zen koans, dharma's talks, & buddhism stories

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One day when Fa-yen Wen-i (885-958), one of the well known Chinese Ch'an masters,
has ascended his seat. From the assembly, a monk came out and asked:
-What is one drop of water from the fount of Tsao-ch'i?
Fa-yen repied:
-It's... continue...

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STORIES, BOOKS & MEDIA
» koans, stories & words » zen readings » recommended books » book reviews » art & prints » audio, videos, DVD's

For thousands of years, stories - inspiring, odd, humorous, off-centered - have awakened people's senses to their surrounding and within themselves. Here are a few for you to ponder.

available!

Select a Category » [ Koans ] [ CT's Collected Words ] [ Buddhism Stories ]

1. To the Reader
2. A Buddhist Monk and A Boat Girl
3. A Cup of Coffee
4. A Cup of Green Tea
5. A Dead Tree
6. A Devil's Advocate
7. A Glass of Water
8. A Glass of Wine
9. A New Comer
10. A Precious Stone
11. A Question about "Make Love, Don't"
12. A Question about Anger
13. A Question about Compassion
14. A Question about Existence & Non-Existence
15. A Question about Fear
16. A Question about Love & Hate
17. A Question about Mind & No Mind
18. A Question about Sex & Violence
19. A Question About Suffering
20. A Question about the Right of Freedom
21. A Question About the World
22. A Question about Verifying...
23. A Question about Virtue
24. A Real Reader
25. A Simple Question
26. A Speck of Dust
27. A Vow
28. A While Ago
29. A Whistle
30. About a Comment
31. About Choice
32. About Emptiness (Sunyata)
33. About Fighting
34. About Love
35. About Meditaion 2
36. About Meditation
37. About New Year (2008)
38. About Self & No-Self
39. About Self-Awakening
40. About The Buddhist Precepts
41. About the Empty Mind
42. About the Views
43. About Thought and Time
44. About to See Truth
45. About Walking the Path
46. Alone on the Road
47. An Image of Man
48. An Old Mountain Man
49. Any Order in Thought
50. ANY PRACTITIONER WITH OSTEOARTHRITIS?
51. Any Problem?
52. Any Suggestion?
53. Anything Given to CT
54. Anything Remains...
55. Anything Wrong with
56. Are You Yourself?
57. Assumption Talks
58. Astral Travel
59. At Another Point...
60. At Some Point
61. At the First Contact
62. At the Museum
63. Autumn Is Here
64. Autunm
65. Awakened One
66. Awakening to Yourself
67. Beauty, Ugliness & Eye
68. Because of You Have...
69. Because That's What You Are
70. Before & After
71. Bodhisattva & Buddha
72. Body-n-Mind as Body-n-Mind
73. Breakfast
74. Bubbles and the Ocean
75. Can Love or Compassion Be Cultivated?
76. Can One Live a Life not Relying on Belief or View?
77. Can We Share?
78. Can't Remember
79. Caught In Little Nets
80. Choice & Choiceless Awareness
81. Choice and No Choice
82. Coming & Going
83. Confusion and The Beauty of Life-n-Death
84. Control or Not-control
85. Coward & Hell
86. Creation & Destruction
87. Creator & Created
88. CT and Jasballz
89. CT'd Rather Watch the Mud
90. Cutting the Air
91. Darkness & Light
92. Did Anyone Bind You or Put You in Jail?
93. Does Anyone Need Help?
94. Doesn't Know
95. Dream or Reality
96. Each Day One Step
97. Effort
98. Ego
99. Emptiness and Being
100. Existing or Non-Existing
101. Face the Fact
102. Fire & Hand
103. Following the Breath and Sikantaza
104. Food & Donation
105. Footprints on Sands
106. Form & Formlessness
107. Four Noble Truths
108. Goal & Pole
109. Good Thing and Well Said
110. Great Thinkers and Talkers
111. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
112. Have a Cup of Tea!
113. Have You Seen God, Sir?
114. Having Seen Ghost
115. He Is Like a Man
116. He Is the Two
117. He Who Is Truly Free
118. He Who Knows...
119. He Who Knows...
120. He Who Sees...
121. Hello, Friends (to serve question)
122. Help Yourself
123. Here Come and End Your Suffering
124. Hot or Cold
125. How Old?
126. How to Plant Holly Hock Growing Fast?
127. How Would a Zen Master React?
128. I Have Not Said A Word
129. If I Were a Poet
130. If I Were...
131. If Love
132. If People Will Be...
133. If Wanting Friendliness
134. If You Come Here
135. Is Love Truly Anyone's?
136. Is There Anyone Like This?
137. Is There Anything that Thought Cannot Reach?
138. Is There Something Called MInd to MInd Transmission?
139. Is Zen a Cult?
140. It is Like A Lotus Leaf
141. It Is Like the Sun
142. It Is Thus
143. It Seems That... Wounds, Sunglasses, Yard-stick...
144. It's Hard to Be Seen
145. It's Hard to See...
146. Joshu's Dog
147. Just Standing Here
148. Kind of Machine
149. Knowing
150. Laugh
151. Letting Go
152. Letting Go
153. Life and Death
154. Life and Death
155. Life Is Sacred and Beautiful
156. Like A Reflection
157. Listening
158. Living in the Triple World
159. Looking at the Bamboo Trees
