Story time

Story time again.. short one. Im tired of typing.. Haha..
This story is about a young man who went to a Zen master to learn from him. In order to take the young man as a disciple, the Zen master made the young man agree to do everything that he said.

The young man agreed and the master called an elderly monk and set up a go board. He told the young man, "You will play Go with this monk. If you lose, I'll cut off the monk's head." The young man was nervous at first but later his concentration exceeded anything he had experienced.

He was able to place each Go piece as if it were an extension of his own body and mind. Eventually he had the advantage on the old monk who was also deep in concentration. Then the young man looked into the old monk's eyes and his heart opened up. He thought, "I have wasted my life and this old man has led a life of devotion and service.

The young man deliberately made a bad move to give the old man the advantage. At that point, the Zen master knocked all of the pieces off the board and said to the young man, "Now you are ready to be my disciple.

First you learnt discipline and concentration and then you learnt compassion. With awareness and a great heart as the foundation of your practice, you will be able to eliminate all of your bad habits."

The Buddha has never forced others to do what others do not like to do. He merely taught virtue and evil, and the choice in one's own life is in one's hands. To find one's peace of mind, one should see that all phenomena are impermanent.

Only through that it is possible to be detached in adverse circumstances and to have freedom from vexations. The Buddha's teachings allow us to know that there is no one in the world who can bring you suffering, only yourself... These are indeed words of wisdom and food for thought.

Sentence of the day: Violence can overpower a person's body but not his mind. With love, no one is your enemy; hence you wouldn't need to defeat anyone.

All these are just randomly blogged. May seems messy but please pardon me. I'm tired. Good night!