who this Ajahn Brahm is, but he certainly knows what he's talking about.'" And that was true. And so, you know, talking about shipping, please don't do this, but if you did give me a baby, you'd figure out somehow how to look after them. But anyway, so he accepted this, but don't get any ideas. He accepted it, and he looked after this baby girl for I don't know how long, but what happened next was that scallywag of a boyfriend, you know, you girls know what some of these boys are like. You know, after a while, once you know, you know, was uh did this, he ran off to the city and found another girl, and this poor girl, you know, she was pining for her child, as you would do, and she realized she'd done a terrible, terrible thing of accusing this monk for something he never did. So, she confessed. She confessed to her father it wasn't the monk. It was this boy she'd fallen in love with. And because, you know, young girl loved him so much, wanted to protect him, that's why she blamed the monk. And this scallywag boy had run away, so she never wanted to protect him anymore. She was so sorry. So, once again, all the villagers, they went up. They went up to the mountain again say, "No, we're so sorry. We did a terrible thing. We shouldn't have done this." You know what the monk said? "Also, also." And he gave the baby back
- Books, books, books — dustbin, dustbin, dustbinStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: ~1972 London: Zen monk with almost no English answers 'What of Buddhism in UK?' — books books books, too many, dustbin dustbin dustbin. Also: each book written = seven births as…
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this Zen monk came, and in his talk, he gave a warning. His warning was Well, first of all, you know, he couldn't speak English very well. But nevertheless, we asked him a question. And the question was, "What do you think of Buddhism in UK?" And I think this was asked about 1972. And he said, he couldn't speak English fluently, but he could say a few words. What he said was, "Buddhism in UK, books, books, books. Too many, too many, too many. Dustbin, dustbin, dustbin." And that was so articulate. You couldn't have said it more eloquently than that. Just Just knowing three words. But he also said that uh through the translator, that anyone who writes a book, for each book, you have to spend the next seven births after you die, as a donkey
- Form is emptiness — the empty platterJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A hungry wandering Zen monk is sent to a famous restaurant owned by a generous Buddhist woman. She will feed him, but first he must teach some Dhamma so she knows he's a real…
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there was a Zen monk who was wandering from place to place and he hadn't got any arms food for a couple of days he was really hungry and then somebody said well you know we haven't got any further so but you see there's a restaurant over there really famous restaurant and the owner of the restaurant is a very generous Buddhist she'll be able to give you something so he went to the restaurant and he asked to see the owner and the owner said our venerable monk so blessed will you come to my restaurant and as what can I do for you in his a world or a bit hungry said I'll but you have to teach some dumb man before you know I know you're a real monk so he stood up and said form is emptiness emptiness is form Sardis I decided she said sit down and he thought wow I've really my lucky day I'm gonna get a good meal today see how she liked that teaching and so she soon came this big platter huge platter so wonder what's underneath the cover which was keeping it warm and she presented that platter to the monk you don't skip half a days and the month lifting it up there's nothing there form is emptiness emptiness is for monk
- I don't hit sleepy meditators — I send them to bedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An audience mention of a Japanese Soto (captioned Hai/Dogen) monastery that hits sleepy monks prompts him to disagree: prisoners who saw such a documentary said they'd kill…
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there's a Zen Monastery It's A Hai Monastery over in Japan it used to founded by this monk doen about 700 almost 800 years ago now 750 years ago and uh that was supposed to um get them um awake stop their sloth and toper I totally disagree with that I remember just when I was teaching uh some of the prisoners I showed them that documentary oh they were really upset said if if you tried that on me A J rob you'd be you'd be minc me you'd be dead don't wor you don't really need to do that I think that too harsh you know sometimes of Buddism they are too harsh like kindness is much better so if you know and many of you who've been meditating Retreats with me if somebody is that sleepy I don't hit them on the back what I do is say if you want to sleep go to bed
- It wasn't the flag or the wind — your mouths were movingJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Two monks argue whether the flag or the wind is moving; a Zen master says their minds are moving. Unsatisfied, they ask a Theravada forest ajahn, who says they are all wrong: it…
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the conflict of the two monks who were watching the flag latter and one monk said look at that the flag is fluttering and the other one said no the wind is moving not the flag and they had an argument this is I'm going to use this as a metaphor later on and they couldn't solve the argument was the wound wind moving or the flag moving so they went to see the Zen Monk and the sand monk said you were both wrong it wasn't the flag moving it wasn't the wind moving your minds were moving and they weren't satisfied with that either so the three of them the two monks and the Zen master went to go and see the theravada forest adjun and he said you are all wrong it wasn't the flag movie it wasn't the wind moving it wasn't your mind's moving the problem was your mouths were moving and that is that the important part that's actually a little bit of a joke and I was actually saw that in a list of jokes not because your mind moves because your mouth moves that's where the conflict starts from
