DHARMA SPRING

Liberating Authenticity


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   One day, when Nanquan was living in a little hut in the mountains, a traveling monk visited him just as he was preparing to go to his work in the fields. Nanquan welcomed him, saying, "Please make yourself at home. Cook anything you’d like for your lunch, then bring some of the leftover food to me along the path that leads directly to where I’m working."
   Nanquan worked hard until the evening but the monk never showed, so he returned to his hut very tired and hungry. The monk had cooked and enjoyed a good meal by himself, then thrown away all the leftovers and broken all the bowls and utensils. Nanquan found the monk sleeping peacefully in the empty hut. He laid down his tired body nearby, whereupon the monk got up and left.
   Years later, Nanquan shared this story with his students and commented, “He was such a good monk, I miss him even now.”

Commenting on this koan, Hakuin quoted a poem:
      “Two streams of tears run down a lady’s jeweled pillow,
     partly because she loves him, partly because she resents him.”

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DHARMA SPRINGBy Andrew Palmer

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