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YOKUSAN’S LECTURE 鐵笛倒吹 六十三
If you go to a lecture and listen carefully will you become wise? If you go to a hundred lectures are you a hundred times wiser? Where did the teacher find wisdom, did he sit in endless lectures. Watch him most carefully is he not wise with sleeping, and when eating, when he walks to…
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ECHU EXPELS A DISCIPLE 鐵笛倒吹 語十三
If you come upon Echu napping do not disturb him but retreat to the zendo or walk in the small garden where enlightenment may be found. If the search is successful leave quickly, tell no one, for it is very fragile and the tongue is sharper than the sword and infinitely more deadly. A reflection…
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YAKUSAN SOLVES A PROBLEM 鐵笛倒吹 三十三
If you want to ask of the path, do so, only without breaking the silence of the zendo. Seek the answer in a library without books, take sustenance from an empty bowl. Bodhi is a glittering gem that cannot be seen that cannot be held— do not stumble over it. A reflection on Case 33…
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KEEPING FOCUS
It is of little surprise that we find this a dizzying world, for we always try to look forward, but since the future is often vague, we try and keep one eye on the past to understand what our other eye is poorly seeing. The mind does not care to be pulled in two directions…
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THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL 鐵笛倒吹 六十九
Standing at the window looking down on the street is the passing man enlightened? Call out this question to him. If he looks upward and says yes what do you know of his enlightenment? Looking at a flower is it different than its seed. If you hold a seed in your hand what can you…
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SEPPO’S PUNCTUALITY 鐵笛倒吹 二十六
You ask me how I know when to begin my sitting so it will be the right time. It is easy to watch the sun and stars for they clearly know. You ask what I do when the sky is black with impenetrable clouds, it is easy to watch the clouds. Water from the stream…
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YANG YIN THERE
It’s the difference between anthracite and lignite he said with his sort of all-knowing smirk. Quite to the contrary, she snapped back, it’s the difference between pahoehoe and aa. He clearly wasn’t pleased, those examples are like night and day and you’re in the dark. Only you can’t begin to tell between makai and mauka,…
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KEMBO’S TRANSMIGRATION 鐵笛倒吹 六十七
Awakening in the morning when you first see the sun and the dew resting on the leaf which eye are you using. When you stare into the mirror through what eye do you see, and what eyes stare back at you. When you see the deer lying in the road which eye do you use.…
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MOST WONDERFUL THING 鐵笛倒吹 六十語
Which is more beautiful, the fragile flower or the stone set in the road? And which is the uglier? The stone, washed in a stream may shine like a diamond, the flower picked soon withers to dust. Each contains beauty each contains ugliness. When you see this you may smile until you feel the blow…
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HOFUKU’S TEMPLE 鐵笛倒吹 語十一
Standing outside the Temple there is much to see. Enter the Temple zendo prostrate three times before the golden Buddha what do you see? Can you see nothing? Outside the Temple, Buddha inside the Temple, Buddha but only when you see nothing. Outside the mind, nothing, inside the mind, nothing. All Buddha. A reflection on…
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an old writer and his words 