Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Probably the most misunderstood Buddhist concept is Zen. What is Zen? Is that sitting and breathing in and out? Or sitting and doing Vipassana (thiền minh sát tuệ)? Or practicing four kinds of mindfulness (thiền tứ niệm xứ) – meditation and full realization on the impurity of the body (quán thân bất tịnh), meditation and full realization on the evils of sensations (quán thọ thị khổ), meditation and full realization on the impermanence of the mind and thoughts (quán tâm vô thường), meditation and full realization of non-self of all elements (quán pháp vô ngã)? Or is that Walking Zen? Eating Zen?
My friends, those are some of the methods helpful for Zen students to obtain Zen. But they are not Zen. Zen is a state of the mind, an attitude about life and living. Zen is not any kind of exercises.
Below are several Zen stories in 101 Zen Stories to describe what Zen is:
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
This is the first and most important story in 101 Zen Stories. Nan-in said you have to first empty your mind of all opinions and speculations to learn Zen. But when your mind is empty of all opinions and speculations, you have got Zen, because Zen means empty of all opinions and speculations.
Now, the word “empty” appears very often in Buddhist philosophy. Our mind indeed always has so many thoughts, ideas, opinions and speculations in it. The mind cannot have nothing in it. Only the mind of a dead body has nothing. The word “empty” here means non-grasping. Our mind has many things in it and they are useful for living. Just don’t grasp onto anything. Keep the mind free, so it can use anything it needs in any circumstances. “Empty” really means non-grasping, free. An empty mind is a mind that free, not gluing itself to anything. That is Zen.
Tanzan and Ekido were once travelling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.
Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.
“Come on, girl,” said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.
Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. “We monks don’t do near females,” he told Tanzan, “especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?”
“I left the girl there,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying her?”
Of course, monks can’t touch women. But when you need to carry a woman to help her, then ignore the rule, to help her. That is called non-grasping, non-attachment. And after helping her, forget her and the event, to keep your mind “empty.”
Zen students are with their masters at least two years before they presume to teach others. Nan-in was visited by Tenno, who, having passed his apprenticeship, had become a teacher. The day happened to be rainy, so Tenno wore wooden clogs and carried an umbrella. After greeting him Nan-in remarked: “I suppose you left your wooden clogs in the vestibule. I want to know if your umbrella is on the right or left side of the clogs.”
Tenno, confused, had no instant answer. He realized that he was unable to carry his Zen every minute. He became Nan-in’s pupil, and he studied six more years to accomplish his every-minute Zen.
Concentrate on the one thing you are doing, that is Zen. Concentrate on only one thing at one point of time, now and here, that is Zen.
The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life.
A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child.
This made her parents very angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.
In great anger the parents went to the master. “Is that so?” was all he would say.
After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else the little one needed.
A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth – that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fishmarket.
The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back again.
Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: “Is that so?”
Nothing is a big deal. Whatever comes, I live with it. Whatever goes, I let it go.
And here is Zen story 101 ending the series:
Buddha said: “I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes. I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles. I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags. I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil on my foot. I perceive the teachings of the world to be the illusion of magicians. I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream, and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one’s eyes. I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, Nirvana as a nightmare of daytime. I look upon the judgment of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons.”
That is Zen. The Void. Ultimate Non-attachment.
Wish we all have Zen.
With Compassion,
Hoành
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