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Zen koans.

Hyakujo's Fox

Once when Hyakujo delivered some Zen lectures an old man attended them, unseen by the monks. At the end of each talk when the monks left so did he. But one day he remained after the had gone, and Hyakujo asked him: `Who are you?'

The old man replied: `I am not a human being, but I was a human being when the Kashapa Buddha preached in this world. I was a Zen master and lived on this mountain. At that time one of my students asked me whether the enlightened man is subject to the law of causation. I answered him: "The enlightened man is not subject to the law of causation." For this answer evidencing a clinging to absoluteness I became a fox for five hundred rebirths, and I am still a fox. Will you save me from this condition with your Zen words and let me get out of a fox's body? Now may I ask you: Is the enlightened man subject to the law of causation?'

Hyakujo said: `The enlightened man is one with the law of causation.'

At the words of Hyakujo the old man was enlightened. `I am emancipated,' he said, paying homage with a deep bow. `I am no more a fox, but I have to leave my body in my dwelling place behind this mountain. Please perform my funeral as a monk.' The he disappeared.

The next day Hyakujo gave an order through the chief monk to prepare to attend the funeral of a monk. `No one was sick in the infirmary,' wondered the monks. `What does our teacher mean?'

After dinner Hyakujo led the monks out and around the mountain. In a cave, with his staff he poked out the corpse of an old fox and then performed the ceremony of cremation.

That evening Hyakujo gave a talk to the monks and told this story about the law of causation.

Obaku, upon hearing this story, asked Hyakujo: `I understand that a long time ago because a certain person gave a wrong Zen answer he became a fox for five hundred rebirths. Now I was to ask: If some modern master is asked many questions, and he always gives the right answer, what will become of him?'

Hyakujo said: `You come here near me and I will tell you.'

Obaku went near Hyakujo and slapped the teacher's face with this hand, for he knew this was the answer his teacher intended to give him.

Hyakujo clapped his hands and laughed at the discernment. `I thought a Persian had a red beard,' he said, `and now I know a Persian who has a red beard.'

Mumon's comment: `The enlightened man is not subject.' How can this answer make the monk a fox?

`The enlightened man is at one with the law of causation.' How can this answer make the fox emancipated?

To understand clearly one has to have just one eye.

Controlled or not controlled?
The same dice shows two faces.
Not controlled or controlled,
Both are a grievous error.

http://www.ibiblio.org/zen/gateless-gate/2.html

 
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, with the tiger hot on his tail. Coming to a cliff, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge of the cliff. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down, and there, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.

Two mice, one black and one white, little by little, started to gnaw away at the vine. The man noticed a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other hand. How sweet it tasted.

Your thoughts?

The tigers represents your past. The strawberry is your future and the mice want you to go back to your past. But you ate the strawberry and now there is no turning back. The future was always within your grasp.


In other words dont succumb to peer pressure. Keep focused on the task that you set out to accomplish, or you will lose everything, and all you will ever be is your past.


Its either that or it is a metaphor for being ****ed.
 
Here's one that stuck with me from various DP discussions:


Two monks were arguing about a flag. One said: `The flag is moving.'
The other said: `The wind is moving.'
The sixth patriach happened to be passing by. He told them: `Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving.'

Wind, flag, mind moves.
The same understanding.
When the mouth opens
All are wrong



Possibly the point is to help expose our egocentric approach to life.
Always. So many read that stuff and think "wtf mumbo jumbo, who has time to waste on such nonsense". Nonsense they say?
 
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A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, with the tiger hot on his tail. Coming to a cliff, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge of the cliff. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down, and there, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.

Two mice, one black and one white, little by little, started to gnaw away at the vine. The man noticed a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other hand. How sweet it tasted.

Your thoughts?

I wrote a poem about this one. He enjoyed the strawberries, right?

Once a Zen master was asked (in Nottingham) to name a purely spontaneous act: farting.
 
:doh
Once a Zen master was asked (in Nottingham) to name a purely spontaneous act: farting.

If he answered by opening his mouth and saying the word "farting," then he doesn't know. If he simply let out a fart, then he does know.

However, I just replied by opening my mouth, so . . . I guess . . . I don't know. :doh

WAIT! I was typing, so, technically, my mouth didn't open. I DO know.
 
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