Daily Teachings

This page has been designed to give a daily dose of insight from the Zen Masters.

JANUARY

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31]

FEBRUARY

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29]

MARCH

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31]

APRIL

JANUARY

January 1st

Student:  "What is Zen?"  Nan-ch'uan:  "Ordinary mind is very Zen."  Student:  "Should we try to get it?"   Nan-ch'uan:  "As soon as you try you miss it."

January 2nd

We are like someone immerged in water, who complains of nothing to drink.

January 3rd

Wise listeners, the wisdom of enlightenment is inherent in each of us.  We fail to recognize it because of delusion of mind, and so to know our own essence of Mind we seek the teachings of the enlightened.

January 4th

Student:  "What is the path to liberation?"  Seng-t'san:   "Who binds you?"  Student:  "No one binds me?"   Seng-t'san:  "Why then do you want to be liberated?"

January 5th

There are in Zen no sacred books of dogmatic tenets.  If I am asked, therefore, what Zen teaches, I would answer Zen teaches nothing.  Whatever teachings there are in Zen, they come out of one's own mind.  We teach ourselves; Zen merely points the way.

January 6th

Tsing-ping asked the master T'sui-wei, "What is the fundamental principle of Buddhism?"  "I will tell you later when there is no one else around," said the master.  Later, when they were alone, Tsing-ping again asked his question.   The master led his student out into the bamboo grove, but he still said nothing.   Tsing-ping pressed him for an answer. T'sui-wei whispered, "Look how high these bamboos are!  And how short those over there!"

January 7th

The student asked the master, "What is the deepest meaning of Buddhism?"   The master bowed deeply to his pupil.

January 8th

If you meet a wise man and you do not say anything to him nor keep silence, how would you question him?

January 9th

A Buddhist philosopher named Tao-kwang asked a Zen master, "When attempting to educate oneself in the nature of Truth, what frame of mind should be adopted?"   The master replied, "There is no mind to be framed, nor is there any Truth to be educated in."  The philosopher responded, "If what you say is true, why do monks gather around you to be educated in Truth?"  The master answered, "I have no space - how could monks gather around me?  I have no tongue - so how could I teach others?"  The philosopher exclaimed, "That is a shameless lie!"  " I have already told you I have no tongue," responded the master, "So it is impossible for me to lie."  Despairingly the philosopher said, "I simply do not understand your logic."  "I don't understand myself," concluded the master.

January 10th

While striving to catch the butterfly of Zen in the net of reason we must know that the task is hopeless.

January 11th

The aim of Zen is to focus the attention on reality itself, instead of on our intellectual and emotional reactions to reality - reality being the ever-changing, ever-growing, indefinable something known as "life," which will never stop for a moment for us to fit it satisfactorily into any rigid system of pigeon-holes and ideas.

January 12th

Wishing to entice the blind, The Buddha playfully let words escape from his golden mouth; Heaven and earth are filled, ever since, with entangling briars.

January 13th

Zen claims to be Buddhism, but all the Buddhist teachings as propounded in the sutras and sastras are treated by Zen as mere waste paper whose utility consists in wiping off the dirt of intellect and nothing more.

January 14th

While staying at a shrine, master Tan-hsia was feeling cold, so he took a wooden statue of the Buddha off the altar and threw it into the fire.  The keeper of the shrine was dismayed and angry.  In response, the master began looking among the ashes.   "What are you doing?" inquired the keeper of the Shrine.   "Looking for holy relics in the ashes," replied the master.   "You won't find them in the ashes of a wooden statue," said the Keeper.   "If that is so," the master concluded, "can I have another of couple of Buddhas for the fire to keep me warm?"

January 15th

Master Ikkyu advised that before intellectual study of Buddhist texts, and endless chanting of the sutras, a student of Zen should learn how to read the love letters sent by the snow, the wind, and the rain.

January 16th

Student:  "Who preaches the wisdom of the Buddha?"  Nanyang:   "Walls and stones."  Student:  "How can they teach anything - they are insentient?"  Nanyang:  "They are always eloquently teaching the truth."  Student:  "I can't hear it."   Nanyang:  "But that doesn't mean everyone can't."  Student:   "Who hears it then?"  Nanyang:  "All the sages do."

January 17th

Do not search for truth.  Just stop having opinions.

January 18th

The master rose to give his sermon, but simply stretched out his arms and remained silent.  He was about to leave the hall when a student asked why he had said nothing.   the master replied, "The scriptures are expounded by the scripture teachers and the commentaries by the commentors.  Why do you wonder at me?  Am I not a Zen Master?"

