leah blogs

March 2005

09mar2005 · 101 Zen Stories

101 Zen Stories contains a lot of interesting and really good zen stories. One however, The Moon Cannot Be Stolen, I like soo much I just gotta have to full-quote it here:

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.

Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. “Poor fellow,” he mused, “I wish I could give him this beautiful moon.”

NP: Josh Ritter—You’ve Got The Moon

Copyright © 2004–2022