Poems & Stories

Every morning the world is created....

“Where there is no vulnerability, where there is no ownership, that’s where they keep making the same mistake, because no one’s willing to dig in and talk about it, shine some light on it, pull it apart and figure out what’s going on.” “We play it safe and we play it small, because we’re afraid of what will happen on the other side of the critique, of the exposure that happens when people have the opportunity to say thumbs up or thumbs down.”

This silence, this moment, every moment, if it's genuinely inside you, brings what you need. There's nothing to believe. Only when I stopped believing in myself did I come into this beauty....

is what we almost always are: close to happiness, close to another, close to leaving, close to tears, close to God, close to losing faith, close to being done, close to saying something, or close to success, and even, with the greatest sense of satisfaction, close to giving the whole thing up. Our human essence lies not in arrival, but in being almost there, we are creatures who are on the way, our journey a series of impending anticipated arrivals. We live by unconsciously measuring the inverse distances of our proximity: an intimacy calibrated by the vulnerability we feel in giving up our sense of separation. To go beyond our normal identities and become closer than close is to lose our sense of self in temporary joy, a form of arrival that only opens us to deeper forms of intimacy that blur our fixed, controlling, surface identity....

Now I take the time to peel potatoes, wash lettuce and boil beets, to scrub floors, clean sinks, and empty trash....

Live in the moment, Just take it all in. Pay attention to everything,...

For all that has been written, for all that has been read, we are led to this instant where one...

Like seeds on the wind Our intentions spread far and wide...

Llegará el tiempo en que, con alegría, te saludarás a ti mismo al llegar...

It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear. She looks back at the path she has traveled,...

Starting here, what do you want to remember? How sunlight creeps along a shining floor? What scent of old wood hovers, what softened...

A home is not simply a building; it is the shelter around the intimacy of a life. Coming in from the outside world and its rasp of force and usage, you relax and allow yourself to be who you are. The inner walls of a home are threaded with the textures of one's soul, a subtle weave of presences. If you could see your home through the lens of the soul, you would be surprised at the beauty concealed in the memory your home holds....

Everything that happens is the message: you read an event and be one and wait, like breasting a wave, all the while knowing...

Sometimes-in another-you can hear the sound of a hermit, Sighing as he climbs a mountain trail to reach a waterfall Or a buddhist nun reciting prayers...

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you...

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice -- though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles....

translation by Coleman BarksThis being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness,...

May the Warm Winds of Heaven Blow softly upon your house. May the Great Spirit...

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.

I wish for you Comfort on difficult days, Smiles when sadness intrudes,...

I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe,...

Someone you trusted has treated you bad. Someone has used you to vent their ill temper. Did you expect anything different?...

Forget about enlightenment. Sit down wherever you are And listen to the wind singing in your veins....

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” “Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” “What you seek is seeking you.”...

This is what I have to say to you. You know all that you need to know. You already are all that you need to be....

“Our own life has to be our message.” “We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the Earth. Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” “Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.”...

You are me and I am you, Isn’t it obvious that we “inter-are”? You cultivate the flower in yourself,...

When someone deeply listens to you it is like holding out a dented cup you’ve had since childhood...

You. Yes You. All of you....

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”...

I am not I. I am this one Walking besides me whom I do not see,...

How does a part of the world leave the world? How does wetness leave water? Dont' try to put out fire by throwing on...

Let go of the ways you thought life would unfold; The holding of plans or dreams or expectations – Let it all go. Save your strength to swim with the tide....

The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving...

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask...

In this high place it is as simple as this, leave everything you know behind....

Willing to experience aloneness, I discover connection everywhere; Turning to face my fear, I meet the warrior who lives within; Opening to my loss,...

from Where Many Rivers MeetEnough. These few words are enough. If not these words, this breath. If not this breath, this sitting here....

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves....

Your history is here inside your body. Your body is your storehouse Of learning’s, feelings,...

The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, Not knowing how blind that was, Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere,...

This is love, to fly towards a secret sky to cause a hundred veils...

Between going and staying the day wavers, in love with its own transparency....

Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made. Ask me whether what I have done is my life. Others...

The moment when, after many years of hard work and a long voyage you stand in the centre of your room,...

Waiting is a sign of true love and patience. Anyone can say “ I love you”, but not everyone can wait and prove it’s true....

With no mind, flowers lure the butterfly; With no mind, the butterfly visits...

