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  Chang-ch'o, an educated man, once asked the Chinese Ch'an master Chih-t'sang:
-Is there paradise or hell?
Chih-t'sang replied:
-No.
Chang-ch'o protested:
-That is not correct. When I was studying under the priest... continue...

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RYOKAN AND THE THIEF
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 to steal.

Ryokan returned and caught him. "You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift."

The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.

Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon."

Muju


 



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