- She called the police on the Zen stickStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Hong Kong / mainland China Zen retreat: the master hits a sleepy middle-aged woman with the waking stick; she pulls out a phone, calls the police — hitting people is an offence…
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this monk came along with the Zen stick and it was this middle-aged woman she was falling asleep when she was meditating and so the Zen monk the master hit her on the back with an instinct you know what she did got out a cell phone and called the police it's an offense to hit people and the police took the monk away arrested him
- The perfect Zen gardenStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A young Japanese gardening monk makes the most admired garden in Japan. An old meditation monk climbs in early one morning and hides to learn his secret. The gardener meditates,…
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Because one of the stories which I read many years ago and I think I retold it in one of my first books about the Japanese garden and the Zen master. Zen masters are usually really cool because they're totally um just uh almost off the planet in the way they do things. Totally un you can't understand them at first but they tell a very good message. And this Japanese master uh actually the young Japanese uh monk was a gardener and he made these amazing gardens and his garden was one of the most famous in the whole of Japan. People would come from all over to admire just the balance of his garden. You just took one look at it and it was wow really sort of was an amazing work of art. So this old old monk, an old meditation monk came early one morning, but the garden was closed. It was only supposed to be opened in the afternoon. [clears throat] But anyway, the old monk, he climbed over the the railings and hid behind the bushes. He wanted to find out the secret of the most perfect garden in the whole of Japan. And he waited. And then the gardening monk came out and he sat and meditated to prepare his mind just to get the clarity and the peace and the artistic balance in his own mind before he worked on the garden. And then he took these two big wicker baskets. In the middle of the garden was this very beautiful plum tree. And he went with those two baskets and picked up one by one every leaf or twig which had fallen the night before from the wind. And before putting them in the baskets, he would look at the little twig to see whether it had artistic merit. If it was the right shape or the right curvature, then he would put it in the good basket. If it was rubbish, he would put it in the rubbish basket. And the same with the leaves. Every leaf he picked up and examined it. And if he could make use of it, the right color, the right shape, he put it in the the good basket and the others in the rotten basket. It took him hours to clean up the garden of all the the leaves and twigs which had fallen the night before. A couple of hours. And then he stopped. He put the rubbish leaves on the compost and then he took tea. And after he took tea, he meditated for the most important part of the ceremony of the making the beautiful garden. He took the basket of beautiful leaves and flowers and not little twigs and he placed them one one by one in the garden in exactly the right place in exactly the correct orientation so that they balanced and the interconnectivity of the leaves and the twigs and the colors. Sometimes you'd have to pause and correct. He looked at it and he'd move a twig slightly. Yes, that's it. I don't know if you ever seen great artists at work, but sometimes great artists at work, we think they're just being being just [snorts] uh too too picky, but really great artists, they can see the big canvas of the garden and know exactly where things need to be just slightly changed. And after another couple of hours, he was finished and he admired his work. Most beautiful garden in the whole of Japan, he thought. And he was about to open the gate to let the visitors in. But then the old monk came out from behind the bush. And he said to the young gardening monk said, "I've been watching you all morning." and he said, "Your attention to detail is just so impressive. I've seen you just picking up all the bad leaves and the good leaves, separating them out and putting the good leaves." Look at that. That's amazing, George. Your artistic um taste and talent is incredible. He said, "Your garden," said the old monk, "is perfect." And at that word, almost. You could see the color drain from that gardening monk's face. So his lips start to quiver and he fell to his knees and he said to the old meditation monk, "Oh master, master, you've been sent by the Buddha himself to come and teach me how to make my garden even more perfect. Please instruct me. Please let your compassion flow. Please tell me your great wisdom. How can my garden be even more perfect?" And the old monks, by the way, never trust an old monk. He asked, he asked the old monk. And the old monk said, "Do you really want me to show you?" "Yes, please don't hold back your your great skill and wisdom." So the old monk stroed right into the middle of the garden, put his hands, he was old but still very strong around the plum tree and shook the hell out of it. Twigs, leaves fell all over the place, making a big mess of the garden. A whole morning's work destroyed. And that monk was so upset and angry. But imagine how he felt when the monk looked at his work with the the garden a big mess and then said, "Now that is perfect."