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One day, a monk noticed that Zen Master Yao-shan was reading the sutra. "Master, you normally don't allow us to read sutra. Why are you reading sutra yourself?" The monk asked. "Oh, I read only to cover my eyes." "So can I do that too?" The monk asked. Master Yao-shan said to the monk: "For you, you must see through cowhides."

Zen has the idea of the beginner's mind - a mind that is fresh and alive. Sometimes I wonder how you can practice beginner's mind when meditation is all about focusing on one thing only - it seems a very stagnant way of using the mind. One would at first think to practice beginner's mind is to keep it moving, keep everything "new". But actually the best way is just the opposite; it is only through repetitiveness that we…

Stop what you are doing now. Do not find substitute; do not plan to do it later. Don't let anything occupy your mind now. Are you free?

One day a lay practitioner came to visit a Zen master and asked him, "Do heaven and hell exist?" "Yes" "How about the Buddha, the teaching, and the monastic community, do they exist?" "Yes" He went on to ask many similar questions, and the master always answered with "Yes". Puzzled, the lay practitioners said, "Master, I am afraid you are wrong." "Have you met an enlightened teacher?" "Yes, I met master Jingshan." "What…

When an undesirable situation occurs and you blame someone else, this is the wrong understand of reality. Without the , you will naturally assume that someone else has caused the problem. Unfortunately,…