Zen Stories to Tell Your Neighbors, Buddhism e-books mega collection
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]ZEN STORIES TO TELL YOUR NEIGHBOURS
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Zen Stories to Tell your
Neighbours
ZEN STORIES TO TELL YOUR NEIGHBOURS
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the stories:
Banishing a Ghost
Bell Teacher
Books
Christian Buddha
Chasing Two Rabbits
Cliffhanger
Concentration
Destiny
Dreaming
Egotism
Elephant and Flea
Empty Your Cup
Enlightened
Full Awareness
Gift of Insults
Going with the Flow
Gutei's Finger
Holy Man
I Don't Know
Is That So?
It Will Pass
Just Two Words
Knowing Fish
Learning the Hard Way
Masterpiece
Maybe
The Moon Cannot Be Stolen
More Is Not Enough
Most Important Teaching
Moving Mind
ZEN STORIES TO TELL YOUR NEIGHBOURS
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The Nature of Things
Nature's Beauty
No More Questions
Not Dead Yet
Obsessed
Paradise
Practice Makes Perfect
Present Moment
Prosperity
Ritual Cat
Searching for Buddha
Self-Control
Sounds of Silence
Spider
Successor
Surprising the Master
Tea Combat
Tea or Iron
Transient
True Self
Useless Life
Wanting God
When Tired
Without Fear
Working Very Hard
ZEN STORIES TO TELL YOUR NEIGHBOURS
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Banishing a Ghost
The wife of a man became very sick. On her deathbed, she said to him, "I
love you so much! I don't want to leave you, and I don't want you to betray
me. Promise that you will not see any other women once I die, or I will come
back to haunt you."
For several months after her death, the husband did avoid other women, but
then he met someone and fell in love. On the night that they we re engaged to
be married, the ghost of his former wife appeared to him. She blamed him
for not keeping the promise, and every night thereafter she returned to taunt
him. The ghost would remind him of everything that transpired between him
and his fiancee that day, even to the point of repeating, word for word, their
conversations. It upset him so badly that he couldn't sleep at all.
Desperate, he sought the advice of a Zen master who lived near the village.
"This is a very clever ghost," the master said upon hearing the man's story.
"It is!" replied the man. "She remembers every detail of what I say and do.
It knows everything!" The master smiled, "You should admire such a ghost,
but I will tell you what to do the next time you see it."
That night the ghost returned. The man responded just as the master had
advised. "You are such a wise ghost," the man said, "You know that I can
hide nothing from you. If you can answer me one question, I will break off
the engagement and remain single for the rest of my life." "Ask your
question," the ghost replied. The man scooped up a handful of beans from a
large bag on the floor, "Tell me exactly how many beans there are in my
hand."
At that moment the ghost disappeared and never returned.
People's reactions to this story:
"Ghosts are just human and can't know or do anything that a human can't."
"No one knows everything. Not even a spirit. You can be wise in some ways, but not in all
ways."
"The ghost kept coming back because the man was always impressed by how it seemed to know
everything. It had power over him. But when he finally stood up to it, and challenged it, the
ghost disappeared forever."
ZEN STORIES TO TELL YOUR NEIGHBOURS
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"The ghost is actually a part of the man. So it couldn't know anything that the man himself didn't
know."
"The ghost comes from the man's own mind. He created it. It is his own guilt that came back to
haunt him."
"The reason something haunts us is because we keep our attention on it. When we move on
beyond it it will disappear."
"To me, this story just shows that souls have memories, but not enlightenment."
"I don't like the ending. I read the story with high expectations, but felt let down in the
end."
"Why didn't the ghost know that the man had seen a Zen master?"
"If the wife really loved the husband, how could she subject him to such a promise?"
"Everything the ghost knew didn't amount to a handful of beans!"
Bell Teacher
A new student approached the Zen master and asked how he should prepare
himself for his training. "Think of me a bell," the master explained. "Give
me a soft tap, and you will get a tiny ping. Strike hard, and you'll receive a
loud, resounding peal."
People's reactions to this story:
"You get out of something what you put into it."
"The more you try, the more a good teacher will help."
"The more students needs a teacher, the more the good teacher will be there for them."
"Be careful what you ask for. The universe may just provide you with what you seek."
"You can think of the master as life. You get out what you put in. If you look for and are really
open to beauty and happiness, they are everywhere. If you huddle miserably somewhere, it will
all pass you by without you're even noticing."
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