Shibumi Dojo » zen koans http://www.shibumidojo.org Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:48:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= No Water, No Moon http://www.shibumidojo.org/index.php/2009/07/10/no-water-no-moon/ http://www.shibumidojo.org/index.php/2009/07/10/no-water-no-moon/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:43:25 +0000 CorpusCallosum http://www.shibumidojo.org/?p=186 When the nun Chiyono studied Zen under Bukko of Engaku she was unable to attain the fruits of meditation for a long time. At last one moonlit night she was carrying water in an old pail bound with bamboo. The bamboo broke and the bottom fell out of the pail, and at that moment Chiyono was set free!

In commemoration, she wrote a poem:

In this way and that I tried to save the old pail
Since the bamboo strip was weakening and about
to break
Until at last the bottom fell out.
No more water in the pail!
No more moon in the water!
]]> http://www.shibumidojo.org/index.php/2009/07/10/no-water-no-moon/feed/ 0 Midnight Excursion http://www.shibumidojo.org/index.php/2009/04/26/midnight-excursion/ http://www.shibumidojo.org/index.php/2009/04/26/midnight-excursion/#comments Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:52:47 +0000 CorpusCallosum http://www.shibumidojo.org/?p=94 Many Zen pupils were studing meditation under the Zen master Sengai. One of them used to arise at night, climb over the temple wall, and go to town on a pleasure jaunt. Sengai, inspecting the dormitory quarters, found this pupil missing one night and also discovered the high stool he had used to scale the well. Sengai removed the stool and stood there in its place. When the wanderer returned, not knowing that Sengai was the stool, he put his feet on the master’s head and jumped down into the grounds. Discovering what he had done, he was aghast.

The pupil never went out at night again.

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