As I close this series of Zen stories a final warning that comes to us from the last story we told about the teacup. The master is filling and filling the filling the cup until there’s no room for anything else. The teacup represents all the books you’ve read, including this one. Don’t let these …
Author Archives: Zareen
Is Your Teacup Already Full?
Is your teacup already full? Are you believing tons of things about spirituality that isn’t really your experience?
Teacups
A man goes and finds a master. Usually the story is embellished with a tale of adventure where the guy has to climb a huge mountain and get up to the top. He finally gets there. The master sits him down and says, “Let’s have a cup of tea.” He starts pouring and pouring and …
All About Monkeys
So, a man comes to a spiritual teacher and says, “Show me enlightenment.” This was back in the time in the days of Zen. The teacher looks at him and says, “Oh it’s easy. You just go home, for one night. You spend the entire night not thinking about monkeys and come and report to …
Elephants and Science
The elephant story shows why the scientific method is such a great way to examine life. It’s a powerful way to examine reality because the scientific method insures you never have the opinion of one person becoming “the truth.” Everything is always up for argument. It is true that opinions of one scientist can become …
The Seed of You
When you get the punch line of one of my zen stories, what is the part of you that gets it? What is that seed? That Youness. The “you” that gets it?
Confused About Elephants
The elephant story shows how easy it is for us to get confused if we don’t see the big picture. Especially if it’s really big. This speaks to our entire society too. If nobody sees the entire picture then it’s hard to know what an elephant is, to know what reality is, or to even …
Three Blind Men
There were three blind men and they come upon an elephant. They were trying to figure out what was. What is this thing? Each of them examined a different part of the elephant. One was feeling its legs and says, “Oh my gosh! It’s huge. It’s massive. It has really tough skin.” Another one was …