Anyone walking about Chinatowns in America will observe statues of a stout fellow carrying a linen sack.
Chinese merchants call him Happy Chinaman or Laughing Buddha.
This Hotei lived in the T’ang dynasty. He had no desire to call himself a Zen master or to gather many disciples about him.
Instead he walked the streets with a big sack into which he would put gifts of candy, fruit, or doughnuts.
These he would give to children who gathered around him in play. He established a kindergarten of the streets.
Whenever he met a Zen devotee he would extend his hand and say:
‘Give me one penny.’ And if anyone asked him to return to a temple to teach others, again he would reply: ‘Give me one penny.’
Once as he was about his play work another Zen master happened along and inquired:
‘What is the significance of Zen?’ Hotei immediately plopped his sack down on the ground in silent answer.
‘Then,’ asked the other, ‘what is the actualization of Zen?’
At once the Happy Chinaman swung the sack over his shoulder and continued on his way.
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
Commentary
Additional Stories, Scripture and Quotes
From the Mundaka Upanishad; Mundaka 3, Chapter 1, Verses 1-3
Translation One
1. Two birds, beautiful of wings, close companions, cling to one common tree: of the two one eats the sweet fruit of the tree, the other eats not but watches his fellow.
2. The soul is the bird that sits immersed on the common tree; but because he is not lord he is bewildered and has sorrow. But when he sees that other who is the Lord and the beloved, he knows that all is His greatness and his sorrow passes away from him.
3. When, a seer, he sees the Golden-hued, the maker, the Lord, the Spirit who is the source of Brahman, then he becomes the knower and shakes from his wings sin and virtue; pure of all stain he reaches the supreme identity.
Translation Two
1. Two birds that are ever associated and have similar names, cling to the same tree. Of these, the one eats the fruit of divergent tastes, and the other looks on without eating.
2. On the same tree, the individual soul remains drowned (i.e. stuck); as it were; and so it moans, being worried by its impotence. When it sees thus the other, the adored Lord and His glory, then it becomes liberated from sorrow.
3. When the seer sees the Puruṣa — the golden-hued, creator, lord, and the source of the inferior Brahman — then the illumined one completely shakes off both virtue and vice, becomes taintless, and attains absolute equality.
From The Gospel of Thomas; Saying 50
Jesus said, “If they say to you, ‘Where have you come from?’ say to them, ‘We have come from the light,
from the place where the light came into being by itself, established [itself], and appeared in their image.’
If they say to you, ‘Is it you?’ say, ‘We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living Father.’
If they ask you, ‘What is the evidence of your Father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is motion and rest.’”
From the Bhagavad Gita; Chapter 5, Verses 8-9
‘I do nothing at all’; thus would the truth-knower think, steadfast, – though seeing,
hearing, touching, smelling, going, eating, sleeping, breathing, speaking, letting go,
seizing, opening and closing the eyes, – remembering that the senses move among sense objects.
A Modern Divine Comedy
Before our evening’s sleep, rituals are observed.
These done, we give up the day’s activities
in that space which exists between waking and sleep
when we are totally at rest, yet also fully awake.
The bride and groom retire to their new life,
the last guest says goodbye, the celebration over.
The feast is put away, peace and rest remain.
These are the natural pauses between
the start and end of each event.
No teacher needs to point them out.
Every man, woman and child
knows where to begin, where to end.
Knows rest before and rest after.
Knows that activities cannot be held.
Every action played upon the world’s stage
is just so, with beginning, middle and end.
But we forget, often, the beginning and the end.
Instead of natural pause, unnatural force
reigns in the spaces between.
Where rest would bring relief
we remain driven on and on.
Commentary