January 19th

"All this Zen stuff is nonsense," said the skeptic.  "You are perfectly correct," responded the master, "but this is a teaching I normally reserve for only my most advanced students."

January 20th

Student:  "How can I find my Buddha-nature?"  Master:   "You have no Buddha-nature."  Student:  "What about animals?"  Master:  "They do have Buddha-nature."  Student:   "Then why do I not have Buddha-nature?"  Master:  "Because you have to ask."

January 21st

A renowned professor once visited master Nan-in to learn about Zen.  The master politely poured him some tea, but didn't stop pouring and the cup overflowed all over the guest.  The professor shouted in distress for him to stop.  The master replied, " The cup is full of tea and can contain no more unless I first empty it.  In the same way your mind is full of ideas ad there is no room for my teachings, unless you empty it."

January 22nd

Master Hui-hai was asked, "Are Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism three different doctrines or the same?"  He replied, "To those with great understanding they are the same.  To those of average understanding they are different.  They all come form the one Truth, but an analytical approach makes them seem three.   However, whether someone achieves enlightenment or remains deluded depends on the seeker, not on differences in doctrine."

January 23rd

When Mu-nan made Shoju his successor he gave him an old book, saying, "This book of wisdom has been written in by generations of masters.  I myself have added my own comments and understanding.  Now it is yours."  Shoju was disinterested.   "I learned Zen from you without words," he said, "I have no use for this book - you keep it."  "It belongs to you,"  said Mu-nan, " as a symbol of the teachings you have received - here."  Shoju took the book and immediately threw it into the fire they were both warming themselves around.   Mu-nan, who never got angry, yelled, "What are you doing?"

January 24th

Don't you realize that if you simply have no concepts and no anxiety, you'll see the Buddha standing before you.

January 25th

There is in Zen nothing to explain, nothing to teach, that will add to your knowledge.   Unless it grows out of yourself no knowledge is really yours, it is only a borrowed plumage.

January 26th

T'ao-ch'ein asked a fellow monk to accompany him on a long journey to help him in his study of Zen.  His friend said, "I'll certainly try to help you in any way I can, but there are some things you must do yourself."  "What do you mean?" asked T'ao-ch'ein.  His friend replied, "Well, my eating or drinking will not fill your stomach.  When you want to urinate, there's nothing I can do about it.  And only you can make your body walk along the road."  This answer opened T'ao-ch'ein's mind and he made the journey alone.

January 27th

I was born alone, I will die alone.  And between these two I am alone day and night.

January 28th

If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it?

January 29th

Student:  "Is there anything more miraculous than the wonders of nature?"  Master:  "Yes, your appreciation of those wonders."

January 30th

Student: "All these natural wonders - the trees, mountains, and earth - where do they come from?"  Master: " Where does your question come from?"

January 31st

Student:  "How can I perceive my Self-nature?"  Master:   "That which perceives is your Self-nature.  Without it there could be no perception."

FEBRUARY

February 1st

Before enlightenment, Buddhas are no different than ordinary people.  After Enlightenment, ordinary people at once become Buddhas.

February 2nd

When an ignorant person understands, he becomes a saint.  But when a saint understands, he becomes an ignorant person.

February 3rd

Delusion and the Awakening, both can come or go slowly or suddenly.

February 4th

This glimpse of the Absolute is to be sought here and now, not only in the mystical sense of Here and Now, because there is nought else, but literally in doing what we are doing now, be it meditation, earning a living, or washing-up.

February 5th

Zen reveals itself in the most uninteresting and uneventful life of a plain man in the street, recognizing the fact of living in the midst of life as it is lived.

February 6th

The ways of the One are as many as the lives of men.

February 7th

It is a rare privilege to be born human, as we happen to be.  If we do not achieve enlightenment in this life, when do we expect to achieve it?

February 8th

Birth and death is a grave event; how transient is life!  Every minute is to be grasped, time waits for nobody.

February 9th

Zen is life; to chase after Zen is like chasing one's own shadow, and all the time one is running away from the sun.

February 10th

The great Indian sage Bodhidharma was the 28th Buddhist Patriarch.  In the sixth century he visited China and became the first Patriarch of Zen.  Buddhism was already well established in China as a religion, but they had never had an enlightened master, so the Buddhist Emperor Wu was very eager to meet Bodhidharma.  He invited the sage to his palace and asked him, "I have built many monasteries, performed countless good deeds, and been a generous patron of Buddhism.  What merit have I earned?"   Bodhidharma replied, "None whatsoever."

