ZenTangle meets Zen Stories

After reading and reflecting on Zen Stories 

I turned the stories into Zen-tangles. 

“IF YOU LOVE, LOVE OPENLY”

Twenty monks and one nun, were practicing with a certain Zen master. The nun was very pretty even though her head was shaved and her dress was plain. Several monks secretly fell in love with her. One of them wrote her a love letter, insisting upon a private meeting. She did not reply.

The following day the master gave a lecture to the group, and when it was over, the nun arose. Addressing the one who had written her she said: “If you really love me so much, come and embrace me now.”

“GOING WITH THE FLOW”

A story from the foothills of the Himalayas tells of an old man who accidentally fell into the river rapids of the Ganges leading to a high and dangerous waterfall.

Onlookers feared for his life. Miraculously, he came out alive and unharmed downstream at the bottom of the falls. People asked him how he had managed to survive.

"I accommodated myself to the water, not the water to me. “

“Without thinking, I allowed myself to be shaped by it.  Plunging into the swirl, I came out with the swirl. This is how I survived.”

“THE MOON CANNOT BE STOLEN”

A spiritual master lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing in it to steal. The master returned and caught him. ‘You may have come a long way to visit me’, he told the prowler, ‘and you should not return empty handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.’ The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away. The master sat naked, watching the moon. ‘Poor fellow’, he mused, ‘I wish I could give him this beautiful moon.’

 “BEING A BUTTERFLY”

A monk, once experienced a dream in which he was a butterfly fluttering to & fro. In the dream he had no awareness of his individuality as a person; he was simply a butterfly. Suddenly, he awoke and found that once again he was a human lying in bed. But then he thought to himself, "Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?"

 “THE PRESENT MOMENT”

A Japanese warrior was captured by his enemies and thrown into prison. That night he was unable to sleep because he feared that the next day he would be interrogated, tortured, and executed. Then the words of his Zen master came to him, "Tomorrow is not real. It is an illusion. The only reality is now." Heeding these words, the warrior became peaceful and fell asleep.

“KNOWING FISH”

One day a young man and a friend were walking by a river. "Look at the fish swimming about," said the young man, "They are really enjoying themselves." "You are not a fish," replied the friend, "So you can't truly know that they are enjoying themselves." 

"You are not me," said the young man. "So how do you know that I do not know that the fish are enjoying themselves?" 

“RESPECT YOUR DECISION"

Four monks decided to meditate silently without speaking for two weeks. By nightfall on the first day, the candle began to flicker and then went out.

The first monk said, "Oh, no! The candle is out."

The second monk said, "Aren't we not suppose to talk?"

The third monk said, "Why must you two break the silence?" 

The fourth monk laughed and said, "Ha! I'm the only one who didn't speak." 

 “SIGN OF INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP”

A long time ago there were two friends, one who played the harp skilfully and one who listen skilfully.

When the one played or sang about a mountain, the other would say: "I can see the mountain before us."

When the one played about water, the listener would exclaim:  "Here is the running stream!"

But the listener fell sick and died. The first friend cut the strings of his harp and never played again. Since that time the cutting of harp strings has always been a sign of intimate friendship.

“THE NATURE OF THINGS”

Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning.

One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. The monk saved the scorpion and was again stung. The other monk asked him, "Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know it's nature is to sting?"

"Because," the monk replied, "to save it, is my nature."

“PURE WATER”

A great festival was to be held in a village and each villager was asked to contribute by pouring a bottle of wine into a giant barrel. One of the villagers had this thought: "If I pour a bottle of water in that giant barrel, no one will notice the difference." But it didn't occur to him that everyone else in the village might have the same thought. When the banquet began and the barrel was tapped, what came out was pure water.

“NEVER COMPLAIN”

An old man says he complained only once in all his life . . . when his feet were bare and he had no money to buy shoes. Then he saw a happy man who had no feet. And he never complained again.

