Zen Stories

94. Midnight Excursion
Many pupils were studying meditation under the Zen master Sengai. One of them used to arise at night, climb over the temple wall, and go to town on a pleasure jaunt.

Sengai, inspecting the dormitory quarters, found this pupil missing one night and also discovered the high stool he had used to scale the wall. Sengai removed the stool and stood there in its place.

When the wanderer returned, not knowing that Sengai was the stool he put his feet on the master's head and jumped down into the grounds. Discovering what he had done, he was aghast.

Sengai said: 'It is very chilly in the early morning. Do be careful not to catch cold yourself.' The pupil never went out at night again.

95. A Letter to a Dying Man
Bassui wrote the following letter to one of his disciples who was about to die: The essence of your mind is not born so it will never die. It is not an existence, which is perishable. It is not an emptiness, which is a mere void. It has neither color nor form. It enjoys no pleasures and suffers no pain.

'I know you are very ill. Like a good Zen student, you are facing that sickness squarely. You may not know exactly who is suffering, but question yourself: What is the essence of this mind? Think only of this. You will need no more. Covet nothing. Your end which is endless is as a snowflake dissolving in the pure air.'

96.A Drop of Water
A Zen master named Gisan asked a young student to bring him a pail of water to cool his bath. The student brought the water and, after cooling the bath, threw on to the ground the little that was left over.

'You dunce!' the master scolded him. 'Why didn't you give the rest of the water to the plants? What right have you to waste even a drop of water in this temple?'

The young student attained Zen in that instant. He changed his name to Tekisui, which means a drop of water.

97. Teaching the Ultimate
In early times in Japan, bamboo-and-paper lanterns wee used with candles inside. A blind man, visiting a friend one night was offered a lantern to carry home with him.

'I do not need a lantern,' he said. Darkness or light is all the same to me'
‘I know you do not need a lantern to find your way,' his friend replied, 'but if you don't have one someone else may run into you. So you must take it.'

The blind man started off with the lantern and before he had walked very far someone ran squarely into him. 'Look out where you are going!' he exclaimed to the stranger. 'Can't you see this lantern?'
‘Your candle has burned out brother,' replied the stranger.