February 11th

The astonished Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma, "What is the holy truth of Buddhism?"  Bodhidharma replied, "Limitless emptiness - and nothing holy in it."

February 12th

The confused and somewhat angry Emperor Wu demanded, "If you say all is nothing, then tell me who you are?"  Bodhidharma replied, "I have no idea."   The Emperor was completely at a loss, and Bodhidharma, seeing that there was no one ready to appreciate his teachings, took himself off and sat in meditation facing a wall for nine years.

February 13th

A special transmission outside the scriptures; no dependence upon words and letters; direct pointing to the heart of man; seeing into one's own nature.

February 14th

This is the Great Mystery.  You do and do not exit.

February 15th

Our Buddha-nature is there from  the very beginning.  It is like the sun   emerging from behind clouds.  It is like a mirror which reflects perfectly when it is wiped clean and returned to its original clarity.

February 16th

However much you try through logical reasoning and definition to know your original face before your birth or your original home, you are doomed to failure.  Even if you search the core of your being, becoming full of questioning, you won't find anything that you could call a personal mind or essence.  Yet when someone calls your name, something in you hears and responds.  Find out who it is!  Find out now!

February 17th

What was your original face before your parents were born?

February 18th

Heroes become Buddhas with one thought, but lazy people are given the three collections of scriptures to work through.

February 19th

"Enlightenment" and "Nirvana"?  They are dead trees to fasten a donkey to.  The scripture?  They are bits of paper to wipe mud from your face.   The four merits and tens steps?  They are ghosts in their graves.  What can these have to do with you becoming free?

February 20th

You fools!  What are you running after so intently?  Why are you trying to put a head on top of your head?  Your head is already exactly where it needs to be.

February 21st

When asked how he disciplined himself in Zen, a master answered, "When I am hungry I eat, when I am tired I sleep."  "But that is what everyone does,"   said the questioner.  "Not at all," replied the master.   "When most people eat they do not eat, but think of other things; when they sleep, they do not sleep, but dream of all sorts of nonsense.  This is the difference."

February 22nd

When you boil rice, know that the water is your own life.

February 23rd

Frequently the Zen masters referred to each other as "old rice bags" and with other uncomplimentary terms, not out of any professional jealousy, but because it amused them to think that they and their wise and venerated brothers were supposed by ordinary standards to be so especially holy, whereas they had all realized that everything was holy, even cooking pots and odd leaves blown about by the wind, and that there was nothing particularly venerable about themselves.

February 24th

I have no secrets to teach you, and if I tried you may well make fun of me.   Anyway, how could any understanding that I have become your understanding.

February 25th

Zen abhors repetition or imitation of any kind, for it kills.

February 26th

It is right to spare the lives of all conscious beings, such as animals, and even insects.  But what about killing time?  And wasting wealth?  There are many ways of killing.  Preaching without being enlightened for example.  This is killing Buddhism.

February 27th

It is nonsense to insist that we cannot achieve enlightenment without learned and pious teachers.  Because wisdom is innate, we can all enlighten ourselves.

February 28th

When  master Hui-neng was questioned about his training system he replied, "I would not be being straight with you if I claimed to have a system.  I just do what I can to free my students from their own bondage, by any means their individual case may require."

February 29th

One day master Keichu's assistant presented him with a calling card from a guest which read, "Kitagaki, Governor of Kyoto."  " I don't want to see him," yelled the master, so the assistant returned the card to the distinguished visitor.   The visitor realizing his error, took a pencil and scribbled out the words, "Governor of Kyoto" and asked the assistant to represent his card to the master who said, "Oh it's Kitagaki - show him in."

MARCH

March 1

A student was caught stealing and his fellows asked Master Bankei to expel him from the community.  The Master ignored the request, but the student stole again.  The others drew up a petition demanding his expulsion, stating that otherwise they would all leave.  Bankei called them together and said, "You are wise, my friends.   You know right from wrong.  You can go somewhere else to study, but this poor fellow - who will teach him if I do not?  I must keep him as my student even if the rest of you leave."  The student who had stolen was overcome with tears and never stole again.

March 2

The monks asked Master Pai-chang to give a sermon.  He replied that he would talk about Zen later, and that they should get on with their farming.  After work had finished the Master was requested to fulfill his promise, whereupon he opened both arms as if to embrace the whole universe.

