An Enlightened Story — How To Realize The Zen Of Buddhism Easily

 

The Chinese original author: unknown

Translator-editor: Tao Qing Hsu (A Buddhist at home;Taiwan; Since AD 1971-- )

There is a little learner who always doesn’t realize the meaning of Zen. One day, there is an empty cup on the table before a Zen-master. The Zen-master asks his little learner to pour the tea into the cup for him. The little learner obeys the order and pours the tea.

 

Then, the cup is full of tea and the little learner stops pouring the tea. The Zen-master orders the little learner to keep pouring the tea. The little learner thus hesitates and says to the Zen-master, ”Master, the cup is full of tea. Should I keep pouring the tea? ”   

 

The Zen-master says to him, “There are two choices for you. One is to keep pouring the tea. The other is to empty the cup and keep pouring the tea.”  

 

Suddenly, the little learner seems to realize the meaning of emptiness. Think about it, if our hearts are filled with things, how can we be able to fill in new things? Only by emptying our hearts can we fill in new things, for example, new ideas.

An Enlightened Story -- I Hope I Can Send The Full Moon In The Sky To Him.

The Chinese original author: unknown

Translator-editor: Tao Qing Hsu (A Buddhist at home; born and living in Taiwan; since AD 1971-- )

There was a Buddhist monk who was very poor and lived in a small temple on a mountain. At midnight one day, a thief sneaked into this temple, looked around in everywhere, and could not find any worth. Finally, he had to but stole the clothes of the Buddhist monk and thought to sell it for getting some money. When he prepared to go out, he ran into the Buddhist monk.

The Buddhist monk had seen his clothes in the hand of thief. The Buddhist monk knew that this person was a thief, and thought that he became a thief because of some hardship in life. So he did not scold him. On the contrary, he told the thief that he is willing to give the clothes to him, and told him that he did not steal his clothes because the clothes was given by the Buddhist monk.

The thief was very moved and felt shame. The Buddhist monk looked at the thief’s back to leave. Then, the Buddhist monk looked at the full moon and said,” I really hoped to give the bright-clean moon to him at the same time.”

After few months, the thief came to the temple and knelt in front of the Buddhist monk, to repent his fault, to ask for the forgiving by the Buddhist monk, and to ask for the Buddhist monk to recruit him as a disciple. The Buddhist monk had felt his sincerity and finally accepted his repent and agreed to accept him as his disciple.

Remark: A full moon is indicated a pure and clean heart, which is sincere and honesty,  is neither adulating mind nor scheming mind, and is not polluted by the greedy, hatred and the stupid obsession and the stupid infatuation, and any negative mentality. Therefore, a full moon is also symbolized the brightness of a heart.