Kisah Bijaksana

No Loving - Kindness

There was an old woman in China who had supported a monk for over twenty years. She had built a little hut for him and fed him while he was meditating. Finally she wondered just what progress he had m

Cerita Zen 180 kata

Annoucement

Tanzan wrote sixty postal cards on the last day of his life, and asked an attendant to mail them. Then he passed away. The cards read: I am departing from this world. This is my last announcement.

Cerita Zen 41 kata

Great Waves

In the early days of the Meiji era there lived a well-known wrestler called O-nami, Great Waves. O-nami was immensly strong and knew the art of wresting. In his private bouts he defeated even his tea

Cerita Zen 267 kata

The Moon Cannot Be Stolen

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing in it to steal. Ryokan returned

Cerita Zen 100 kata

The Last Poem of Hoshin

The Zen master Hoshin lived in China many years. Then he returned to the northeastern part of Japan, where he taught his disciples. When he was getting very old, he told them a story he had heard in C

Cerita Zen 354 kata

The Story of Shunkai

The exquisite Shunkai whose other name was Suzu was compelled to marry against her wishes when she was quite young. Later, after this marriage had ended, she attended the university, where she studied

Cerita Zen 535 kata

Happy Chinaman

Anyone walking about Chinatowns in America will observe statues of a stout fellow carrying a linen sack. Chinese merchants call him Happy Chinaman or Laughing Buddha. This Hotei lived in the T'ang dy

Cerita Zen 164 kata

A Buddha

In Tokyo in the Meiji era there lived two prominent teachers of opposite characteristics. One, Unsho, an instructor in Shingon, kept Buddha's precepts scrupulously. He never drank intoxicants, nor did

Cerita Zen 159 kata

Muddy Road

Tanzan and Ekido were once travelling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling. Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersect

Cerita Zen 111 kata

Shoan and His Mother

Shoun became a teacher of Soto Zen. When he was still a student his father passed away, leaving him to care for his old mother. Whenever Shoun went to a meditation hall he always took his mother with

Cerita Zen 417 kata

Not Far From Buddhahood

A university student while visiting Gasan asked him: "Have you even read the Christian Bible?" "No, read it to me," said Gasan. The student opened the Bible and read from St. Matthew: "And why take

Cerita Zen 159 kata

Stingy in Teaching

A young physician in Tokyo named Kusuda met a college friend who had been studying Zen. The young doctor asked him what Zen was. "I cannot tell you what it is," the friend replied, "but one thing is

Cerita Zen 410 kata

A Parable

Buddha told a parable in a sutra: A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself

Cerita Zen 112 kata

The First Principle

When one goes to Obaku temple in Kyoto he sees carved over the gate the words "The First Principle." The letters are unusually large, and those who appreciate calligraphy always admire them as being a

Cerita Zen 177 kata

A Mother's Advice

Jiun, a Shogun master, was a well-known Sanskrit scholar of the Tokugawa era. When he was young he used to deliver lectures to his brother students. His mother heard about this and wrote him a letter

Cerita Zen 104 kata