Wisdom and life lessons from Kenko, a Japanese Medieval Monk

My latest read is by a Japanese author named Yoshida Kenko entitled "A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees."  I'm not familiar with the author but the title sounded interesting.  The description piqued my interest too -  it says "a medieval Japanese monk reflects on idle moments and life's fleeting joys."  In our fast-paced and busy world, I look forward to idle moments and fleeting joys.  Haha...  

So I started reading the book.  There are lots of thought-provoking, insightful and practical life lessons.  And you know what's the most amazing thing about the book? The essays were written in the 13th century!!!   Wow.

The author, Kenko, is believed to have been born around 1283.  He was the son of an admin official. When he grew up, he became an Imperial palace guard officer.   Then when he retired from public life,  he became a Buddhist monk and hermit - this is when he assumed the name Yoshida Kenko.  

Below are my favorite excerpts.   As you read through Kenko's words of wisdom, keep in mind that he wrote them more than 700 years ago but the lessons clearly still resonate today.  :) 

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Those who feel the impulse to pursue the path of enlightenment should immediately take the step, and not defer it while they attend to all the other things on their mind.

If you say to yourself, "Let's just wait after this is over,"... "let's wait a little longer while I do this"....there will be no end to it all, and the day of decision will never come.

In general, I find that reasonably sensitive and intelligent people will pass their whole life without taking the step they know they should. Would anyone with a fire close behind him choose to pause before fleeing? In a matter of life and death, one casts aside shame, abandons riches and runs. Does mortality wait on our choosing? Death comes upon us more swiftly than fire or blood. There is no escaping it. Who at the moment can refuse to part with all they love - aged parents, beloved children, lord and master, or the love of others?

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I cannot bear the way people will make it their business to know all the details of some current rumor, even though it has nothing to do with them, and then proceed to pass the story on and do their best to learn more.

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The Yin-Yang masters do not concern themselves with those days of the calendar marked "Red Tongue Days". Nor did people of old treat the day as unpropitious. It seems someone more recently has declared it unlucky, and now everyone has begun to avoid it, believing that things undertaken on this day will miscarry. This idea - that whatever is said or done on this day will fail, that objects gained on the day will be lost and plans will go awry - this is ridiculous. If you count the number of failures that happen on an auspicious day, you will find there are just as many...

It is said that evil performed on an auspicious day is always ill-fated, while good performed in an inauspicious one will be blessed by good fortune. It is people who create good fortune and misfortune, not the calendar.

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A man engaged in Buddhist practice will tell himself at night that there is always the morning, or in the morning will anticipate the night, always intending to make more effort later. And if such are your days, how much less aware must you be so difficult to carry something out right now when you think of it, to seize the instant?

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Someone told the following tale -

"A man sells an ox. The buyer says he will come in the morning to pay and take the beast. But during the night, the ox dies. The buyer, thus gained, while the seller lost," he concluded.

But a bystander remarked - "The owner did indeed lose on the transaction but he profited greatly in another way... Living creatures have no knowledge of the nearness of death... As it happened, the ox died that night; as it happened, the owner lived on. One day's life is more precious than a fortune's worth of money, while an ox's worth weighs no more than a goose feather. One cannot say that a man who gains a fortune while losing a coin or two has made a loss.

Everyone laughed at this. "The reasoning doesn't only apply to the owner of the ox," they scoffed.

The man went on - "Well then, if people hate death they should love life. Should we not relish each day the joy of survival? Fools forget this - they go striving after other enjoyments, cease to appreciate the fortune they have and risk all to lay their hands on fresh wealth. Their desires are never sated. There is deep contradiction in failing to enjoy life and yet fearing death when faced with it. It is because they have no fear of death that people fail to enjoy life - no, not that they don't fear it, but rather they forget its nearness. Of course, it must be said that the ultimate gain lies in transcending the relative world with its distinction between life and death.

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A man famed for his tree-climbing skills once directed another to climb a tall tree and cut branches. While the fellow was precariously balanced aloft, the tree-climber watched without a word, but when he was descending and had reach the height of the eaves, the expert called to him, "Careful how you go! Take care coming down!"

"Why do you say that? He's so far down now that he could leap to the ground from there," I said.

"Just so," replied the tree-climber. While he's up there among the treacherous branches I need not say a word - his fear is enough to guide him. It's in easy places that mistakes will always occur."
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A sensible man will not die leaving valuables behind. A collection of vulgar objects looks bad, while good ones will suggest a futile attachment to worldly things.  And it is even more unfortunate to leave behind a vast accumulation. There will be ugly fights over it after your death, with everyone determined to get things for himself. If you plan to leave something to a particular person, you should pass it on while you are still alive.

Some things are necessary for day-to-day living, but one should have nothing else.
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Zen life lessons: The perfectly imperfect and the real miracles of life

Zen could be described in a lot of ways - enlightenment, being aware of your oneness with the world, living in the present, being in the flow of the universe, detachment from material things, etc.   But my favorite Zen description is delighting in the basic miracle of life itself.

I recently read a book about Zen simply entitled The Zen Book by Daniel Levin.  It's a compilation of random short stories about enlightenment which would make you reflect about life.  There are 2 stories which struck me the most.  Here's the first one - 

A man walked into a Shiva temple (Shiva is the Hindu God of destruction). 

In the middle of the room was a lingam (a phallic-like stone). The man sat down on the floor and put his feet up on the lingam. 

Shiva lingam (Source)

The priest of the temple rushed in and asked, “Don’t you know what a sin you’ve just done? No one can put their feet on such a holy shrine! The punishment for such an act is eternity in hell.” 

The man, humble in his way, answered, “Please accept my apology, for I did not know that what I did was wrong. Can you please place my feet somewhere where God won’t be offended?” 