160. Looking at the Sun
161. Love and Hate
162. Making Wounds on Healthy Skin
163. Mind in Peace
164. Mindfulness While Doing Something Unpleasant...
165. Moving the Empty Space
166. Mr. Mountain
167. My Point of View
168. Namo Amida Butsu
169. Neither Tight Nor Relaxed
170. No More Snow Today
171. Not Allowed to Speak Of
172. Not One Not Two
173. Not Two & Not One
174. On Healthy Skin
175. On Karma
176. On Nirvana
177. On Samadhi
178. On Teachings
179. On the Myth of Sisyphus
180. On Zazen
181. On Zen Rituals
182. One & Many (Gragon Head Snake Tail)
183. One and Two
184. One Evening (Attention!)
185. One Stroke
186. Originally
187. Overcome (or How to Observe the Buddhist Precepts)
188. Ox Herding
189. Painting a Snake
190. Peace and Harmony
191. People Are Equal
192. Praying to Buddha Seeking Zen
193. Putting Nails into The Blue Sky
194. Queston & Answer
195. Rain Is Falling
196. Reality Just Expired
197. Reciting Sutra
198. River and Lake
199. Safety
200. Satori Cannot Be Shared
201. Seeing Things...
202. Seeking & Seeing
203. Seeking...
204. Seen, Heard, Spoken
205. Self & No-Self
206. Self and No-Self
207. Sexual Abstinence
208. Shake Off...If You'd Like
209. Shen-hiu Mind Clearance
210. Sickness and Medication
211. Silence
212. Simply
213. Sitting On Grass
214. Sitting On the Top of the Mountain
215. Smile
216. Snow Is Falling Outside
217. So Long
218. Some of You
219. Soul & No-soul
220. Sound & Ear
221. Speak and Do Not Speak
222. Stick or Non-stick
223. Studying the Way
224. Teaching
225. Techniques for Meditation
226. That Which Speaks...
227. The 'Me' and the Freedom from It
228. The Basic Human Qualities
229. The Black Bean Zen & Bowing
230. The Body's Age
231. The D.O.M. Would Not...
232. The Dichotomy of Zen
233. The End of Desires
234. The First Living Truth
235. The Fourth Living Truth
236. The Heavens Are Light
237. The Inconceivable State of Buddhahood Sutra
238. The Land of Truth
239. The Leash
240. The Legend of "Mind to Mind" Transmission
241. The Mind of Discrimination
242. The Mind of Equality
243. The Mind of Great Perfection Mirror
244. The Mind of Non-discrimination
245. The Network of Thoughts
246. The Niagara Falls Visited
247. The Parts and the One
248. The Possibilities of The Mind's Power
249. The Second Living Truth
250. The Seed of Thought
251. The Soul
252. The Sound of the Bell
253. The Suffering of Living Creatures
254. The Sun & The Lake
255. The Sun Is Never Real
256. The Third Living Truth
257. The Words of the Goldsmith
258. The Zen Computing, or Uncertainty Principle in OOP
259. Theories n Practical
260. Things-As-They-Are...
261. This Is All
262. Thought & Thing
263. Three Blows of Stick
264. Three Kinds of Jumping
265. Time
266. Time and Space (Things as Seen)
267. Time Don't Exist
268. To Doreen
269. To Master Zen (with Muga)
270. To See Things As-They-Are (To Steve)
271. To Stephen About Karma
272. Toilet Is Needed
273. True Religion & Non-religion
274. Trust or Do Not Your Feelings
275. Two Kinds of Hurt
276. Two Kinds of People
277. Two Things to Find
278. Unification
279. We Also Are
280. We Are Neither Teacher Nor Student
281. We Have Been Living In...
282. What Are You Seeking?
283. What Does Meditation Mean?
284. What Does the Limitless Freedom Fear?
285. What Does the Word Zenguide Mean?
286. What Is A Koan For, Sir?
287. What Is Art?
288. What is Buddha-nature?
289. What Is Called Meditation?
290. What Is Created by Thought?
291. What Is It?
292. What Is It? (Running Around)
293. What Is Love Like?
294. What Is Now, Sir?
295. What Is the All?
296. What Is the Meaning of Buddha Nature? (Monkey)
297. What Is the Other Half-Word?
298. What Is To Know The Cause of Everything For?
299. What Is What Is Not
300. What Should American Zen Buddhism Look Like?
301. What Would One Say? (Too Many Pairs of Shoes)
302. What Would You Say (Holding a Bamboo Stick)
303. What You Really Need?
304. When a Fragmented Man...
305. When Clarification Is needed
306. When One Might Be Called an Old Man
307. When the Body Gets Sick
308. When the Mind Is in Peace
309. When Words Changed
310. When You Are Not Thinking...
311. Where Are Your Buddha-dharmas?
312. Where Did the d.o.m. Come From? (Ikkyu)
313. Where Is Something Called Love or Compassion?
314. Where Is the Most Secure Place?
315. Where Is the Way, Sir?
316. Which One Needs?
317. Who Am I?
318. Who Is that One?
319. Who Is This One?
320. Wise Man and Idiot
321. Wise Man and Idiot
322. Wishing & Fufilling
323. Wordly Name & Dharma Name
324. Wuse Man and Idiot
325. You and Society
326. You and the World
327. You Are What You Think
328. You Are What You're Saying...
329. Youthinkingyou Too Much
330. Zen and Reason
331. Zen: History, Practice, and Compassion

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