A visiting Zen student asked Ajahn Chah, "How old are you? Do you live here all year round?" "I live nowhere," he replied. "There is no place you can find me. I have no age. To have age, you must exist, and to think you exist is already a problem. Don't make problems; then the world has none either. Don't make a self. There's nothing more to say."

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers.. This was in the initial days. While they were traveling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, "I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there." The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that right at that moment, a bullock cart ...

You have hardened", said the flower, bending her petals downward toward the half stone at her roots. "These rains should have softened you, made you more fertile and receptive to the seeds of the fields; but no. You have accumulated minerals and have become more silent and full of calcium. Why do you stay here? Why do you resist the brook that gives us water?" The stone said nothing. A number of ...

One time a large stone fell upon Snake and covered her so that she could not rise. A white man, it is said, came upon her and lifted the stone, but when he had done so, she wanted to bite him. The White Man said, "Stop! Let us first go to someone wise." They went to Hyena, and the White Man asked him, "Is it right that Snake should want to bite me, even though I helped her so much?" Man asked ...

Once upon a time a young turtle happened upon an old turtle it had never met before as it roamed across an endless field of grass. It had been roaming for days, looking for water, for it was very thirsty, and very hot. Although it knew it could go for many days without water, it knew the number of days left was diminishing quickly. Yet the field seemed to have no boundaries - it seemed to go on ...

There was once a very popular Zen master. Due to his virtue & his skillful delivering of sermons, the lecture hall was always full. There happened to be a thief among his congregation. This man would steal every once in while a during service. Every time he was caught, the master would counsel him and then ask the congregation to forgive him. This went on for a while until the congregation ...

A store owner was tacking a sign above his door that read " Puppies For Sale". Signs like that have a way of attracting small children, and sure enough, a little boy appeared under the store owner's sign. "How much are you going to sell the puppies for?" he asked. The store owner replied, " Anywhere from $30 to $50." The little boy reached in his pocket and pulled out some change. The little boy ...

Why do inconsistent behaviors so often accompany exorbitant professions of good intentions? When a man turns his back upon someone and walks away, it is so easy to see that he walks away, but when a man hits upon a method of turning his face towards the one he is walking away from, hits upon a method of walking backwards while with appearance and glance and salutations he greets the person, ...

This happened many many summers ago. There was a young flower in the desert where all was dry and sad looking...It was growing by itself...enjoying every day...and saying to the sun "When shall I be grown up"? And the sun would say "Be patient"---Each time I touch you, you grow a little"...And she was so pleased. Because she would have a chance to bring beauty to this corner of sand...And this is ...

A friend of mine was walking down a deserted Mexican beach at sunset. As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance. As he grew nearer, he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things out into the ocean. As my friend approached even closer, he noticed that the man was picking up ...

His cage is exactly two Japanese inches high and one inch and a half wide: its tiny wooden door, turning upon a pivot, will scarcely admit the tip of my little finger. But he has plenty of room in that cage - room to walk, and jump, and fly, for he is so small that you must look very carefully through the brown-gauze sides of it in order to catch a glimpse of him. I have always to turn the cage ...

To love one's neighbor means, while remaining within the earthly distinctions alloted to one, essentially to will to exist equally for every human being without exception... Consider for a moment the world which lies before you in all its variegated multiplicity; it is like looking at a play, only the plot is vastly more complicated. Every individual in this innumerable throng is by his ...

An arrogant prince took his friends on a boat trip to an island famous for its monkeys; but as the royal boat docked, the monkeys - with one exception - fled in terror and hid. The one monkey who had not fled put on an extraordinary show of agility for the visitors. He swung through the branches, leaping and twirling in the most graceful way. The prince drew his bow and shot an arrow at the ...

There were two men, both seriously ill. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where ...

One day the king went for a long walk in the woods. When he came back to his own garden, he sent for his family to come down to the lake for a swim. When they were all ready to go into the water, the queen and her ladies left their jewels in charge of the servants, and then went down into the lake. As the queen put her string of pearls away in a box, she was watched by a Girl Monkey who sat in ...

Dear Friends, Let’s review an episode in the life of the Indian Buddhist Master Dipankara.Some monks in Tibet had invited Dipankara to come to their monastery to preach the Dharma. The great master complied, bringing with him a servant who not only had an unruly character but, worse, was a terrible cook. It didn’t take the Tibetans very long to take note of this servant’s bad behavior and ...

A Lebanese-American essayist, novelist, poet, and artist, Khalil Gibran has become, post-humorously, one of the greatest Lebanese-American mystics of modern times. Born in 1883 in the mountains of Lebanon, he immigrated to the United States in 1895 where he became involved in the fine arts and in literature. He has written a great number of mystical works is now often referenced in sermons and ...

Once upon a time, there was a little wave. The wave loved being a wave going up and down and playing all day and night. The wave was surrounded by lots of other waves and it had fun watching them, too. Then one day, the little wave noticed that something seemed to be happening to the waves in front of it. It noticed that it, along with all the other waves, was coming up to something big… the ...

Once upon a time a Deer lived in a forest near a lake. Not far from the same lake, a Woodpecker had a nest in the top of a tree; and in the lake lived a Turtle. The three were friends, and lived together happily. A hunter, wandering about in the wood, saw the footprints of the Deer near the edge of the lake. “I must trap the Deer, going down into the water,” he said, and setting a strong trap ...

Once upon a time three Fishes lived in a far-away river. They were named Thoughtful, Very-Thoughtful, and Thoughtless. One day they left the wild country where no men lived, and came down the river to live near a town. Very-Thoughtful said to the other two: "There is danger all about us here. Fishermen come to the river here to catch fish with all sorts of nets and lines. Let us go back again to ...