Post by zendancer on Oct 8, 2009 9:09:10 GMT -5
There are stories and events that always make me smile. If anyone finds them too boring, let me know, and I'll quit.
Joshu Sasaki is a famous Zen Master who lives in a Zen Center in the West (I forget the exact location.) Today, he is about 102 years old, and the last I heard he was still teaching and giving interviews. He has never given transmission to anyone, presumably because he has never met anyone whose understanding fully satisfied him. He has written some great poetry and inspired a lot of people with his teachings. About twenty years ago, he was scheduled to lead a three-day silent retreat in Ohio. I heard about it, sent in my money for the retreat, and was looking forward to meeting Sasaki in a face-to-face interview. However, about ten days before the start of the retreat the organizer called me to say that he was returning my money because the retreat had been cancelled. I asked why. He said, "I don't know. Sasaki roshi called and said he wasn't coming. He didn't give a reason." I thought that was pretty funny. Later, a friend asked me why Sasaki cancelled the retreat and I gave him Gutei's famous one-finger response. My friend asked, "What does that mean?" I held up my finger again. he said, "I dont understand." I said, "I don't understand either." My not-understanding, however, was different from my friend's not-understanding, and I fondly remembered Gutei's statement when he was nearing death. He held up his index finger and said, "I've used this my entire life and never been able to exhaust it."
Ganto was a famous Zen Master who told his disciples that he would be murdered in the future. Three years later, during a period of civil unrest, monasteries came under attack. All of the monks who had been students of Ganto left, but he remained. A gang of marauders showed up and stabbed Ganto who, before he died, let out a ferocious blood-curdling scream that reportedly was heard three miles away. A hundred years later, Hakuin, a Zen monk was greatly disturbed when he heard that story. He thought, "If even a great master like Ganto screamed so loudly when facing death, what hope is there for me to escape birth and death?" Subsequently, he had a huge enlightenment experience, and afterwards, he said, "Lo, and behind, I discovered that I was Ganto, himself, alive and unharmed!"
Hakuin became one of the best known Zen Masters in Japan, and there are many stories about him. One of the best known involved a young woman who lived near Hakuin who became pregnant. When her parents forced her to name the father, she named Hakuin. Everyone was flabbergasted and outraged. After the baby was born, the parents took the child to Hakuin and said, "This is your child, so you take care of it," and they put it into his arms. Hakuin only replied, "Is that so?" His reputation was ruined, but he took the child and cared for it, and never once complained or refuted the claim. Several months later the mother's guilt became too much to bear and she admitted to her parents that the father was not Hakuin; it was a boy in the village. The parents were horrified. They rushed to Hakuin, profusely apologized, and asked for the baby back. Hakuin's only response was, "Is that so?" before handing the baby to them.
As a young man, Rinzai went to a monastery run by Obaku. After he had been there for three years, the head monk said to him, "Why haven't you talked with Obaku?" Rinzai said, "Because I can't think of any questions to ask him." The head monk said, "Just go see him and ask him to explain the real meaning of Buddhism to you." Rinzai did that, but before he could finish asking the question, Obaku struck him and ran him out of the interview." Rinzai was totally bewildered. The head monk asked him what had happened, and Rinzai recounted the event. The head monk said, "He probably didn't understand you. You should go back and ask him again. Rinzai did this, but was again beaten up by Obaku. This happened a third time, and Rinzai concluded that he was too dense and needed to leave the monastery and search for the truth elsewhere. The head monk told him that he should at least say goodbye to Obaku before leaving, and the monk told Obaku that Rinzai had a lot of potential. Obaku told Rinzai that he should go see Daigu. When Rinzai came to Daigu, he related what had happened in his interviews with Obaku. Daigu said, "When Obaku, like a good old grandmother, has taken all this trouble over you, you still come here asking me whether you were at fault or not?" Hearing these words, Rinzai had a great awakening, and said, "I see, there's not as much to Obaku's Dharma as I had thought." Daigu grabbed him and said, "You little devil. You're still wetting your bed. You come here wondering if you were at fault and now you say there is not much to Obaku's Dharma? What have you seen?" Rinzai punched him three times in the ribs, and Daigu said, "Your master is Obaku. This has nothing to do with me." Rinzai returned to Obaku, who, seeing him, said, "When will there be an end to the goings and comings of this fellow?" Rinzai responded, "I came back because of your grandmotherly kindness." After hearing what had happened with Daigu, Obaku said, "How is it that I have to deal with the likes of you? Just wait, I'll beat you up." Rinzai responded, "Why wait? Get it right now!" and punched Obaku. Obaku said, "This madman comes to stroke the tiger's whiskers." Rinzai gave a Zen shout and Obaku told the head monk to take Rinzai back to the monks' quarters.
