A big, burly samurai comes to a Zen master and says,"Tell me the nature of heaven and hell."
The Zen master looks him in the face and says,"Why should I tell a scruffy, disgusting, miserable slob like you? A worm like you, do you think I should tell you anything?"
Consumed by rage, the samurai draws his sword and
raises it to cut off the master's head. The Zen master says, "That's hell."
Instantly, the samurai understands that he has just created his own hell- black and hot, filled with hatred, self-protection, anger, and resentment. He sees that he was so deep in hell that he was ready to kill someone. Tears fill his eyes as he puts his palms together to bow in gratitude for this insight.
The Zen Master says, "That's heaven."
November 18, 2008
Heaven and Hell
November 18, 2008
I stumbled across this on an internet forum:
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5 Comments:
Very nice. I was glad to see Ink Flinger back on top of my blog roll, and this is pleasant food for thought.
...raises his internet sword to strike the flinger of ink's head off..
Sorry, you took me to hell so well I was still getting over it. Is there a source of this story?
Serenity--Happy eating!
Dennis--Bit hard to answer without a head. I made a few efforts to track it down, but it seems fairly ubiquitous online at least. You can find it attributed to one of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books; Paul Coelho tells it on his blog; a Chinese man says on his blog he heard it from his grandfather; others imply it is an ancient traditional story. Who knows?
Great story.. It's true isn't it?
That's the kind of story that makes me interested in Buddhism....
Peace!
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