Zen Stories: the Staff and Shout of the Venerable Ones

What is Zen? 不立文学，教外别传，直指人心，见性成佛。 Not reliant on written word A special transmission separate from the scriptures Direct pointing at one’s mind, seeing one’s nature, becoming the Buddha Fish forget that they live in lakes and rivers; people forget that they live in the magic of the Dao. – Confucius If one engages in self-cultivation with [...]

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. – Lao Tzu

The Web Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine by Ted J. Kaptchuk

Medicine East and West The Western physician starts with a symptom, then searches for the underlying mechanism – a precise cause for a specific disease. The physician’s logic is analytic – cutting through the accumulation of bodily phenomena like a surgeon’s scalpel to isolate one single entity or cause. The Chinese physician directs his or [...]

Tao Te Chine by Lao Tzu [道德经 - 老子] (Translated by Victor H. Mair)

[Different version of text and its corresponding translation by Wikisource] Introduction by Huston Smith As soon as human beings started considering themselves the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, meaning begin to ebb, and the stature of man to shrink. The world lost its human dimension, and man [...]

When the Shoe Fits by Osho – Man is Born in Tao (Chapter 10)

[Quotes by Zhuangzi 庄子] Fishes are born in water, man is born in Tao. If fishes, born in water, seek the deep shadow of pond and pool, all their needs are satisfied. If man, born in Tao, sinks into the deep shadow of non-action, to forget aggression and concern, he lacks nothing, and his life is secure. [...]

When the Shoe Fits by Osho – Duke Hwan and The Wheelwright (Chapter 9)

[Quotes by Zhuangzi 庄子] Duke Hwan of Khi, first in his dynasty, sat under his canopy reading his philosophy. And Phien the wheelwright was out in the yard making a wheel. Phien laid aside hammer and chisel, climbed the steps and said to duke Hwan, “May I ask you, Lord, what is this you are reading?” Said [...]

When the Shoe Fits by Osho – The Turtle (Chapter 8)

[Quotes by Zhuangzi 庄子] Zhuangzi was fishing on the Pu River when the Prince of Chu sent two high officials to see him and said, “Our Prince desires to burden you with the administration of the Chu State.” Zhuangzi went on fishing without turning his head and said, “I have heard that in Chu there is a [...]

When the Shoe Fits by Osho – Autumn Floods (Chapter 7)

[Quotes by Zhuangzi 庄子] Life is experience not theory. It needs no explanation. It is not a riddle, it is a mystery – become one with it, dissolve into it, you can melt into it. Religion says that to take life as a question is basically false. It is not a question – it is there, with [...]

When the Shoe Fits by Osho – Symphony for a Seabird (Chapter 6)

[Quotes by Zhuangzi 庄子] You cannot put a big load in a small bag, nor can you with a short rope, draw water from a deep well. Have you not heard how a bird from the sea was blown inshore and landed outside the capital of Lu? The prince ordered a solemn reception, offered wine to the [...]

When the Shoe Fits by Osho – Monkey Mountain (Chapter 5)

[Quotes by Zhuangzi 庄子] The Prince of Wu took a boat to Monkey Mountain. As soon as the monkeys saw him they all fled in panic and hid in the treetops. One monkey, however, remained, completely unconcerned, swinging from branch to branch – an extraordinary display. The prince shot an arrow at the monkey, but the monkey [...]