When I read that Rinzai woke up in three years, I thought, "Shoot, I started off with a big breakthrough, so I'll bet I can wake up faster than Rinzai." After three years, I still wasn't awake, so I thought, "Okay, I'm not going to beat Rinzai; maybe I can beat the Buddha, who took six years to wake up." After six years, I still wasn't awake and I thought, "Crap, I'm not going to set any records with this, but maybe I can get it in ten years." After ten years, I gave up trying to beat anyone and thought, "Okay, it doesn't matter how long it takes; I'll keep searching even if it takes a million years." Five years later, I woke up. Persistence is everything!
My first good backpack was manufactured by Kelty. It was one of the old external aluminum frame packs with bright red nylon canvas. I carried it everywhere and together we covered thousands of miles together. It had ten different compartments and each compartment carried specific items, a compass and maps in one, food in another, headlight and utensils in another, etc. I carried that pack for twenty years through both the Smoky Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. As the years went by, the canvas got frayed and the frame got bent, and eventually the zippers and snaps began to malfunction. It finally got to a point when I knew that I needed to buy a new internal-frame pack that would stay closer to my body when climbing up difficult thirteeners and fourteeners. I finally found a new pack with multiple compartments like my old one and bought it when it went on sale. However, when it came time to transfer all my gear from the old pack to the new pack, I got very sad. My old pack had been through a lot with me. I told it that I was very sorry about what I was doing, but I hoped that it would understand. I sold my old pack in a garage sale and asked the buyer to take good care of it. Even today, many years later, when I think about my old red pack, I feel like saying, "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry we can't be together any more, but I'll always love you."
One day a householder arrived late for meditation at Rinzai's temple. He hurriedly threw his shoes down, and rushed to take his place on a meditation mat. Rinzai jumped up and shouted at the man, "Go apologize to your shoes for handling them so roughly!" The man sheepishly complied, but when he bowed down before his shoes, he suddenly had a major experience.
One day a fellow told Rinzai that he had been at a polo match. Rinzai asked if the horses had been tired at the end of the match. The man said, "Yes, they were very tired." Rinzai asked if the players had been tired, and the man said, "Yes, they, too, were very tired." Then Rinzai asked, "Were the goalposts tired?" The man was bewildered by this question and didn't know what to say. He went home and contemplated the question all night. The next day he went back to Rinzai and said, "Yes, even the goalposts were tired." Rinzai smiled in acknowledgement.
Well, gotta go meet a backhoe. More later. Cheers.
Joshu Sasaki is a famous Zen Master who lives in a Zen Center in the West (I forget the exact location.) Today, he is about 102 years old, and the last I heard he was still teaching and giving interviews. He has never given transmission to anyone, presumably because he has never met anyone whose understanding fully satisfied him. He has written some great poetry and inspired a lot of people with his teachings. About twenty years ago, he was scheduled to lead a three-day silent retreat in Ohio. I heard about it, sent in my money for the retreat, and was looking forward to meeting Sasaki in a face-to-face interview. However, about ten days before the start of the retreat the organizer called me to say that he was returning my money because the retreat had been cancelled. I asked why. He said, "I don't know. Sasaki roshi called and said he wasn't coming. He didn't give a reason." I thought that was pretty funny. Later, a friend asked me why Sasaki cancelled the retreat and I gave him Gutei's famous one-finger response. My friend asked, "What does that mean?" I held up my finger again. he said, "I dont understand." I said, "I don't understand either." My not-understanding, however, was different from my friend's not-understanding, and I fondly remembered Gutei's statement when he was nearing death. He held up his index finger and said, "I've used this my entire life and never been able to exhaust it."
Ganto was a famous Zen Master who told his disciples that he would be murdered in the future. Three years later, during a period of civil unrest, monasteries came under attack. All of the monks who had been students of Ganto left, but he remained. A gang of marauders showed up and stabbed Ganto who, before he died, let out a ferocious blood-curdling scream that reportedly was heard three miles away. A hundred years later, Hakuin, a Zen monk was greatly disturbed when he heard that story. He thought, "If even a great master like Ganto screamed so loudly when facing death, what hope is there for me to escape birth and death?" Subsequently, he had a huge enlightenment experience, and afterwards, he said, "Lo, and behind, I discovered that I was Ganto, himself, alive and unharmed!"
Hakuin became one of the best known Zen Masters in Japan, and there are many stories about him. One of the best known involved a young woman who lived near Hakuin who became pregnant. When her parents forced her to name the father, she named Hakuin. Everyone was flabbergasted and outraged. After the baby was born, the parents took the child to Hakuin and said, "This is your child, so you take care of it," and they put it into his arms. Hakuin only replied, "Is that so?" His reputation was ruined, but he took the child and cared for it, and never once complained or refuted the claim. Several months later the mother's guilt became too much to bear and she admitted to her parents that the father was not Hakuin; it was a boy in the village. The parents were horrified. They rushed to Hakuin, profusely apologized, and asked for the baby back. Hakuin's only response was, "Is that so?" before handing the baby to them.
