If I can get away with one story...

Post sayings or stories from Buddhist traditions which you find interesting, inspiring or useful. (Your own stories are welcome on DW, but in the Creative Writing or Personal Experience forums rather than here.)
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Quiet Heart
Posts: 269
Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 10:57 am
Location: Bangkok Thailand

If I can get away with one story...

Post by Quiet Heart »

:smile:
If you can get away with a story one time...try another.

Here it is.

Once a Zen master gave a lecture to a group of students.
He spoke as carefully and clearly as he could.
When he had finished he asked the students if they had any questions. No one raised his hand to ask a question,
Then finally one student in the back hesidently raised his hand.
"Master", he said, "although my question is not about what you just told us, May I ask you it?"
"Any question you ask, I will try to answer if I can", the Master replied.
The student responded, "You have told us before that the mercy of Buddha Dharma is such that it is given freely to all as far as they may understand it.
But what I want to know is if a person is deaf and cannot haer the teachings,
or further if a person is blind and can not see the teachings,
or even more if that person's mind is also simple so they can not understand the teachings,
then how can they recieve the Dharma?"
The Master thought a minute, then replied, " When I lived in Northern China the winters were very cold. My parents would wrap me in a heavy cotton wrap and put me to sleep after lighting a small charcoal burner to warm my bedroom. Sometimes I would wake up early in the morning before it became light outside. Although my bedroom would be freezing cold, I felt warm and safe wrapped there in my heavy cotton blankets before the first singing of the birds and the first light of the new morning."
Then he asked the student, "Did you understand that story?"

Well, did you?
:smile:
Shame on you Shakyamuni for setting the precedent of leaving home.
Did you think it was not there--
in your wife's lovely face
in your baby's laughter?
Did you think you had to go elsewhere (simply) to find it?
from - Judyth Collin
The Layman's Lament
From What Book, 1998, p. 52
Edited by Gary Gach
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Thug4lyfe
Posts: 454
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2011 11:40 pm

Re: If I can get away with one story...

Post by Thug4lyfe »

I liked the one where the chan master told the student to come to the front and hit him! lol

thus proving he is not deaf, blind etc.
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Tamangi
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Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:14 pm
Location: end of the rainbow

Re: If I can get away with one story...

Post by Tamangi »

receive the Dharma through the loving kindness of others?
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Quiet Heart
Posts: 269
Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 10:57 am
Location: Bangkok Thailand

Re: If I can get away with one story...

Post by Quiet Heart »

Tamangi wrote:receive the Dharma through the loving kindness of others?
---------------------------
I shouldn't reveal it but..

yes, but more even than that is the undestanding that the person
born blind, death and simple minded
was given the loving kindness of the Dharma and wrapped warmly against the cold.
Now whether he/she choose to understand the nature of that loving kindness and embrace it, that's a different matter.
Not even loving kindness comes free of charge.
You have to pay for it with your own effort.
Like the old Chinese story that before birth as a sentient being you will be given a pair of straw sandals to wear.
After death that same entity will confront you and want an accounting for the cost of that pair of straw sandals.
If you wore them well and can display that by your understanding of the true Dharma, your account is settled..nothing owed.
If you can't...there is yet a balance to pay.... and you must pay it.
(Do I need to explain that that last story refers to Karma and rebirth?)
:smile:
Shame on you Shakyamuni for setting the precedent of leaving home.
Did you think it was not there--
in your wife's lovely face
in your baby's laughter?
Did you think you had to go elsewhere (simply) to find it?
from - Judyth Collin
The Layman's Lament
From What Book, 1998, p. 52
Edited by Gary Gach
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