The master came storming into the palace. So serious was his mien that none of the guards dared stop him. He came upon the throne room and faced the king.
“What is it you want?” said the king.
“I need a place to sleep in this inn,” replied the master.
“This is no inn,” replied the king. “This [...]

The master and his disciples walked past a small gathering. A preacher was in the middle of the crowd and he declared, “We should be dismayed that God is robbed of his glory in this sinful world where people slander him and worship all sorts of idols.”
Later, the master remarked to his disciples, “If this [...]

A pilgrim stopped by the temple where a master resided who was known for his holiness. A disciple ushered him inside and led him to the courtyard at the back.
The pilgrim heard boisterous laughter and the sounds of merrymaking coming from a bend in the garden. He turned the bend and was surprised to see [...]

“Life’s little secret is this,” said the master to his visitor as they conversed over tea. “Never take it too seriously. Learn to laugh — at everything — and you learn to live,”
The visitor pondered on this, and the master continued, “I have had a total of four disciples under me. When they began their [...]

Word spread around the kingdom that a holy man had moved into a hut near the base of a nearby mountain. The king wanted to see this man to ask for advice on how to handle the many problems he faced. So one day, he rode out to the mountain with a dozen soldiers and [...]

The new disciple approached the master and said, “I cannot take this any more. You are slowly stripping away all my traditions, all the beliefs I had ingrained in me since childhood. Why are you doing this? I need some solid ground.”
The master replied, “What is the solid ground of the fish swimming in the [...]

After breakfast one day, the master addressed his disciples and said:
“All I do is sit by the riverbank selling river water. And all you fools come, and line up and wait to buy this water, not realizing that any time, you can go to the river and draw water for yourselves.”

Back when I was still unmarried and living in another city that was close to the sea, I used to hang out with my friends at the beach. Sometimes we would even spend the night there.
I remember this one night. It was near midnight and we were outside sitting on the sand chatting and feeling [...]

A visitor came to the monastery where the master resided. He was amazed at the huge number of monks he saw everywhere. “There must be over two or three thousand of them here,” he thought.
When he was finally ushered in to see the master, the first question he asked was, “Revered sir, exactly how many [...]

“Master,” said the disciple. “Is there life after death?”
“Why do you ask?” said the master.
“I was just thinking how horrible it would be not to love or laugh or sing or dream,” said the disciple.
The master laughed. “Most people don’t even do those things before death. Or if they do, they do them only superficially. [...]

A man once approached the Master and said, “Your teachings are radical and thought-provoking but I cannot find them in the Scriptures.”
“Then put them in there,” replied the Master.
“But some of your teachings even go as far as contradicting some passages of Scriptures,” replied the man.
“Then amend the scriptures,” replied the Master. “Scripture was made [...]

The head monk had a pet cat that had a nasty habit of meowing and rubbing against the monks’ bodies at common prayer time. The head monk then decided that the cat should be tied when all the monks gathered for communal prayer.
Just a couple of years later, the head monk died of old age [...]