#zen koans

[the-path-inside]

Ryokan, a Zen 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. Ryokan returned and caught him. "You may have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you shoud not return emptyhanded. Please take my clothes as a gift." The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away. Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow, " he mused, "I wish I could give him this beautiful moon."

Zen Koan

[squirrelspidersquotations]

"Open you hands, if you want to be held." Rumi

"Don't be concerned others not appreciating you. Be concerned about your not appreciating others." Confucius

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." Confucius

"There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth." Leo Tolstoy

"If you practice sitting as Buddha, you must kill Buddha." Zen Buddhist Koan

"Never assume loud is strong and quiet is weak." Anonymous

"Meditation is not following any systems; it is not constant repetition and imitation. Meditation is not concentration." Jiddu Krishnamurti

"What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle." Rumi

"Friendship makes prosperity more brilliant, and lightens adversity by dividing and sharing it." Cicero

"Meditation means the recognition or the discovery of one's own true self." Sri Chinmoy

"No road is long with good company." Turkish Proverb

"One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself." Shannon L. Alder

"You don't need to own anything to feel abundant, although if you feel abundant consistently things will almost certainly come to you. Abundance comes only to those who already have it. It sounds almost unfair, but of course it isn't. It is a universal law." Eckhart Tolle

"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time." Zig Ziglar

"Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words." Rumi

[freepsychicreadingdottoday-blog]

122 Zen Koans Audiobook 12.24.17

[thesakurashaman]

Beauty

A priest was in charge of the garden within a famous temple. He had been given the job because he loved the flowers, shrubs, and trees. Next to the temple there was another, smaller temple where there lived a very old master. One day, when the priest was expecting some special guests, he took extra care in tending to the garden. He pulled the weeds, trimmed the shrubs, combed the moss, and spent a long time meticulously raking up and carefully arranging all the dry autumn leaves. As he worked, the old master watched him with interest from across the wall that separated the temples. 

When he had finished, the priest stood back to admire his work. “Isn’t it beautiful,” he called out to the old master. “Yes,” replied the old man, “but there is something missing. Help me over this wall and I’ll put it right for you.” 

After hesitating, the priest lifted the old fellow over and set him down. Slowly, the master walked to the tree near the center of the garden, grabbed it by the trunk, and shook it. Leaves showered down all over the garden. “There,” said the old man, “you can put me back now.”

[ebookspksite]

Free download Zen Koans written by Steven Heine .

[badbuddhism]

Koan

Zen Master Hui Neng was asked "is it the flag that moves or the wind?" He replied "neither. It is the mind that moves."

[bij-nader-inzien-altijd-achteraf]

9. The Moon Cannot Be Stolen

Ryokan, a Zen 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 to steal. Ryokan returned and caught him. "You 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. Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon."

[joshversus]

... Questions of the 90s

It was brought up at lunch, during a discussion of 90s music: “You know, I still don’t know what Everything’s Zen is about.”  “What?”  “Seriously, listen to the lyrics, read the lyrics.  I have no idea what that song is supposed to be about.”

“No, no,” I said.  “That’s where you’re going about this all wrong, Brian.  You don’t understand zen koans by thinking about them analytically, trying to solve them logically.  You’re supposed to meditate on them without trying to work them out, until you reach an instinctive understanding, a sudden enlightenment of meaning.”

“You might be right.  I still don’t know why a machine head is better than the rest, though.”

“Gavin just told you, man.  Everything’s Zen.  He’s telling you that all of his songs are koans.  Stop trying to puzzle out meaning from the lyrics and just listen.  Free yourself of questions, and the meaning will come.”

 “...I’m willing to buy this theory.”