The nameless unremembered “acts of kindness” are never lost, They whisper to our dreams Like a mother’s hum on the distance edge of sleep....

In these difficult times, help others but first, help yourself As a mother (or a father)...

This body isn’t yours I say to myself wherever I am I’m there

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know...

English version by Coleman Barks The Absolute works with nothing. The workshop, the materials...

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field. I will meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass,...

There is no controlling life. Try corralling a lightning bolt, containing a tornado. Dam a...

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,...

i am accused of tending to the past as if i made it, as if i sculpted it...

Become the sky. Take an axe to the prison wall Escape....

When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving me advice, you have not done what I asked....

I. I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in....

“and I said to my body. softly. ‘i want to be your friend.’ it took a long breath. and replied ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this.”

“Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal,...

“Yes, you are imperfect but your quirks and cracks are the things that make you so astoundingly, breathtakingly you. Yes, you make mistakes but my god, there is something spectacular in the way you don't let it take you down; you get back up every time you fall, and you come back wiser for it. And if being a strong yet soft human with a hopeful heart isn't something worth being unapologetic about, then I don't know what is.”...

Angels are wonderful but they are so, well, aloof. It’s what I sense in the mud and the roots of the trees, or the well, or the barn, or the rock with...

Here is the foot of a tree. Here is an empty, quiet place. Here is a cushion....

“I have no name: I am but two days old.” What shall I call thee?...

From the book : “Benedictus” You have traveled too fast over false ground; Now your soul has come, to take you back....

“It is a joy to be hidden, and disaster not to be found.”

Dear you, You who always have so many things to do...

Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made. Ask me whether what I have done is my life. Others...

Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still for once on the face of the earth,...

Si yo tuviese alas, volaría a difusas épocas pasadas, para quitar espinos del camino...

She let go. She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go. She let go of the fear....

(Modified version) Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things,...

“You might as well answer the door, my child, the truth is furiously knocking.” “may you kiss...

Often the instruments of change are not kind or just and the hardest openness...

May you be blessed in the holy names of those Who, without you knowing it, Help to carry and lighten your pain....

From the book “Eternal Echoes” There are no manuals for the construction of the individual you would like to become. You are the only one who can decide this and take up the lifetime of work that it demands....

Though the air is full of singing my head is loud with the labor of words....

Your great mistake is to act out the drama as if you were alone. As if life were a progressive and cunning crime...

A man crosses the street in rain, stepping gently, looking two times north and south, because his son is asleep on his shoulder....

(Parts of this soliloquy were used as an example of fleeing the moment) To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer...

Camina Ligeramente mi amor Está oscuro porque te estás esforzando demasiado. Ligeramente te digo, levemente....

Tú. Sí tú. Todo tu....

(Modified Version) It shattered my soul with gold. And like a magic palm tree...

I trust what this body knows – breathing in, breathing out, the way home....

Ten thousand flowers in the spring The moon in autumn A cool breeze in summer,...

“Know that a word suddenly shot from the tongue is like an arrow shot from the bow. Son, that arrow won't turn back on its way; you must damn the torrent at its source.”

Underneath the poet tree Come and rest awhile with me And watch the way the word web weaves Between the shady story leaves. The branches of the poet tree Reach from the mountains to the sea. So come and sit . . . and dream . . . and climb— Just don’t get hit by falling rhymes.

At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have settled after a night of rain. I dip my cupped hands....

Awareness- her gaze is so constant, our every move...

Before listening to the way, do not fail to wash your ears. Otherwise it will be impossible to listen clearly. What is washing your ears?...

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about...

I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets...

Let no one keep you from your journey, …no mother who wants you to dig for treasures she misplaced, no father...

Letting go, in order to let in releasing, in order to receive nature’s coded messages become clearer...

“For what it’s worth... it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you’ve never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start over again.” “Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope.” “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.”...

Have you ever seen anything in your life...

Dear you, You who always have so many things to do...

Be like a river in generosity, And like the sun in compassion. Be like the night in covering others' faults,...

There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street...

Okay, not one can write a symphony, or a dictionary, or even a letter to an old friend, full of remembrance and comfort....

“...eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in… And someone’s face, whom you love, will be as a star Both intimate and ultimate,...

It was all the clods at once become precious; it was the barn, and the shed, and the windmill, my hands, the crack...

A stream of sound leads me spite night blind eyes...

