A Zen master said to a monk

[The Master]

A Zen master said to a monk, “You must see the universe in your cup.”

The monk looked into his cup, but didn’t see the universe, so he threw the cup away.

The Zen master said, “Oh, poor cup. We think the cup is too small to hold the universe. Intellectually, we can’t see how it could fit. But wherever we go, the whole universe always appears--in a cup, a window, in a smile, in a word.”

 

[Yari]

And if I said that "what you se is only a reflection of one self?" What do you then see in the cup? Or in the mirror?

/Yari

(just joking)....

 

[shesulsa]

I have one!

"There is no right time to do a wrong thing."

oooo ... I have another ....

"The Rabbi who must praise himself finds his congregation in the number of one."

and ...

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is to enter the kingdom of heaven, yet through faith all things are possible.

 

[Ray]

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is to enter the kingdom of heaven, yet through faith all things are possible.

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

 

[shesulsa]

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

There ya go.

Here's one I've been looking for for a while now:

'He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move hence to yonder place," and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.' Matt. 18.6

 

[Hand Sword]

The less time you have, the more time you have to use it wisely. :asian:

 

[Skip Cooper]

A priest, a rabbi and a Baptist minister walk into a bar...

Sorry, wrong place for this post.:angel:

 

[Touch Of Death]

My daughter said something Zen the other day. I was talking under my breath and she said, "What?".

I said, "I'm just thinking out loud,".

She said, "When you are thinking out loud, you aren't thinking,".

 

[stickarts]

My student gave me sage wisdom the other day. He told me you can tune a piano but you can't tuna fish.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

"2 wrongs don't make a right, but 3 lefts do."

AoG

 

[The Master]

Well this threads completely distroyed.

 

[Lisa]

Well this threads completely distroyed.

All is normal then...

 

[Bob Hubbard]

The original post was a zen koan. Maybe we could focus on those rather than jokes, jests, and non-zen commentary?

 

[Last Fearner]

Well this threads completely distroyed.

On the contrary.... this thread is the cup, and the people posting here are the universe!

wherever we go, the whole universe always appears--in a cup, a window, in a smile, in a word.”

The universe is the window, a smile, a word, a post, a joke, a biblical quote or two. Should we throw away the thread because it does not hold what we think it should. Is it completely destroyed because we do not see the replies that we expected to see?

While there is no "correct" answer to a koan, if it even requires a reply, this koan seems to have manifest itself in this very thread. People often fail to see the universe in the smallest detail of its vast reality. They can't see the forest for the trees. They figuratively throw out the baby with the bath water.

Even the most frivolous of conversations might reveal a pearl of wisdom. This cup of friendly communication is only destroyed if we fail to see the beauty of the universe in every post that others share - - every smile that others encourage - - every time that someone clicks here and reads the original post and quietly says, "hmmm, I wonder what that means."

Thank you for serving up this cup of universal reality, Master! :asian:

Chief Master D.J. Eisenhart

 

[Skip Cooper]

There was a young monk in China who was a very serious practitioner of the Dharma.

Once, this monk came across something he did not understand, so he went to ask the master. When the master heard the question, he began to laugh. The master then stood up and walked away, still laughing.

The young monk was very disturbed by the master's reaction. For the next 3 days, he could not eat, sleep nor think properly. At the end of 3 days, he went back to the master and told the master how disturbed he had felt.

When the master heard this, he said, "Monk, do you know what your problem is? Your problem is that YOU ARE WORSE THAN A CLOWN!"

The monk was shocked to hear that, "Venerable Sir, how can you say such a thing?! How can I be worse than a clown?"

The master explained, "A clown enjoys seeing people laugh. You? You feel disturbed because another person laughed. Tell me, are you not worse than a clown?"

When the monk heard this, he began to laugh. He was enlightened.

 

[shesulsa]

Well this threads completely distroyed.

All apologies, Master, but I think the teachings of the Christ to be very zen indeed, as are the old quotations.

Are you ... tossing away the cup?

 

[Lisa]

The original post was a zen koan. Maybe we could focus on those rather than jokes, jests, and non-zen commentary?

Point taken, Bob. My apologies to The Master.

A Zen master said to a monk, “You must see the universe in your cup.”

The monk looked into his cup, but didn’t see the universe, so he threw the cup away.

The Zen master said, “Oh, poor cup. We think the cup is too small to hold the universe. Intellectually, we can’t see how it could fit. But wherever we go, the whole universe always appears--in a cup, a window, in a smile, in a word.”

I interpret this Koan as the monk being narrow minded and because of his own faults, unable to see the whole picture.

 

[exile]

Let's take the koan seriously.

A cup filled with clear liquid reflects... the walls of the cup. The image the cup presents is a mirror of the cup itself. That suggests that the `image' the koan presents, the picture it paints, reflects the koan itself. And that picture—the story the koan tells—is a depiction of how the whole world can be contained within a single small thing. The container reflects its content. If the koan is reflecting an image of itself, as the cup does, then what the koan suggests is its own content: that it, itself, is a mirror of all things.

But if so, then can any of the responses to the koan be irrelevant? What would the Zen master have said to the monk, do you think, if the monk had asserted that some particular response to the koan had nothing at all to do with the koan?

This is the sort of question koans are supposed to raise, no?

 

[crushing]

Very interesting quote. I'm not sure I have the ability to see the universe in a cup. Maybe it isn't?

 

[qi-tah]

Hmmm... sticking a few random thoughts together...

"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so"
~Shakers

"Water which is too pure has no fish"
~Ts'ai Ken T'an

"Get up and do something useful, the work is part of the koan!"
~Hakuin