What you wanna be?

The beautifully free

Picking the fruits from the tree

Asking eachother “Like, who you gonna be”

And she’s lookin’ at me.

But aint nothin for free.

So I said ” Im gonna hustle, you gotta hustle to eat”.

Now I knew; I was just taking the easy way out

Cause god got my back and putting food in my mouth

But I always wanted more; movin’ about with a clout

I should have stayed on a path but I took another route

Years gone past and I seen the same sister

The hustle was a struggle and I really fucking missed her

The freedom we had; can I go back to the past

So I turned to the girl and asked

“What you want to be?”

 

 

Understanding. By Unknown

“The only people who can change the world are the people whom the world cannot change.” -Josiah Samuel Harry

via Shine Bright Like A Diamond — SKYLARITY

Tea . A Zen Story; rewritten by Nina



A Buddhist monk who studied and meditated on the teachings of Buddha for over a decade wanted to speak with an enlightened one who dwelled alone in a small temple high in the mountains. He prepared for his journey eager to hear his teaching. After 7 days of rigorous hiking he reached the temple.

The master greeted him and welcomed him inside. The master put some tea on to boil and they sat in silence. The monk became very eager and unsettled in not hearing his teaching. The master poured the tea and sat with the monk. The monk didn’t drink his tea and began questioning his master of Buddha.

The master replied.. “You have studied Buddhism for 20 years and can not simply enjoy this cup of tea?” The monk wept…. as another step to enlightenment lay under his feet….

Nina

Source: Tea . A Zen Story; rewritten by – Nina

Children and Old Men via GreatMiddleWay

Bai Juyi (772-846 CE) was an important poet and government official of the Tang Dynasty in China. He once asked a monk for the most essential Dharma instruction, and the monk replied by quoting the Buddha’s summary teaching, “Avoid harm. Do good. Purify the mind.”

Bai Juyi was not impressed, “Every child of three years knows these words. What I want to know is the most profound and fundamental teaching of the Buddha.” The monk replied, “Every child of three years knows these words, but white-haired men still fail to put them into practice.”

Source: Children and Old Men

Masterpiece and Spontaneity. A Zen Story.

Masterpiece and Spontaneity

A master calligrapher was writing some characters onto a piece of paper. One of his especially perceptive students was watching him. When the calligrapher was finished, he asked for the student’s opinion – who immediately told him that it wasn’t any good. The master tried again, but the student criticized the work again.

Over and over, the calligrapher carefully redrew the same characters, and each time the student rejected it. Finally, when the student had turned his attention away to something else and wasn’t watching, the master seized the opportunity to quickly dash off the characters. “There! How’s that?,” he asked the student. The student turned to look. “THAT…. is a masterpiece!” he exclaimed.

Meanings: “Originality is what makes each of us a masterpiece. Don’t stick to the same old way of doing things.”

“Stop thinking and just do what’s natural for you, instead of what’s expected. Some of our best work is done when we least expect it.”

“You can’t perform perfectly under the watch of critical eyes. When you don’t force perfection, it happens by itself, spontaneously. Great things happen when you least suspect it.”

“Whenever you watch over someone you make them self-conscious and uncreative. It’s like trying to teach a child. If you let them alone they will usually figure it out themselves and it will be great.” – See

Source: Masterpiece and Spontaneity. A zen story.

The Burden; A Zen Story

Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the road sides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk across because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to a her lifted her and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.

In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, “Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman ?”

The elder monk answered “yes, brother”.

Then the younger monk asks again, “but then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside ?”

The elder monk smiled at him and told him ” I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her.”

 

-Unknown

Free; A short story.

She was a princess; and a queen; and a leader

She was stunning and punctual

A poetic goddess with a gleaming smile

Anything and everything at her fingertips

Although she never asked for it

So beautiful and yet so sad and lonely

Its true that money can’t buy you happiness

Nor can beauty define your soul

She wept many nights and days

Wishing she could be swept off her feet

And taken far, far from here

For the constraints of her life were a world of hell

She wanted so badly to see outside these walls

The walls built to protect

Yet desecrated everything sacred

The walls circled her like vultures

Awaiting her death to finally close in

She stayed awake late nights to watch the constellations

Every shooting star a wish

And many tears that followed

One late night on a full moon s

Guards tending to other things

Her royal queen decided she can no longer stay

She fastened bedsheets to a tree

And fell hard on the ground outside the walls

The wind whispered through the trees

As she walked along a path to unknown

And when morning rised

She was on her own

The princess had never felt so alone

So vunerable; but she continued to walk

The sun continued to rise

And the birds began to chirp

Like the birth of a new world

And the sun kissed her skin

And the world finally made sense

That she was finally vulnerable

Finally independant

Alone and on her own

Peace and serenity

It all began.

 

Nina

 

Zen Stories; The other side.

One day a young man on his journey home came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him, he pondered for hours on how to cross the river.

Just as he was about to give up, he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young man yells over to the teacher, “Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river”?

The teacher ponders for a moment looks up and down the river and yells back, “My son, you are on the other side”.

Misty Rain on Mt. Lu – Su Tung-P’o

“Misty rain on Mount Lu,
and waves surging in Che-chiang.
When you have not yet been there,
many a regret surely you have;
but once there and heading homeward,
how matter-of-fact everything looks!
Misty rain on Mount Lu,
and waves surging in Che-chiang.”

—- Su Tung-P’o

Source: Misty Rain on Mt. Lu – Su Tung-P’o