Daily Koans

Daiju visited the master Baso in China. Baso asked: \"What do you seek?\"

\"Enlightenment,\" replied Daiju.

\"You have your own treasure house. Why do you search outside?\" Baso asked.

Daiju inquired: \"Where is my treasure house?\"

Baso answered: \"What you are asking is your treasure house.\"

Daiju was enlightened! Ever after he urged his friends: \"Open your own tresure house and use those treasures.\"

Zen students are with their masters at least ten 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 wodden 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.

A farmer requested a Tendai priest to recite sutras for his wife, who had died. After the recitation was over the farmer asked: \"Do you think my wife will gain merit from this?\"

\"Not only your wife, but all sentient beings will benefit from the recitation of sutras,\" answered the priest.

\"If you say all sentient beings will benefit,\" said the farmer, \"my wife may be very weak and others will take advantage of her, getting the benefit she should have. So please recite sutras just for her.\"

The priest explained that it was the desire of a Buddhist to offer blessings and wish merit for every living being.

\"That is a fine teaching,\" concluded the farmer, \"but please make one exception. I have a neighbor who is rough and mean to me. Just exclude him from all those sentient beings.\"

\"Right & Wrong\"

When Bankei held his seclusion-weeks of meditation, pupils from many parts of Japan came to attend. During one of these gatherings a pupil was caught stealing. The matter was reported to Bankei with the request that the culprit be expelled. Bankei ignored the case.

Later the pupil was caught in a similar act, and again bankei disregarded the matter. this angered the other pupils, who drew up a petition asking for the dismissal of the thief, stating that otherwise they woudl leave in a body.

When bankei had read the petition he called everyone before him. \"You are wise brothers,\" he told them. \"You know what is right and what is not right. You may somewhere else to study if ou wish, but this poor brother does not even know right from wrong. Who will teach him if I do not? I am going to keep him here even if all the rest of you leave.\"

A torrent of tears cleansed the face of the brother who had stolen. All desire to steal had vanished.

Do not go after the past,
Nor lose yourself in the future.
For the past no longer exists,
And the future is not yet here.
By looking deeply at things just as they are,
In this moment, here and now,
The seeker lives calmly and freely.
You should be attentive today,
For waiting until tomorrow is too late.
Death can come and take us by surprise--
How can we gainsay it?
The one who knows
How to live attentively
Night and day
Is the one who knows
The best way to be independent.

-Bhaddekaratta Sutra

From \"The Pocket Buddha Reader,\" edited by Anne Bancroft, 2001. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com.

Hyakujo, the Chinese Zen master, used to labor with his pupils even at the age of eighty, trimming the gardens, cleaning the grounds, and pruning the trees.

The pupils felt sorry to see the old teacher working so hard, but they knew he would not listen to their advice to stop, so they hid away his tools.

That day the master did not eat. The next day he did not eat, nor the next. \"He may be angry because we have hidden his tools,\" the pupils surmised. \"We had better put them back.\"

The day they did, the teacher worked and ate the same as before. In the evening he instructed them: \"No work, no food.\"