Zen-a-day - Aug 13

Tuesday 5 August 2008
The butterfly sleeps well
     perched on the temple bell . . .
         until it rings.
- Buson

Wednesday 6 August 2008
To cover one's ears and steal the bell.
- Zen saying

Thursday 7 August 2008
When you get free from certain fixed concepts of the way the world is, you find it is far more subtle, and far more miraculous, than you thought it was.
- Alan Watts

Friday 8 August 2008
A monk asked the master Kasan: "What is the condition of a truly enlightened man?"
Kasan said: "Beating the drum."
Then the monk asked: "What is the true teaching of the Buddha?"
"Beating the drum," Kasan answered.
"What is 'No mind, no Buddha'?"
Kasan said: "Beating the drum."
The monk went on: "When a transcentental one comes, how do you treat him?"
"Beating the drum."
- Zen mondo

Saturday 9 August 2008
Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit. . . . People wish to be settled; but only so far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sunday 10 August 2008
There is no treasure in the deep mountains;
he who has no desire for it finds it.
- Zen saying

Monday 11 August 2008
Until you're here, there's no way to get here.
Once you're here, there's no way to go.
- Yuan Mei

Tuesday 12 August 2008
Ma-tsu asked Hui-lang, who had just come from Nan-yueh, "What do you seek here?"
"I am after the insight attained by the Buddha," answered Hui-lang.
"The Buddha has no such insight," said Ma-tsu. "That belongs to the evil ones. Have you seen Shih-tou yet? You'd better go back."
Doing what he was told, Hui-lang returned and asked Shih-tou: "What is the buddha?"
"You have no Buddha-nature," said Shih-tou.
"How about everyone else moving about?"
"They have it," said Shih-tou.
"Why not me?"
"Because you fail to see it in yourself," said Shih-tou.
- Zen mondo

Wednesday 13 August 2008
Let other people go into trances and think about spirituality. I'd rather concentrate on having something to eat. The here and now.
- Gene Simmons