From the book: “Anam Cara” Stillness is vital to the world of the soul. If as you age you become more still, you will discover that stillness can be a great companion....

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river? Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air – An armful of white blossoms,...

Another year gone, leaving everywhere its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves, the uneaten fruits crumbling damply in the shadows, unmattering back from the particular island...

I note the obvious differences in the human family. Some of us are serious,...

Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart And try to love the questions themselves Like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue...

What’s gone has made you what you are So don’t fear what’s ahead Put trust in what will be, will be...

We plant seeds in the ground And dreams in the sky, Hoping that, someday,...

I know my work is the same as a painting int he air; that the hurricane of time...

It only takes a reminder to breathe, a moment to be still, and just like that, something in me settles, softens, makes...

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream...

All my life I lived in a coconut. It was cramped and dark. Especially in the morning when I had to shave....

I said to the wanting-creature inside me: What is this river you want to cross? There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road....

Wage peace with your breath. Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds....

Monday I was told I was good. I felt relieved. Tuesday I was ignored....

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt...

May you listen to your longing to be free. May the frames of your belonging be generous enough for your dreams....

Masters of stillness, masters of light, who, when cut by something...

“When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You appreciate it. You see why it is the way it is....

All the true vows are secret vows the ones we speak out loud...

You are not fifteen, or twelve, or seventeen— You are a hundred wild centuries And fifteen, bringing with you...

Gracias, porque sé que, a pesar de todo, hiciste lo que pudiste. Sé que diste todo de ti porque saliéramos adelante. Sé que intentaste librarme de las cargas de mi pasado, para que pudiéramos mudarnos a un futuro mejor. Y no sabes cuánto agradezco tu esfuerzo, tu lucha y tu perseverancia. Gracias por la fuerza de soportar tanto por mí, mientras yo me negaba a hacerlo. Gracias por haber vivido tanto tiempo con las heridas sangrantes y el alma vacía y no rendirte. Por haber intentado comunicarme por todos los medios posibles que necesitábamos sanar. Cada ataque de ira era tu voz recordándome que no nos dejase humillar de nuevo. Cada súplica a parejas, amigos y familiares era tu miedo, suplicándome que no dejase que nos volviesen a abandonar. Las veces que no me atreví a acercarme a las personas, a mostrarme como soy, era tu pequeña mano reteniéndome para no exponernos a un nuevo rechazo....

The mouth of the river may be beautiful. It doesn't remember the womb of its beginning. It doesn't look back to where it's been...

“Who looks outside dreams, how looks inside awakes.” “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.” “The capacity for directed thinking I call intellect; the capacity for passive or undirected thinking I call intellectual intuition.”...

If we could, like the trees, practice dying,...

Lying, thinking Last night How to find my soul a home...

Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don’t want it. What appears bad manners, an ill temper...

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,...

When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse...

“My heart is so small it's almost invisible. How can You place...

When I started loving myself I understood that I’m always and at any given opportunity in the right place at the right time. And I understood that all that happens is right – from then on I could be calm. Today I know: It’s called TRUST. When I started to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody When I tried to force my desires on this person, even though I knew the time is not right and the person was not ready for it, and even though this person was me. Today I know: It’s called LETTING GO When I started loving myself I could recognize that emotional pain and grief are just warnings for me to not live against my own truth. Today I know: It’s called AUTHENTICALLY BEING....

“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.”

I have a feeling that my boat Has struck, down there in the depths, Against a great thing....

I'm afraid that sometimes you'll play lonely games too. Games you can't win, cause you'll play against you. All Alone! Whether you like it or not,...

Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places!...

Oh, the places you’ll go You'll be on your way up! You'll be seeing great sights!...

And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain. And he said: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses...

(Modified Version) Sometimes simplicity rises Like a blossom of fire...

“Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.” “If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind, there are few. ” “Even though you try to put people under control, it is impossible. You cannot do it. The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first, let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.”...

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”

“Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts”. “We love because it's the only true adventure”. “If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else”....

“The easiest way to think about vulnerability is the willingness to show up and be seen when you can’t control the outcome.” “Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be; embrace who you are.” “Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.”...

