Zen Stories: Cliff Hanger and a dog's bone

I have been relishing myself on some good content on Zen and Buddhism and so would be sharing some stories which i liked.. These stories are widely discussed and largely available in many sites including the internet, but wanted to share the ones i really liked here... 


Cliffhanger

One day while walking through the wilderness a man stumbled upon a vicious tiger. He ran but soon came to the edge of a high cliff. Desperate to save himself, he climbed down a vine and dangled over the fatal precipice.

As he hung there, two mice appeared from a hole in the cliff and began gnawing on the vine.

Suddenly, he noticed on the vine a plump wild strawberry. He plucked it and popped it in his mouth. It was incredibly delicious!

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The Zen story "Cliff Hanger" has Indian equivalents in 2 different versions:

Version 1: In the same story the Indian version has a snake thats coming at him in the tree when he is hanging and a crocodile waiting for him down below. The story highlights that how we as human are engaged in short term pleasures of life in the midst of "Uncertainties of life".

Version 2: Dog's bone

I like this version very much. A bone does not have any meat or blood in it for any dog to relish on it. Still dogs salivate at the sight of bones. This is because when dogs try to eat the bone, the bone breaks and ruptures dogs inner mouth and its tongue and due to this the dog bleeds.

The stupid dog thinks that the blood that oozes is actually from the bone and relishes it more at the risk of injuring itself more.

Now this version highlights multiple aspects like  "Every joy is a sadness masked.., Both happiness and sadness are within you and you are the root cause."

In Tamil there is a great saying "தீதும் நன்றும் பிறன் தர வாரா..." this means that good and bad that happens to one, is NEVER because of others.

Happy reading!

Zen Stories: Right and wrong

Right and Wrong

When Bankei held his seclusion-weeks of meditation, pupils from many parts of Japan came to attend. During one of these gatherings a pupil was caught stealing. The matter was reported to Bankei with the request that the culprit be expelled. Bankei ignored the case.

Later the pupil was caught in a similar act, and again Bankei disregarded the matter. This angered the other pupils, who drew up a petition asking for the dismissal of the thief, stating that otherwise they would leave in a body.

When Bankei had read the petition he called everyone before him. "You are wise brothers," he told them. "You know what is right and what is not right. You may go somewhere else to study if you wish, but this poor brother does not even know right from wrong. Who will teach him if I do not? I am going to keep him here even if all the rest of you leave."

A torrent of tears cleansed the face of the brother who had stolen. All desire to steal had vanished.

Happy reading!

Zen Stories: Piece of truth and a belief

Piece of the Truth

One day Mara, the Evil One, was travelling through the villages of India with his attendants. he saw a man doing walking meditation whose face was lit up on wonder. The man had just discovered something on the ground in front of him. Mara’s attendant asked what that was and Mara replied, "A piece of truth."

"Doesn’t this bother you when someone finds a piece of truth, O Evil One?" his attendant asked. 

"No," Mara replied. "Right after this, they usually make a belief out of it."

Happy Reading!