As a young man, Rinzai went to a monastery run by Obaku. After he had been there for three years, the head monk said to him, "Why haven't you talked with Obaku?" Rinzai said, "Because I can't think of any questions to ask him." The head monk said, "Just go see him and ask him to explain the real meaning of Buddhism to you." Rinzai did that, but before he could finish asking the question, Obaku struck him and ran him out of the interview." Rinzai was totally bewildered. The head monk asked him what had happened, and Rinzai recounted the event. The head monk said, "He probably didn't understand you. You should go back and ask him again. Rinzai did this, but was again beaten up by Obaku. This happened a third time, and Rinzai concluded that he was too dense and needed to leave the monastery and search for the truth elsewhere. The head monk told him that he should at least say goodbye to Obaku before leaving, and the monk told Obaku that Rinzai had a lot of potential. Obaku told Rinzai that he should go see Daigu. When Rinzai came to Daigu, he related what had happened in his interviews with Obaku. Daigu said, "When Obaku, like a good old grandmother, has taken all this trouble over you, you still come here asking me whether you were at fault or not?" Hearing these words, Rinzai had a great awakening, and said, "I see, there's not as much to Obaku's Dharma as I had thought." Daigu grabbed him and said, "You little devil. You're still wetting your bed. You come here wondering if you were at fault and now you say there is not much to Obaku's Dharma? What have you seen?" Rinzai punched him three times in the ribs, and Daigu said, "Your master is Obaku. This has nothing to do with me." Rinzai returned to Obaku, who, seeing him, said, "When will there be an end to the goings and comings of this fellow?" Rinzai responded, "I came back because of your grandmotherly kindness." After hearing what had happened with Daigu, Obaku said, "How is it that I have to deal with the likes of you? Just wait, I'll beat you up." Rinzai responded, "Why wait? Get it right now!" and punched Obaku. Obaku said, "This madman comes to stroke the tiger's whiskers." Rinzai gave a Zen shout and Obaku told the head monk to take Rinzai back to the monks' quarters.
When I read that Rinzai woke up in three years, I thought, "Shoot, I started off with a big breakthrough, so I'll bet I can wake up faster than Rinzai." After three years, I still wasn't awake, so I thought, "Okay, I'm not going to beat Rinzai; maybe I can beat the Buddha, who took six years to wake up." After six years, I still wasn't awake and I thought, "Crap, I'm not going to set any records with this, but maybe I can get it in ten years." After ten years, I gave up trying to beat anyone and thought, "Okay, it doesn't matter how long it takes; I'll keep searching even if it takes a million years." Five years later, I woke up. Persistence is everything!
My first good backpack was manufactured by Kelty. It was one of the old external aluminum frame packs with bright red nylon canvas. I carried it everywhere and together we covered thousands of miles together. It had ten different compartments and each compartment carried specific items, a compass and maps in one, food in another, headlight and utensils in another, etc. I carried that pack for twenty years through both the Smoky Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. As the years went by, the canvas got frayed and the frame got bent, and eventually the zippers and snaps began to malfunction. It finally got to a point when I knew that I needed to buy a new internal-frame pack that would stay closer to my body when climbing up difficult thirteeners and fourteeners. I finally found a new pack with multiple compartments like my old one and bought it when it went on sale. However, when it came time to transfer all my gear from the old pack to the new pack, I got very sad. My old pack had been through a lot with me. I told it that I was very sorry about what I was doing, but I hoped that it would understand. I sold my old pack in a garage sale and asked the buyer to take good care of it. Even today, many years later, when I think about my old red pack, I feel like saying, "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry we can't be together any more, but I'll always love you."
One day a householder arrived late for meditation at Rinzai's temple. He hurriedly threw his shoes down, and rushed to take his place on a meditation mat. Rinzai jumped up and shouted at the man, "Go apologize to your shoes for handling them so roughly!" The man sheepishly complied, but when he bowed down before his shoes, he suddenly had a major experience.
One day a fellow told Rinzai that he had been at a polo match. Rinzai asked if the horses had been tired at the end of the match. The man said, "Yes, they were very tired." Rinzai asked if the players had been tired, and the man said, "Yes, they, too, were very tired." Then Rinzai asked, "Were the goalposts tired?" The man was bewildered by this question and didn't know what to say. He went home and contemplated the question all night. The next day he went back to Rinzai and said, "Yes, even the goalposts were tired." Rinzai smiled in acknowledgement.
Well, gotta go meet a backhoe. More later. Cheers.
Good stuff. Who doesn't love story time?