“I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner-peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world, and the more peaceful our planet will be.” ― Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey “Our right brain perceives the big picture and recognizes that everything around us, about us, among us, and within us is made up of energy particles that are woven together into a universal tapestry. Since everything is connected, there is an intimate relationship between the atomic space around and within me, and the atomic space around and within you - regardless of where we are. On an energetic level, if I think about you, send good vibrations your way, hold you in the light, or pray for you, then I am consciously sending my energy to you with a healing intention. If I meditate over you or lay my hands upon your wound, then I am purposely directing the energy of my being to help you heal.”...

Our life has not been an ascent up one side of a mountain and down the other. We did not reach a peak,...

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change....

(Modified Version) There is the sudden silence of the crowd above a player not moving on the field,...

Trees haven't come here to die. They've done that in other forests, on other coasts, having lost their leaves and their bark and come ashore by themselves on a five-mile sand spit. Branches and split logs, upended stumps, roots in the wind, and in one small cove, someone with nothing better to do it with has built a shack, then abandoned it— a doorway, but no roof, accidental windows, no hope of a foundation. It's already slumping back to what it was like a sandcastle....

We agree to meet half way round the world where the ocean waited thousands of years before...

Now is the time to know That all that you do is sacred. Now, why not consider A lasting truce with yourself and God. Now is the time to understand That all your ideas of right and wrong...

“May you recognize in your life the presence, power, and light of your soul. May you realize that you are never alone, that your soul in its brightness and belonging connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe. May you have respect for your own individuality and difference. ” “The secret and the sacred are sisters. When the secret is not respected, the sacred vanishes. Consequently, reflection should not shine too severe or aggressive a light on the world of the soul.” “When you send that love out from the bountifulness of your own love, it reaches other people. This love is the deepest power of prayer.”...

Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies old memories of pleasure...

You take a final step and, look, suddenly You're there. You've arrived At the one place all your drudgery was aimed for: This common ground Where you stretch out, pressing your cheek to sandstone. What did you want To be? You'll remember soon. You feel like tinder Under a burning glass, A luminous point of change. The sky is pulsing Against the cracked horizon, Holding it firm till the arrival of stars In time with your heartbeats....

Finally on my way to yes I bumped into All the places...

Each one of us is alone in the world. It takes great courage to meet the full force of your aloneness. Most of the activity in society is subconsciously designed to quell the voice crying in the wilderness within you. The mystic Thomas à Kempis said that when you go out into the world you return having lost some of yourself. Until you learn to inhabit your aloneness, the lonely distraction and noise of society will seduce you into false belonging where you will only become empty and weary. When you face your aloneness, something begins to happen. Gradually, the sense of bleakness changes into a sense of true belonging. This is a slow and open-ended transition but it is utterly vital in order to come into rhythm with your own individuality. In a sense this is the endless task of finding your true home within your life. It is not narcissistic, for as soon as you rest in the house of your own heart, doors and windows begin to open outwards to the world. No longer on the run from your aloneness, your connections with others become real and creative. You no longer need to covertly scrape affirmation from others or from projects outside yourself. This is slow work; it takes years to bring your mind home.

Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people’s lives in a knot. Instead there is now meditation as an act of love. How endlessly delightful and encouraging.

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. How grass can be nourishing in the...

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be...

Life may not let me choose my lot, But whether I'd be happy or not... That is my choice....

Go gently today, don’t hurry or think about the next thing. Walk with the quiet trees, can you believe...

It is a paradox that we encounter so much internal noise when we first try to sit in silence. It is a paradox that experiencing pain releases pain....

The warriors tame the beast in their past So that the night’s hoofs can no longer break the jeweled vision in the heart. The intelligent and the brave open every closet in...

“Won’t it be wonderful when black history and Native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.”

In out-of-the-way places of the heart, Where your thoughts never think to wander, This beginning has been quietly forming,...

“Imagination is more important than knowledge”. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”. “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing”....

Out of the nursery and into the garden where it rooted and survived its first hard winter, then a few years of freedom while it blossomed, put out its first tentative branches, withstood the insects and the poisons for insects, developed strange ideas about its height and suffered the pruning of its quirks and clutters, its self-indulgent thrusts and the infighting of stems at cross purposes year after year. Each April it forgot why it couldn't do what it had to do, and always after blossoms, fruit, and leaf-fall, was shown once more what simply couldn't happen. Its oldest branches now, the survivors carved by knife blades, rain, and wind, are sending shoots straight up, blood red, into the light again

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” “Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.”...

“Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.” ~Evidence “Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.” ~Evidence “Let me keep my distance, always, from those...

