The Educated Empty Monk

During the times of Buddha there was a monk who had excellent knowledge in Three Pitakhas. He was respected by many for his in depth knowledge. But he was proud and never liked those who challenged his knowledge .Nobody even tried to challenge him when they discuss dharma, fearing his reputation. One day he visited Buddha.Buddha called him and said "Educated empty monk, did you come to listen to my dhamma?".At the end of the dhamma discussion, when he was about to leave,buddha called him again and asked "Educated empty monk are you leaving?". Ashamed infront of everybody, he started thinking, "Why did lord Buddha called me in such manner?". Soon he realized the answer. He never practiced buddhism even though he was educated. He decided to practice meditation under one of his student. Then he attained Nibbhana.

Happiness is a State of mind

There was a time that I was disturbed, helpless and depressed. I never liked to be with my girl friend or parents, in fact it made me angry and more depressed. I was turning myself away from the world to my own imaginative world. My mind was full of negative thoughts, and I got pissed off with my life. The things were getting worse everyday,mind was heavy , even started to get headaches from too much thinking. One day I thought about this situation, It should not continue, I must put a stopper to this before my mind drift far away from reality.

I decided to practice some meditation (Mindfulness Of Breath),It was very simple, concentrate my mind on the natural movement of air through my respiratory system (nostrils, nose, lungs). Sounds easy, but very difficult to practice.Once you start doing this you'll realize how loose and uncontrolled your mind is .You might even ask yourself 'is it really mine?' But after sometime I realized that concentrating my mind is only the beginning of Mindfulness Meditation. I tried to be aware of the thoughts rise and die in my mind, watching them from another reference point, not attaching to any of those thoughts. This is not easy, you have to watch your mind using your own mind. I gradually increased the amount of time I spent in doing meditation, 15 min, 30 min, to 1 hour a day. I started to experience a different awareness about my mind, it has never happened to me before.

When I was watching my thoughts, I started to realize that the source of sad and bad feelings in my mind is not any other thing, but my own mind. If you get angry about someone, your mind will be restless and confused for many days, its our own mind make us suffer, isn't it? Is this the reality? or is it created by our my mind?( watch Matrix) . Once a Zen Buddhist monk dreamed that he was a Butterfly, he woke up and thought "Am I a monk who dreamed of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of being a monk?".

After sometime I realized that thought are just states of mind, good or bad, my mind began to relax. I was becoming happier & less worried, head was no longer heavy as before. I started to think in a different way. I rarely got angry, even if I got angry I could suppress it quickly. I was not carrying worries about past or future, simply because its pointless, past is beyond repair future is yet to come ,what I can change is this moment. I started liking people, some of the troublesome students of mine became my friends, never needed extra effort to control my classes. You don't even need to be a Buddhist to do meditation. Its the only way of awakening your mind , to see things as it is. When did you last stop by to smell a flower, to see the sunshine, to hear birds singing, to enjoy nature and its tranquility? not sure? you definitely need meditation.

Taleban Attacks Buddha Again , WHY?

Statue in Pakistan

Would you destroy Taj Mahal because it was build by a Muslim? Would you destroy the giant Pyramids in Egypt because its a Muslim country? I know the answer, its big NO, right? These things don't belong to a specific religion or a race, they belong to the whole world, these things portray the development of man kind, they are treasures,they belong to US! , not everybody think like that. Today I was shocked to here that a giant Buddha statue in Pakistan was destroyed by Muslim fundamentalists group called Taleban. This is not the first time they did something like this, in March 2001 as Afghanistan's then rulers destroyed the 6th-Century Bamiyan Buddhas. The Taleban said they were offensive to Islam , it was the biggest Buddha statue in the whole world.

Bhamian Statue in Afganistan

The statue destroyed recently which is 2200 years old was carved into a 40m (130-foot) high rock,it was considered largest in Asia. I can't understand these people, they are erasing the wold history, the statues were untouched by many Muslim rulers for thousands of years and they want to destroy it now. Buddhist always respected other religions , Buddhism is the only religion which never shed blood in the name of the religion. I really can't understand why they hate Buddhism, we never had any problems with Muslims for thousands of years. First they lost Christians and Hindus and now they are loosing Buddhists too.I have a message for those who admire these kind of things.If you want to know how I feel about this just imagine how you feel if someone bombed the The Black Stone in Mecca.

Relativity in Zen Buddhism

Zen frog

A wise Zen frog was explaining to the younger frogs the balance of nature:” Do you see how that fly eats a gnat? And now (with a bite) I eat the fly. It is all part of the great cheme of things.” Isn’t it bad to kill in order to live?" asked the thoughtful frog.” It depends . . ." answered the wise frog just as a snake swallowed the Zen frog in one chomp before the frog finished his sentence.” Depends on what?" shouted the students.
"Depends on whether you're looking at things from the inside or outside," came the muffled response from inside the snake.