March 3

A novice asked a Master for instruction.  The Master replied, "Have you had your breakfast yet?"  "I have," said the student.  "Then wash your bowl," said the Master.

March 4

Those who are content to be nothing special are noble people.  Don't strive.   Be ordinary.

March 5

A monk asked Master Wei-shan why Bodhidharma had come to China.  In answer, the Master help up his teaching stick.

March 6

Master Hsiang-yen asked a monk, "Do you understand the meaning of Wei-shan holding up his stick?"  The monk replied, "The Master's idea was to point to objective reality - to demonstrate the Truth beyond concepts,"  "Your theories are alright, but limited," said Hsiang-yen.  "What is your understanding then?" asked the student.  Hsiang-yen held up his teaching stick.

March 7

Our lives are based on what is reasonable and common sense; truth is apt to be neither.

March 8

Let go of your hold.

March 9

Spring flowers, Autumn  moon, Summer breeze, Winter snow - When the mind is free from unnecessary thoughts, every season is just perfect!

March 10

In a certain sense Zen is feeling life instead of feeling something about life.

March 11

Vimalakirti asked Manjusri what was the Buddha's doctrine of nonduality.  Manjusri answered, "The doctrine is realized by one who sees beyond forms and who knows beyond argument.  This is my understanding - what is yours?"  In response to this question, Vimalakirti closed his lips and was silent.

March 12

Do you want the Truth?  Then abandon words and silence, and live your own Zen.

March 13

A student came to the monastery to seek the truth of Buddhism.  "Why have you come to the monastery?" asked the Master.  "Why do you neglect your own precious treasure at home?"  "What is my treasure?" asked the student.  "The  one who asks the question is the treasure," replied the master.

March 14

The Buddhas are all his servants.  Who is he?  When you see him you will feel as if you have met your own father at the end of the road.  You won't need to ask anyone else if you are right or wrong.

March 15

Just get rid of the false and you will automatically realize the true.

March 16

What is the ultimate teaching of Buddhism?  You won't understand it until you have it.

March 17

Hakuin boldly calligraphed the character for the word for "DEATH", and then added, "If anyone can see into depths of this word he is a true hero."

March 18

Shall I compare this life to the lightning flash or a drop of dew?  Before  I have even spoken these words, it has passed.

March 19

The secret is within you self.

March 20

Zen is a way of being happy.

March 21

Someone may be deluded for lifetimes, but may attain Buddhahood in a moment.

March 22

How then do we know?  By the intuition.  This intuition is direct and immediate in experience.  By it we know, as immediately as a hand that picks up a red-hot instrument knows pain.

March 23

We see it, yet it is not seen.  We hear it, yet it is not heard.  We talk about it, yet it is not talked about.  We know it and yet it is not known.  Tell me, how does this happen.

March 24

You cannot tread the Path before you have become the Path yourself.

March 25

I remember when a boy lying on my back in the grass, gazing into the summer blue above me, and wishing I could melt into it - became a part of it.  Now I think that in those days I was really close to a great truth - touching it in fact without the faintest suspicion of its existence.  I mean the truth that the wish to become is reasonable in direct ratio to its largeness - or in other words that the more you wish to be, the wiser you are; while the wish to have is apt to be foolish in proportion to its largeness.   Cosmic Law permits us very few of the countless things that we wish to have, but will help us to become all that we can possibly wish to be.

March 26

When Zen wants you to taste the sweetness of sugar it puts the required article in your mouth and no further words are said.

March 27

Student:  "Show me the way to enlightenment."  Master:   "Do you hear that babbling brook?"  Student:  "Yes."   Master: "Enter there."

March 28

A Samurai warrior approached Master Hakuin and asked, "What is hell and heaven?"  The Master took one look at the Samurai and started insulting him saying, "You are such a scruffy looking warrior you would never understand anything."  The Samurai became furious and pulled out his sword.   "There!" said Hakuin.  "This is hell."  The Samurai had a flash of illumination and was overcome with gratitude, humbly bowing before the Master.  Hakuin said, "There!  This is heaven."

March 29

For someone with a special gift or a certain sharpness of mind, a gesture or a word is all that is needed to impart an immediate perception of Truth.

March 30

One day a Master was just about to give a sermon when a bird started to sing.  The Master said nothing and everyone listened to the bird.  When the song stopped, the Master announced that the sermon had been preached and went on his way.

March 31

Zen masters are totally identified with Nature.

[ Home ] [ Up ]            

Send mail to Webmaster with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: November 16, 2003