Thomas Wharton's Blog, page 25
January 19, 2010
Zen stories 2
Another brief Zen story I like:
Two Zen monks, Tanzan and Ekido, traveling on pilgrimage, came to a muddy river crossing. There they saw a lovely young woman dressed in her kimono and finery, obviously not knowing how to cross the river without ruining her clothes. Without further ado, Tanzan graciously picked her up, held her close to him, and carried her across the muddy river, placing her onto the dry ground. Then he and Ekido continued on their way. Hours later they found themselves at a...
Two Zen monks, Tanzan and Ekido, traveling on pilgrimage, came to a muddy river crossing. There they saw a lovely young woman dressed in her kimono and finery, obviously not knowing how to cross the river without ruining her clothes. Without further ado, Tanzan graciously picked her up, held her close to him, and carried her across the muddy river, placing her onto the dry ground. Then he and Ekido continued on their way. Hours later they found themselves at a...
January 16, 2010
Zen stories
The stories of the Zen tradition are some of my favourites. Most of them are brief anecdotes without a hero, without a happy or unhappy ending. Many of them are funny. Many are mysterious, or frustrating, or make you ask, "Yeah, so what?" Some don't seem to make a lot of sense (which may be the point), while others make a sword-sharp point (which may not be the point). If you step into a Zen story, you may never quite find your way out again. You might discover that the story can't be told w...
January 13, 2010
story ghosts
I love ghost stories.
But I'm also fascinated by story ghosts.
Not just ghosts in stories, but the ghosts of stories, and the ghosts of characters who no longer have a story. There are far more of these to be found in the Perilous Realm than one would think. Every time a story is no longer told by anyone, or gets swallowed up by a story that has grown large and popular, the old story doesn't just vanish suddenly but slowly fades away, remaining as a ghostly trace of what it once was, in the...
January 6, 2010
foggy evening
The cataloguer of the Perilous Realm lay quiet during the Christmas holidays. He thought about telling a seasonal story but then considered that the story of the boy finding the key in the snow had a very Yule feel too it anyhow.
A couple of days after Christmas, however, I did make an unexpected trip to the Realm. This happens quite often, actually. You're going along in your daily routine, with all sorts of really important stuff on your mind, and you turn a corner and suddenly you're in the...
