Aldebaran/Stereotypes

I possess the true Dharma eye, the marvelous mind of Nirvana, the true form of the formless, the subtle Dharma Gate that does not rest on words or letters but is a special transmission outside of the scriptures. This I entrust to Mahākāśyapa The emperor heard about a monk who attained enlightenment and asked him to preach for his edification and that of his subjects. The monk stood before the emperor in silence. He then produced a flute from the folds of his robe, and blew one short note. Bowing politely, he disappeared. "Our master used to take a nap every afternoon," related a disciple of the emerald sage. "We monks asked him why he did it and he told us: 'I go to dreamland to meet the old sages just as the ancestors did.' When the ancestors slept, he would dream of ancient sages and later tell their communities about them. "It was extremely hot one day so some of us took a nap. Our master scolded us. 'We went to dreamland to meet the ancient sages the same as the ancestors did,' we explained. 'What was the message from those sages?' our master demanded. One of us replied: 'We went to dreamland and met the sages and asked them if our schoolmaster came there every afternoon, but they said they had never seen any such fellow.'" A rich man asked a monk to write something for the continued prosperity of his family so that it might be treasured from generation to generation. The monk obtained a large sheet of paper and wrote:"Father dies, son dies, grandson dies." The rich man became angry. "I asked you to write something for the happiness of my family! Why do you make such a joke as this?" "No joke is intended," explained the monk. "If before you yourself die you son should die, this would grieve you greatly. If your grandson should pass away before your son, both of you would be broken-hearted. If your family, generation after generation, passes away in the order I have named, it will be the natural course of life. I call this real prosperity." Once a young student visited one master after another. He called upon the old man of the mountain. Desiring to show his attainment, he said: "The mind, Buddha, and sentient beings, after all, do not exist. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no relaization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and nothing to be received." The old man, who was smoking quietly, said nothing. Suddenly he whacked the young one with his bamboo pipe. This made the youth quite angry. "If nothing exists," inquired the ancient one, "where did this anger come from?"

A tea-master wished to hang a flower basket on a column. He asked a carpenter to help him, directing the man to place it a little higher or lower, to the right or to the left, until he had found exactly the right spot. "That's the place," said the master finally. The carpenter, to test the master, marked the spot and then pretended he had forgotten. "Was this the place, perhaps?" the carpenter kept asking, pointing to various places on the column. But so accurate was the tea-master's sense that it was not until the carpenter reached the identical spot again that its location was approved. Once a monk was walking through a market and overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer. "Give me the best piece of meat you have," said the customer. "Everything in my shop is the best," replied the butcher. "You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best." At these words the monk became enlightened. The cook at a monastery decided that he would take good care of his old teacher's health and give him only fresh miso. The master, noticing that he was being served better miso than his pupils, asked: "Where is the cook?" The cook was sent before him. The master learned that according to his age and position he should eat only fresh miso. So he said to the cook: "Then you think I shouldn't eat at all." With this he entered his room and locked the door. The cook, sitting outside the door, asked his teacher's pardon. The master would not answer. For seven days the cook sat outside and the master within. Finally in desperation an adherent called loudly to the master: "You may be all right, old teacher, but this young disciple here has to eat. He cannot go without food forever!" At that the master opened the door. He was smiling. He told the cook: "I insist on eating the same food as the least of my followers. When you become the teacher I do not want you to forget this." The old master used to labor with his pupils even at the age of eighty, trimming the gardens, cleaning the grounds, and pruning the trees. The pupils felt sorry to see the old teacher working so hard, but they knew he would not listen to their advice to stop, so they hid away his tools. That day the master did not eat. The next day he did not eat, nor the next. "He may be angry because we have hidden his tools," the pupils surmised. "We had better put them back." The day they did, the teacher worked and ate the same as before. In the evening he instructed them: "No work, no food."