Zen Stories

61. Gudo and the Emperor
The emperor Goyozei was studying Zen under Gudo. He inquired: 'In Zen this very mind is Buddha. Is this correct?'
Gudo answered: 'If I say yes, you will think that you understand without understanding. If I say no, I would be contradicting a fact which many understand quite well.'

On another day the emperor asked Gudo: 'Where does the enlightened man go when he dies?'
Gudo answered: 'I know not.'

'Why don't you know?' asked the emperor.
'Because I have not died yet,' replied Gudo.

The emperor hesitated to inquire further about these things his mind could not grasp. So Gudo beat the floor with his hand as if to awaken him, and the emperor was enlightened!

The emperor respected Zen and old Gudo more than ever after his enlightenment, and he even permitted Gudo to wear his hat in the palace in winter. When Gudo was over eighty he used to fall asleep in the midst of his lecture, and the emperor would quietly retire to another room so his beloved teacher might enjoy the rest his ageing body required.

62. In the Hands of Destiny
A great Japanese warrior named Nobunaga decided to attack the enemy although he had only one tenth the number of men the opposition commanded.

He knew that he would win, but his soldiers were in doubt. On the way he stopped at a Shinto shrine and told his man, 'After I visit the shrine I will toss a coin. If head comes we will win; if tails we will loose. Destiny holds us in her hand.'

Nobunaga entered the shrine and offered a silent prayer. He came forth and tossed a coin. Heads appeared. His soldiers were so eager to fight that they won their battle easily.

'No one can change the hand of destiny,' his attendant told him after the battle. ‘Indeed not,' said Nobunaga, showing a coin, which had been doubled, with heads facing either way.
 

63. Killing
Gasan instructed his adherents one day: ‘Those who speak against killing and who desire to spare the live of all conscious beings are right. It is good to protect even animals and insects. But what about those persons who kill time, what about those who are destroying wealth and those who destroy political economy? We should not overlook them. Furthermore, what of the one who preaches without enlightenment? He is killing Buddhism.'

64. Kasan Sweated
Kasan was asked to officiate at the funeral of a provincial lord. He had never met lords and nobler before so he was nervous.

When the ceremony started, Kasan sweated. Afterwards, when he had returned, he gathered his pupils together. Kasan confessed that he was not yet qualified to be a teacher for he lacked the sameness of bearing in the world of fame that he possessed in the secluded temple.

Then Kasan resigned and became the pupil of another master. Eight years later he returned to his former pupils, enlightened.