My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird- Equal seekers of sweetness....

There is a voice inside of you that whispers all day long, "I feel that this is right for me,...

All the true vows are secret vows the ones we speak out loud...

Listen, whatever it is you try to do with your life, nothing will ever dazzle you like the dreams of your body,...

It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply....

Always we hope Someone else has the answer Some other place will be better,...

may there be a listening rather than a making curiosity over expectation,...

I am making a home inside myself. A shelter of kindness where everything is forgiven, everything allowed—a quiet patch...

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about...

Got up on a cool morning. Leaned out a window. No cloud, no wind. Air that flowers held for awhile. Some dove somewhere....

“You don’t need to be a fortress to be strong. You don’t need to build walls to keep yourself safe. Open the windows and let the breeze breathe life into your bones....

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip....

When your eyes are tired the world is tired also. When your vision has gone...

“Your life is a sacred journey. And it is about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way. You are on the path exactly where you are meant to be right now....

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers flow in the right direction, will the earth turn as it was taught, and if not how shall...

She asked me to kill the spider Instead, I got the most peaceful weapons I can find...

Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling,...

When I found the door I found the vine leaves speaking among themselves in abundant...

When I am among the trees, especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,...

Enough. These few words are enough. If not these words, this breath. If not this breath, this sitting here....

When one goes to Obaku Temple in Kyoto he sees carved over the gate the words “The First Principle.” The letters are unusually large, and those who appreciate calligraphy always admire them as being a masterpiece. They were drawn by Kosen two hundred years ago. When the master drew them he did so on paper, from which workmen made the larger carving in wood. As Kosen sketched the letters a bold pupil was with him who had made several gallons of ink for the calligraphy and who never failed to criticize his master’s work....

Once there was a village at the banks of a big, strong river. One day a villager saw a person crying for help being carried down the river. The villager, who was a strong swimmer, jumped in and pulled the drowning person ashore. Briefly afterward, another person was carried downstream, and then another, and another. The villager called his friends for help and they all came and helped. They got really busy and exhausted by more and more people in high distress in the river, and then fighting for their lives to save others in the currents day after day. So the villagers invented a net that was cast across the river so it would catch people. They built shelters and clinics for the people whose lives they had saved.

A farmer and his son had a beloved horse who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbours exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.” A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild horses back to the farm as well. The neighbours shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.” Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the horses and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The neighbours cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”...

Have you ever tried to swim out into the ocean when multiple sets of large waves are breaking onto the beach one right after another? With each bit of progress, you make another wave breaks and pushes you back toward the beach. You can quickly become exhausted fighting all the waves. You might even tell yourself, “Wow, the ocean is really kicking my tail.” But the waves are not the same thing as the ocean. Caught up in the energy of the waves and our desire to go out for a swim, we can forget that the ocean is spacious and vast. It can be helpful to “duck under the waves: when they come. In this way, we can make progress on our swim without getting caught up in the sway of each individual wave. Never forget that, even during a hurricane, the ocean is miles out and miles deep. And underneath the power of what is happening on the surface, there can be stillness and calm....

There was a thriving monastery in the north of Thailand in the mid-1950s. Among its many Buddha statues there was one very big one that was made out of clay. It wasn’t particularly pretty, but the monks favored it because it had been part of the monastery for centuries and they loved it for its longevity. After an especially strong rainy season followed by a hot spell, the monks noticed that the statue had gotten some cracks. One curious monk took a flashlight and shone it into the biggest crack. He was very surprised to see something shiny reflecting the light. He called the other monks, and they carefully opened the crack a little more. What they found was a solid gold statue beneath twelve inches of clay. The statue is now in a temple in Bangkok and visited and revered by millions of visitors every year. It turned out that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the monks had covered the statue in think clay to protect it from marauding clans. Generations later, the knowledge of the Buddha’s gold core had been lost to time. Everyone thought it was an unassuming mud statue. We, of course, are just like this. We cover ourselves up with layers of protection. Our goal is to protect ourselves from harm, but over time we forget our true golden nature. It is a nature of friendliness and kindness....

