The Decadent Worker

Zenarchy Stories
by Ho Chi Zen

THREE IN THE MORNING

Seeing, on the Aneristic or Eristic side of things, only the Yang or the Yin of the Tao, is called, according to Chuang-Tzu, “three in the morning.”

“Once a zookeeper went to his monkeys,” he wrote, “and told them he would give them three chestnuts in the morning, and four in the evening of each day. At this they became furious, so he said: ‘All right, all right — I’ll give you four in the morning and thee in the evening.’ With that arrangement they were quite happy.”

THE DUKE OF PIN

“When Ta’i Wang Shan Fu was Duke of Pin,” writes Chuang-Tzu, “the city was attacked by barbarians. Although he offered them skins and silks, they declined them. Although he offered them dogs and horses, they refused him. Then he offered them pearls and jade, but they did not want these either. What they wanted was the territory.

“So the Duke of Pin made this speech to his people: ‘To send a younger brother to war, and live with the elder brother; to send a son to war, and live with the father after the son is slain — this I cannot do. What difference does it make whether you are my subjects or the subjects of these barbarians? Moreover, I have heard that the land exists to support and nourish the people, and so harming the people to protect the land seems backwards to me.’

“Thereupon he took his staff and went to live at the foot of Mount Ch’i, but everyone in the kingdom followed him, so they founded a new State. A ruler like Ta’i Wang Shan Fu may be said to have cherished his people.”

NIRVANA EXPRESS

Wanted: future Buddhas. Method: meditation–no equipment necessary. Here is your ticket: VOID IF DETACHED.

EVERYONE A ZEN MASTER

Here is a spiritual exercise that well help you, when you use it, to apply Laughing Buddha Jesus’ advice about loving one another.

As you are walking the streets or riding a public conveyance, imagine to yourself that each person you look at, regardless of age, is your child. In the case of adults, of course, she or he is to be pictured as your grown child. Never mind if that makes you feel a hundred years old; age is of no consequence to a sage.

Or imagine that every man or woman you pass or encounter is a Zen Master–each with her or his own method of teaching. Sometimes they will sense your respect for them, and will glance at you and grin. Take the dress and bearing of each individual as evidence of his or her style of expressing enlightenment. Listen to every scrap of conversation as a koan.

And never forget the Zen saying, “Tao is your everyday mind.”

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