Daily Koans

Ananda was the Buddha's personal attendent for the last 20 plus years of the Buddha's life. Besides attending to the Buddha's personal needs, his other duties included representing Buddha on occasions, memorizing the Buddha's speeches, repeating the Buddha's speeches in his absence, and being messager for the Buddha. So, he really had a very busy job!

He was so busy that he didn't even have time for his own practice. So by the time the Buddha died, Ananda had still not attained Enlightenment. When the Buddha was dying, Ananda cried. In contrast, enlightened monks accepted it with calmness.

Anyway, only after the Buddha died did Ananda find time for his own practice. At that time, the Arahat Maha Kassapa, another one of Buddha's main disciples, was organizing the First Buddhist Council, a gathering of all Buddhist monks to organize and consolidate all of Buddha's teachings. Ananda was determined that he wanted to be Enlightened by the time of the Council. So everyday, he meditated very hard.

As the day of the Council was drawing closer and closer, Ananda still seem nowhere near Enlightenment.

The night before the Council, Ananda tried very very hard. But still, he was getting nowhere. It was getting late. Finally, he decided, \"Maybe I'll relax and work for Enlightenment after the Council. There is no need to hurry now\". Thinking so, he laid down to rest.

It was said that the moment his head touched the pillow, he attained Enlightenment.

The master of Kennin temple was Mokurai, Silent Thunder. He had a little protege named Toyo who was only twelve years old. Toyo saw the older disciples visit the master's room each morning and evening to receive instruction in sanzen or personal guidance in which they were given koans to stop mind-wandering.

Toyo wished to do sanzen also.

\"Wait a while,\" said Mokurai. \"You are too young.\"

But the child insisted, so the teacher finally consented.

In the evening little Toyo went at the proper time to the threshold of Mokurai's sanzen room. He struck the gong to announce his presence, bowed respectfully three times outside the door, and went to sit before the master in respectful silence.

\"You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together,\" said Mokurai. \"Now show me the sound of one hand.\"

Toyo bowed and went to his room to consider this problem. From his window he could hear the music of the geishas. \"Ah, I have it!\" he proclaimed.

The next evening, when his teacher asked him to illustrate the sound of one hand, Toyo began to play the music of the geishas.

\"No, no,\" said Mokurai. \"That will never do. That is not the sound of one hand. You've not got it at all.\"

Thinking that such music might interrupt, Toyo moved his abode to a quiet place. He meditated again. \"What can the sound of one hand be?\" He happened to hear some water dripping. \"I have it,\" imagined Toyo.

When he next appeared before his teacher, Toyo imitated dripping water.

\"What is that?\" asked Mokurai. \"That is the sound of dripping water, but not the sound of one hand. Try again.\"

In vain Toyo meditated to hear the sound of one hand. He heard the sighing of the wind. But the sound was rejected.

He heard the cry of an owl. This also was refused.

The sound of one hand was not the locusts.

For more than ten times Toyo visited Mokurai with different sounds. All were wrong. For almost a year he pondered what the sound of one hand might be.

At last little Toyo entered true meditation and transcended all sounds. \"I could collect no more,\" he explained later, \"so I reached the soundless sound.\"

Toyo had realized the sound of one hand.

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.\"

Tosui was a well-known Zen teacher of his time. He had lived in several temples and taught in various provinces.

The last temple he visited accumulated so many adherents that Tosui told them he was going to quit the lecture business entirely. He advised them to disperse and to go wherever they desired. After that no one could find any trace of him.

Three years later one of his disciples discovered him living with some beggars under a bridge in Kyoto. He at one implored Tosui to teach him.

\"If you can do as I do for even a couple of days, I might,\" Tosui replied.

So the former disciple dressed as a beggar and spent a day with Tosui. The following day one of the beggars died. Tosui and his pupil carried the body off at midnight and buried it on a mountainside. After that they returned to their shelter under the bridge.

Tosui slept soundly the remainder of the night, but the disciple could not sleep. When morning came Tosui said: \"We do not have to beg food today. Our dead friend has left some over there.\" But the disciple was unable to eat a single bite of it.

\"I have said you could not do as I,\" concluded Tosui. \"Get out of here and do not bother me again.\"

This shows that true happiness is not in what we buy, or what we own, but what is given to use through the beauty of nature. Many people take time from nature to only give it to materials that they own or strive to own. There is great things in this world that are being put aside because of the human obsession with material objects, it is a shame really.