 “LIGHT THE CANDLE”

An old Zen master always told this fable to unserious students: Late one night a blind man was about to go home after visiting a friend. "Please," he said to his friend, "may I take your lantern with me?" "Why carry a lantern?" asked his friend. "You won't see any better with it." "No," said the blind one, "perhaps not. But others will see me better, and not bump into me." So his friend gave the blind man the lantern, which was made of paper on bamboo strips, with a candle inside. Off went the blind man with the lantern, and before he had gone more than a few yards, "Crack!" -- a traveller walked right into him. The blind man was very angry. "Why don't you look out?" he stormed. "Why don't you see this lantern?" "Why don't you light the candle?" asked the traveller.

 “THE TARGET IS NOT THE TARGET”

The master at the school for archery was known to be a master of life just as much as of archery. One day his brightest pupil scored three bull's-eyes in a row at a local contest. Everyone went wild with applause. Congratulations poured in for pupil -- and master. The master, however, seemed unimpressed -- almost critical even. When the pupil later asked him why, he said, "You have yet to learn that the target is not the target."

“LET GO”

Zen students are with their masters at least ten years before they presume to teach others. A Zen Master was visited by an old student, who, having passed his apprenticeship had become a teacher. The day happened to be rainy, so the student wore wooden clogs and carried an umbrella. After greeting him the Zen Master remarked: "I suppose you left your wooden clogs in the vestibule. I want to know if your umbrella is on the right or left side of the clogs." The student, confused, had no instant answer. He realized that he was unable to carry his Zen every minute. He once again became a pupil, and he studied six more years to accomplish his every-minute Zen.

Beautiful rainbow

Many centuries ago in Japan, an ex-warlord and his best friend were riding their horses down a dusty road when a light rain came, that quickly passed. Then they saw a beautiful rainbow appear in the sky, and eventually came to where one side of the colorful arc touched down on the ground. It was right beside the road, where a monk was sitting below a blossoming plum tree. The two pulled their horses to a halt, in order to ask the monk some questions about the local area, when they noticed that there were tears streaming down his face, and he was smiling. The ex-warlord asked, "Why do you cry, friend?" "Because you can finally see me," answered the monk.

Inside or outside your mind

A Zen teacher lived alone in a small temple in the country. One day four travelling monks appeared and asked if they might make a fire in his yard to warm themselves. While they were building the fire, a Zen teacher 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 mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind."

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

 Spider

A Tibetan story tells of a meditation student who, while meditating in his room, believed he saw a spider descending in front of him. Each day the menacing creature returned, growing larger and larger each time. So frightened was the student, that he went to his teacher to report his dilemma.

He said he planned to place a knife in his lap during meditation, so when the spider appeared he would kill it. The teacher advised him against this plan. Instead, he suggested, bring a piece of chalk to meditation, and when the spider appeared, mark an "X" on its belly. Then report back.

The student returned to his meditation. When the spider again appeared, he resisted the urge to attack it, and instead did just what the master suggested. When he later reported back to the master, the teacher told him to lift up his shirt and look at his own belly. There was the "X".

 Moving mind
Two men were arguing about a flag flapping in the wind. "It's the wind that is really moving," stated the first one. "No, it is the flag that is moving," contended the second.

A Zen master, who happened to be walking by, overheard the debate and interrupted them.

"Neither the flag nor the wind is moving," he said, "It is MIND that moves."

Empty your cup 

A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured the visitor's cup to the brim, and then kept pouring.

The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. "It's overfull! No more will go in!" the professor blurted.

"You are like this cup," the master replied, "How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup."

Surprising master 

The students in the monastery were in total awe of the elder monk, not because he was strict, but because nothing ever seemed to upset or ruffle him. So they found him a bit unearthly and even frightening.

One day they decided to put him to a test. A bunch of them very quietly hid in a dark corner of one of the hallways, and waited for the monk to walk by. Within moments, the old man appeared, carrying a cup of hot tea. Just as he passed by, the students all rushed out at him screaming as loud as they could.

But the monk showed no reaction whatsoever. He peacefully made his way to a small table at the end of the hall, gently placed the cup down, and then, leaning against the wall, cried out with shock, "Ohhhhh!"