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The Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension


Zen in a Beggar's Life

Tosui was a well-known Zen teacher of his time. He had lived in several temples and taught in various provinces.

The last temple he visited accumulated so many adherents that Tosui told them he was going to quit the lecture business entirely. He advised them to disperse and to go wherever they desired. After that no one could find any trace of him.

Three years later one of his disciples discovered him living with some beggars under a bridge in Kyoto. He at once implored Tosui to teach him.

"If you can do as I do for even a couple of days, I might," Tosui replied.

So the former disciple dressed as a beggar and spent a day with Tosui. The following day one of the beggars died. Tosui and his pupil carried the body off at midnight and buried it on a mountainside. After that they returned to their shelter under the bridge.

Tosui slept soundly the remainder of the night, but the disciple could not sleep. When morning came Tosui said: "We do not have to beg food today. Our dead friend has left some over there." But the disciple was unable to eat a single bite of it.

"I have said you could not do as I," concluded Tosui. "Get out of here and do not bother me again."


  


A Buddha
A Cup of Tea
A Drop of Water
A Letter to a Dying Man
A Mother's Advice
A Parable
A Smile in His Lifetime
Accurate Proportion
Announcement
Arresting the Stone Buddha
Black-Nosed Buddha
Buddha's Zen
Calling Card
Children of His Majesty
Eating the Blame
Eshun's Departure
Every-Minute Zen
Everything Is Best
Finding a Diamond on a Muddy Road
Fire-Poker Zen
Flower Shower
Gisho's Work
Great Waves
Gudo and the Emperor
Happy Chinaman
How Grass & Trees Become Enlightened
How To Write a Chinese Poem
If You Love, Love Openly
In Dreamland
In the Hands of Destiny
Incense Burner
Inch Time Foot Gem
Is That So?
Joshu's Zen
Just Go To Sleep
Kasan Sweat
Killing
Learning To Be Silent
Midnight Excursion
Mokusen's Hand
Muddy Road
My Heart Burns Like Fire
No Attachment to Dust
No Loving-Kindness
No Water, No Moon
No Work, No Food
Non-Attachment
Not Far from Buddhahood
Nothing Exists
Obedience
One Note of Zen
Open Your Own Treasure House
Publishing the Sutras
Real Prosperity
Reciting Sutras
Right & Wrong
Ryonen's Clear Realization
Shoun & His Mother
Sleeping in the Daytime
Soldiers of Humanity
Sour Miso
Stingy in Teaching
Storyteller's Zen
Teaching the Ultimate
Temper
Ten Successors
The Blockhead Lord
The Dead Man's Answer
The First Principle
The Gates of Paradise
The Giver Should Be Thankful
The Last Poem of Hoshin
The Last Rap
The Last Will & Testament
The Living Buddha & the Tubmaker
The Moon Cannot Be Stolen
The Most Valuable Thing in the World
The Real Miracle
The Silent Temple
The Sound of One Hand
The Stingy Artist
The Stone Mind
The Story of Shunkai
The Subjugation of a Ghost
The Taste of Banzo's Sword
The Tea-Master & the Assassin
The Thief Who Became a Disciple
The True Path
The Tunnel
The Voice of Happiness
Three Days More
Three Kinds of Disciples
Time to Die
Tosui's Vinegar
Trading Dialogue for Lodging
True Friends
True Reformation
What Are You Doing! What Are You Saying!
Your Light May Go Out
Zen Dialogue
Zen in a Beggar's Life

 Collection of Stone and Sand from 13th & 20th Century Japan From Zen::Koans