Monday, June 2, 2014
Two Short Zen Stories
Story 1
A young student of Zen happened to break a precious vase
belonging to his teacher.
When he heard his teacher's footsteps, he quickly held the
broken vase behind him. As the teacher walked up to him, he asked, "Why
does one die, master?"
"It's natural," said the teacher. "Everything
has a beginning and an end. Everything has just so long to live and then has to
die."
The student held out the pieces of the broken vase and said,
"The time for your vase to die had come."
Story 2
A Zen student said to his teacher, “Master, I have an
ungovernable temper. Help me get rid of it.”
“You have something very strange, show it to me.” said the
teacher.
“Right now I cannot show it to you.” replied the student.
“Why not?" asked the teacher
“It arises suddenly.” answered the student.
“Then it cannot be your own true nature,” said the teacher,
“if it were, you would be able to show it to me at any time. Why are you
allowing something that is not yours to trouble your life?”
Thereafter whenever the student felt his temper rising he
remembered his teacher’s words and checked his anger.
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