Double your pleasure

Stay away from the drink

Double the koans

It’s not what you think

 

Hello My Friends:

Lucky us, we’ll be sitting with two koans in November.

 

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 

 

KOAN #1:  HERE'S AN OLD ZEN STORY: a student said to Master Ichu, "Please write for me something of great wisdom." Master Ichu picked up his brush and wrote one word: "Attention." The student said, "Is that all?" The master wrote, "Attention. Attention." The student became irritable. "That doesn't seem profound or subtle to me." In response, Master Ichu wrote simply, "Attention. Attention. Attention." In frustration, the student demanded, "What does this word 'attention' mean?" Master Ichu replied, "Attention means attention."

 

KOAN #2: Yun Men said, “I don’t ask you about before the fifteenth of the month, try to say something about after the 15^th. Yun Men himself answered for everybody. ‘Every day is a good day.’”

 

[Note: Before the 15^th is referring to before awakening, and after the 15^th about after awakening.] 

Bill K.