There once was a boy who always worried about what he would do with his life and how he would make a living. There simply wasn’t time in his life to be happy. All he had time to do was plan for the future. He would tell himself, “I’ll be happy once I get a career and start making money. Then I will be happy.” He worked very hard indeed until he established himself in a good career where he was represented by many. But he wasn’t happy. He was too busy thinking about all the things he didn’t have. So he told himself, “I’ll be happy once I have a family.” And so it went on: He got married. He had kids. He had enough money to put them through school. He had grandkids…and so on. But there was always something. And in the end, he died having had a wonderful life --- yet he never took the time to appreciate it.

A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her cross to the other side. The two monks glanced at one another because they had taken vows not to touch a woman. Then, without a word, the older monk picked up the woman, carried her across the river, placed her gently on the other side, and carried on his journey....

Life can be a bit like drifting down a beautiful river at dusk in a little boat. Everything seems perfect and peaceful. We see another little boat off on the horizon moving slowly in our direction. As the other boat gets closer, we begin to worry. “Will it run into me? Will it sink my boat?” As the boats come quickly together we get more and more energized. We start by waving our arms and yelling, “Hey over there, move your boat away from me!” As the boat gets closer still, we become afraid of a collision that will leave us drowning in the water. We stand up, jump up and down, and shout, “Stop your boat! Turn away!” Then the boat smashes right into your boat. But the boat is empty. There is no damage. It just drifts harmlessly away on the river’s current.

Once upon a time there was a small enchanted forest, and this could be a forest anywhere, maybe a forest that only exist in your imagination, in different times, in this small forest there were many trees, apple trees, pear trees, orange trees, beautiful rose bushes..everybody was happy in this enchanted forest...except for a very lonely tree, who always felt deep sadness, well this tree had a problem, it couldn’t give any fruit. This tree would go around with its head down, “I don’t know who I am” -You need to learn to concentrate more!! would reply the apple tree, if you try this, your would be able to grow great apples!!...

Three umpires are sitting in a bar, sharing a beer together. They begin talking about their job and the difficulties they face in calling balls and strikes. The first umpire states quite confidently, “There’s balls and there’s strikes, and I call them as they are!” The second umpire, with a slight look of disapproval, says, “No, no, no, there’s balls and there’s strikes, and I call them as I seem ’em.”...

The pupils of the Tendai school used to study meditation before Zen entered Japan. Four of them who were intimate friends promised one another to observe seven days of silence. On the first day all were silent. Their meditation had begun auspiciously, but when night came and the oil lamps were growing dim one of the pupils could not help exclaiming to a person helping in the retreat: “Fix those lamps.”...

There is the story of a young martial arts student who was under the tutelage of a famous master. One day, the master was watching a practice session in the courtyard. He realized that the presence of the other students was interfering with the young man’s attempts to perfect his technique. The master could sense the young man’s frustration. He went up to the young man and tapped him on his shoulder....

Two men were arguing about a flag flapping in the wind. “It’s the wind that is really moving,” stated the first one. “No, it is the flag that is moving,” contended the second. A Zen master, who happened to be walking by, overheard the debate and interrupted them. “Neither the flag nor the wind is moving,” he said, “It is MIND that moves.”...

A Zen Master had a disciple who was perpetually unhappy and dissatisfied. One day the disciple approached the Master and said, “Master, bless me too with your wisdom and help me find happiness.” The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and drink it. “How does it taste?” the Master asked....

One day it occurred to a certain emperor that if he only knew the answers to three questions, he would never stray in any matter. What is the best time to do each thing? Who are the most important people to work with?...

A man goes to a Zen master and says, “I would like to move to this city. What do you think of the people here?” And the Zen master says, “What were the people like in your old city?” And the man says, “They were awful, mean, spiteful.”...

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”...

A student went to his meditation teacher and said, “My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I’m constantly falling asleep. It’s just horrible!” “It will pass,” the teacher said matter-of-factly. A week later, the student came back to his teacher. “My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It’s just wonderful!’...

A learned man once went to visit a Zen teacher to inquire about Zen. As the Zen teacher talked, the learned man frequently interrupted to express his own opinion about this or that. Finally, the Zen teacher stopped talking and began to serve tea to the learned man. He poured the cup full, then kept pouring until the cup overflowed. “Stop,” said the learned man. “The cup is full, no more can be poured in.”...

Patrul Rimpoche was roaming the Tibetan mountains. One day he heard about a great hermit who had spent twenty years in a cave meditating on the Perfection of Patience. Intrigued to meet such a saintly being, he went in search of his cave. Poking his head around the entrance, he called out, “Hello there, what are you doing?” Disrupted by this impertinent hollering, the hermit opened his eye and inquired....