Source: Zen Fables for Today

The other side

One day a young Buddhist on his journey home, came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him, he pondered for hours on just how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as he was about to give up his pursuit to continue his journey he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells over to the teacher, "Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river?" The teacher ponders for a moment looks up and down the river and yells back, "My son, you are on the other side."

Source: A Lighter Side of Buddhism

You are not a fish

One day Chuang Tzu and a friend were walking by a river. "Look at the fish swimming about," said Chuang Tzu, "They are really enjoying themselves." "You are not a fish," replied the friend, "So you can't truly know that they are enjoying themselves." "You are not me," said Chuang Tzu. "So how do you know that I do not know that the fish are enjoying themselves?"

Source: Zen Stories to Tell Your Neighbors

Monk & the Pretty Girl

Once a zen master was crossing a river by a boat with his servant.A young beautiful girl was trying to board the vessel without getting wet.Zen master gently lift her to the boat while his servant was watching . Buddhist monks are not allowed associate themselves with women too much.When they reached the monastery the servant seems to be troubled,master asked why?."You carried a young beautiful girl today,I think its not good for a Zen master to do that",servant replied."I left the girl near the river you are the one who is still carrying her" master replied.

* the name of the zen master i don't remember,Hope you don't mind

Mind That Defeated Fire

On June 11, 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk from the Linh-Mu Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam, burned himself to death at a busy intersection in downtown Saigon (now Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Cach Mang Thang Tam Street), Vietnam. Eye witness accounts state that Thich Quang Duc and at least two fellow monks arrived at the intersection by car, Thich Quang Duc got out of the car, assumed the traditional lotus position and the accompanying monks helped him pour gasoline over himself. He ignited the gasoline by lighting a match and burned to death in a matter of minutes. David Halberstam, a reporter for the New York Times covering the war in Vietnam, gave the following account:

I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think…. As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.

Thich Quang Duc had prepared himself for his self-immolation through several weeks of meditation and had explained his motivation in letters to members of his Buddhist community as well as to the government of South Vietnam in the weeks prior to his self-immolation. In these letters he described his desire to bring attention to the repressive policies of the Catholic Diem regime that controlled the South Vietnamese government at the time. Prior to the self-immolation, the South Vietnamese Buddhists had made the following requests to the Diem regime, asking it to:

*1* Lift its ban on flying the traditional Buddhist flag

*2* Grant Buddhism the same rights as Catholicism

*3* Stop detaining Buddhists

*4* Give Buddhist monks and nuns the right to practice and spread their religion

*5* Pay fair compensations to the victim’s families and punish those responsible for their deaths.

When these requests were not addressed by the Deim regime, Thich Quang Duc carried out his self-immolation. Following his death, Thich Quang Duc was cremated and legend has it that his heart would not burn. As a result, his heart is considered Holy and is in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Vietnam.

One More Zen story

I got lots of email s requesting more Zen stories......here is one more story that i could gather,enjoy.I hope to post more interesting stories in the future.

Not Dead Yet

The Emperor asked Master Gudo, "What happens to a man of enlightenment after death?""How should I know?" replied Gudo."Because you are a master," answered the Emperor."Yes sir," said Gudo, "but not a dead one."

Zen-Budhhist Stories

I really like Zen Buddhist stories,they are so simple that anyone can understand the philosophical meaning behind them.Hope to post few more stories later............

No More Questions

Upon meeting a Zen master at a social event, a psychiatrist decided to ask him a question that had been on his mind. "Exactly how do you help people?" he inquired.
"I get them where they can't ask any more questions," the Master answered.

Concentration

After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful champion challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and then split that arrow with his second shot. "There," he said to the old man, "see if you can match that!" Undisturbed, the master did not draw his bow, but rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the mountain. Curious about the old fellow's intentions, the champion followed him high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm spanned by a rather flimsy and shaky log. Calmly stepping out onto the middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master picked a far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean, direct hit. "Now it is your turn," he said as he gracefully stepped back onto the safe ground. Staring with terror into the seemingly bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target. "You have much skill with your bow," the master said, sensing his challenger's predicament, "but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot."

Butterfly

The great Taoist master Chuang Tzu once dreamt that he was a butterfly fluttering here and there. In the dream he had no awareness of his individuality as a person. He was only a butterfly. Suddenly, he awoke and found himself laying there, a person once again. But then he thought to himself, "Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?"