In this week’s video, we are getting into the real crux of why I am doing all this. It’s about focus. But why would we need to focus? So many spiritual teachings these days are like, “Everything’s OK, everything’s fine. Don’t worry about anything.” I disagree. We should be worried. We should be very worried. …
Category Archives: Zen Stories
The Straight Arrow Focus
This week’s Zen story is about focus. The human mind is so amazing because it can wander to so many things. Imagination can be vivid and real. It’s easy for our attention to be drawn from one thing to another. In fact, that’s one of the things that distinguishes a child: the mind and imagination …
The Three Sons
Once there was a king who had three sons. They were all really great. They had been trained by the finest teachers, and they had all grown into magnificent young men. The oldest was the bravest. He’d hunted for bears in the high mountains. He brought back hides for rugs. He could challenge any man …
Perception
We all know that the sun doesn’t rise or set. What actually happens is that the sun is (relatively) stationary and the earth is spinning around. The Zen of Astronomy So there was this one modern mystic who gave us a great Zen Story. He said, “What would it look like if the sun actually …
Ordinariness
This week’s Zen story is another one about ordinariness. It’s a story about Bankai from a long time ago. It’s about how we are always hankering for miracles and magic. Islam includes this An interesting little tidbit about Mohammed, and tribal society at the time of Mohammed, was they didn’t like miracles either. The reason …
Bankai’s Miracle
Here’s another story about Bankai. One day he’s sitting there with his disciples just quietly teaching. Having a moment, maybe a cup of tea. When a disciple of another sect comes walking up and he says, “Bankai. My master can stand on one side of the river with a brush in his hand and write …
Everyone You Meet
This week’s Zen stories are telling us that the enlightened master, the enlightened person, is a very simple ordinary person… in fact the enlightened person might be the only ordinary person. This is the only person who is not hankering to become something else, or pretending to be something else. This is important to understand …
Bankai The Gardener
https://youtu.be/1WYSK2nSQyY A long time ago in the land of Zen, there was a great master whose name was Bankai. He had a small ashram up in the mountains, and disciples would come traveling up to find him. One day he was out working in the garden and such a fellow came along. This seeker walked …