(Modified Version) A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the teacher’s house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years, this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his teacher’s house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do....

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 in it to steal. Ryokan returned and caught him. “You may have come a long way to visit me,” he told the prowler, “and you shoud not return emptyhanded. Please take my clothes as a gift.” The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away....

Chinese folktale of a bamboo farmer. The man had been farming public_domain crops all of his life, just like everyone else in his small, rural community. Realizing that he wanted more for himself and his family, he started researching alternatives. He considered many factors, including the climate and soil conditions in the region as well as what equipment he would require, and ultimately made the decision to grow bamboo....

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”...

A martial arts student went to his teacher and said earnestly, “I am devoted to studying your martial system. How long will it take me to master it.” The teacher’s reply was casual, “Ten years.” Impatiently, the student answered, “But I want to master it faster than that. I will work very hard. I will practice every day, ten or more hours a day if I have to. How long will it take then?” The teacher thought for a moment, “20 years.”...

Remember, you are one with creation and you have limitless powers within yourself. This story is called The captive Eagle and goes like this: Once it was said that a an eagle was chained for many months to the perch just outside her cage, she had lived in the conscious believe of being held captive here by the chain for so long that she has completely given up all efforts to escape, she has almost forgotten that the power to fly is still in her. One day a link from the chain busts open, but living so long believing that she is captive, she makes no effort to escape....

There is a Buddhist teaching that says that when you get hurt, say, by an arrow, that is pain. The arrow hitting your arm, it hurts. Pain. However, there is a second arrow, which is your reaction to the arrow, the getting angry, the planning revenge, that is beyond pain, that is suffering....

The Zen teacher’s dog loved his evening romp with his master. The dog would bound ahead to fetch a stick, then run back, wag his tail, and wait for the next game. On this particular evening, the teacher invited one of his brightest students to join him – a boy so intelligent that he became troubled by the contradictions in Buddhist doctrine. “You must understand,” said the teacher, “that words are only guideposts. Never let the words or symbols get in the way of truth. Here, I’ll show you.” With that, the teacher called his happy dog....

One evening an old Native American chief from a Cherokee tribe told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.’ The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?...

One day a young Buddhist on his journey home came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him, he pondered for hours on just how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as he was about to give up his pursuit to continue his journey he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells over to the teacher, “Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river”? The teacher ponders for a moment looks up and down the river and yells back, “My son, you are on the other side”....

One day a young Buddhist on his journey home came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him, he pondered for hours on just how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as he was about to give up his pursuit to continue his journey he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells over to the teacher, “Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river”? The teacher ponders for a moment looks up and down the river and yells back, “My son, you are on the other side”....

— Mother Teresa

— Napolean Hill

— Booker T. Washington

A zen teaching stories about the first principle

A folk stories about upstream, downstream

A folk stories about maybe so, maybe not. we'll see.

A wisdom about mind like the ocean

A story about discovering our true golden nature beneath protective layers we accumulate over time.

A wisdom about the man who always waited to be happy

A zen teaching stories about two monks and woman - a zen lesson

A teaching about how our reactions change when we realize there is no one to blame for our difficulties.

A wisdom about the tree with purpose by unknown

A story about different perspectives on truth and reality through the eyes of three baseball umpires.

A zen teaching stories about learning to be silent

A zen teaching stories about flow like a river

A zen teaching stories about the moving flag

A zen teaching stories about be a lake

A zen teaching stories about three wondrous answers

A zen teaching stories about moving to a new city

A zen teaching stories about a cup of tea

A zen teaching stories about it will pass

A story about emptying the mind of preconceptions to learn true wisdom.

A zen teaching stories about patience

A teaching stories about the cracked pot

A beautiful tale about a Zen master who gives his clothes to a thief and wishes he could give him the moon.

A story about patience and persistence, showing how bamboo grows slowly for years before shooting up dramatically.

A story about emptying the mind of preconceptions to learn true wisdom.

A zen teaching stories about how long

A wisdom about the captive eagle

A buddhist teaching stories about the difference between pain and suffering

A zen teaching stories about the pointer

A Cherokee teaching about the two wolves within us - one evil, one good - and which one wins.

A teaching about perspective and realizing we are already where we need to be.

A teaching about perspective and realizing we are already where we need to be.