What is the sound of one hand clapping? This is one of the most important Koans given to students of Enlightenment. I have a couple of ideas about it I want to share. I don’t know for sure, you know, but it seems to me that the answer is obvious. First… what’s the sound of …
Category Archives: Zen Stories
Simplicity in Prayer
In the end the thing that really matters is Simplicity. That’s what this story from yesterday is talking about. The Mystic is simply living out on the lake. The priests and the bishops come and try to teach him how to pray correctly, when he was out there just simply one with nature, one with …
Look Who’s Nothing
So. Mulla Nasrudine was a saintly and pious man. He went one day to the mosque, and went inside pray. He goes up to the front and he kneels down and he prays with great reverence, “Oh Holy One. I am nothing next to you. I am nothing, and yet I offer you this prayer.” …
Power & Spirituality
In 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 stories fill you up with knowledge. The mind always craves knowledge and power. Instead let …
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 …
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 …