Immediately, the priest took the man’s feet off the stone and threw them to the ground. To the man’s surprise, before his feet could touch the ground, another Shiva lingam appeared to catch them. Not believing his eyes, the priest again threw the man’s feet from the second lingam to the floor. And once again, a lingam appeared to catch the man’s feet. This time the humble man, with a glimmer in his eye, asked the priest to place his feet where God did not exist. At that, the priest bowed to the feet of this holy man and apologized. The holy man replied, “There is no place where God is not.”

The author shares that when he read this story, he realized that God is everywhere and in everything... that nothing needed changing....that his pain comes from wanting things to be other than they are .... and that when he accepts things as they are, he is completely happy.  

I like that nugget of wisdom - that pain comes from wanting things to be other than they are.  It means that if we accept things as they are, there are no ill feelings or perception that there is suffering. 

There's also a Zen saying - "Wabi Sabi" - which means “the perfectly imperfect.”   Since we know nothing is perfect, we could embrace the world as it is and learn how to find beauty in imperfection. 

Here's the other story which I like -

Wandering Monk (Source)

A teacher in the village was jealous of the crowds that another wandering monk was gathering. He went out and immediately challenged the new instructor by saying, “My teacher had such power through the practice of chanting that he could do miracles. He held a brush, and his student would hold the canvas on the other side of the river. With the flip of his wrist, he could write the Sutras on that canvas.” 

The wandering teacher looked at him and said, “That’s wonderful, but that’s not the miracle of the Zen I follow. The miracle to me is that when I’m hungry, I eat, and when I feel thirsty, I drink.”

Love it!  And I totally agree and feel the same way.  I eat whatever food there is because I'm very grateful that there's food at all. :)   

Another great miracle I consider is our gift of senses - to be able to see, hear, smell, taste and touch.   It's usually taken for granted just because most have the gift of complete senses but I consider it as a daily miracle.   At the end of each day, just realizing that we've fully experienced life through our senses overwhelms me with joy and gratitude.   

Another daily miracle I am thankful for is when I wake up in the morning realizing that I'm still alive and breathing, and have been given another day to live!  Thank you, God!  Everything else is just a bonus.  :)

What it takes to prove something - the Shaolin Way

Source

I've read this beautiful story about a Shaolin monk twice already and I thought of sharing it.  The story teaches us on how to reflect on our actions - especially when  you're out to prove something.

I couldn't remember where I first read the story, but the second time was from the book "The Shaolin Way" by Steve Demasco.

Here you go:

Many years ago, an old Shaolin monk would take the same walk through the forest near his home every day. 

On one of his walks, he ran into a young and very fit man. The young man, thinking he was sharper than the old monk, decided to challenge the master to a fight. 

The old man refused to spar with the cocky young fellow, telling him, “No thank you, young brother and may Buddha bless you.”

For months, this went on.  Each morning, the young warrior would wait for the old monk and challenge him again. 

Finally, even the Shaolin monk - he, of great inner peace and tolerance - could take no more.  Worn down, he accepted the younger man’s offer to fight.  They bowed, and then squared off.

Just before the young warrior was to make his attack, the old Shaolin monk lay down on the ground. The young warrior, puzzled, looked down at the monk. “How can I beat you if you are already down?” the young man fumed, scratching his head and shaking his fist. 

Quietly, the Shaolin warrior monk looked up into the warrior’s angry eyes and replied, “Exactly.”
 
Confused and frustrated, the proud and foolish young man stormed off into the forest. His utter lack of self and pride demonstrated, the old monk shuffled off to complete his walk, and the young warrior never bothered the Shaolin monk again.

The big lesson? Self-worth doesn’t come from proving things to others; it comes from proving things to ourselves.

As Demasco pointed out, if you have something to prove to a parent, boss or anyone, it just shows that you don’t believe in yourself enough to know already that you can handle the situation.  In the same way, if the young warrior really knew he was good enough to beat the Shaolin master, he would never have tried to fight him in the first place.

The sacred vow

I am currently reading "Thick Face, Black Heart" by Chin-Ning Chu. Thick Face simply means the ability to do what you need to do without regard to what others will think of you. And Black Heart means the ability to do what you need to do without regard on how the consequences will affect others.

I've just read a few chapters and there's this one story that really struck me.  It's about a man who once made a holy vow and now he's faced with a situation where he has to make a decision whether to keep or break his vow.  The story also applies to us when our principles and values are put to a test.  The moral of the story will help us see through our actions -  are we sincerely doing an action out of virtue or vanity?  Read on to find out -

Source

A holy man was meditating under a tree when a young man suddenly approached him.

The young man pleaded, "Help me.  A man has wrongly accused me of stealing.  He's bringing a crowd and if they catch me, they will chop off my hands."

The young man climbed the tree and hid behind the branches.  He begged the holy man - "Please don't tell them where I am hiding."

The holy man saw a vision of a saint telling him that the young man was telling the truth, that he was not a thief.

Shortly after, the crowd of villagers reached the tree and the group leader asked the holy man, "Have you seen a young man run by here?  Where did he go?"

Years earlier, the holy man had taken a vow to always speak the truth.  He did not want to betray the young man but this vow was sacred to him.  Thus, he pointed up where the young man was hiding.  The villagers caught the young man and chopped off his hands.

When the holy man died and stood before judgment, he was condemned for his behaviour on the incident about the young man.

"But," he protested, "I had made a holy vow to speak only the truth.  I was bound to act as I did."

"On that day," came the reply, "you loved vanity more than virtue.  It was not for virtue's sake that you delivered the innocent man over to his persecutors, but to preserve a vain image of yourself as a virtuous person."