Zen

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, हम लोग कुछ भी करने बैठें, जैसे पढ़ने बैठें, योग करें, मैडिटेशन करें, यहाँ तक कि जब मैं आपसे ये सवाल भी पूछ रहा हूँ तो ये सवाल पूछते हुए भी मेरे दिमाग में कुछ और चल रहा है। तो प्रश्न ये है कि मन को नियन्त्रित…

ज़ेन कोआन: मोकुसेन का हाथ

मोकुसेन तांबे के घर में रहते थे। एक अनुयायी ने एक दिन मोकुसेन को अपनी पत्नी के कंजूस व्यवहार के बारे में बताया। मोकुसेन उस अनुयायी के घर गए और उसकी पत्नी को अपनी बंद मुट्ठी दिखाई।

अनुयायी की पत्नी ने आश्चर्य से पूछा, “इसका…

THE SHORT STAFF

Shuzan held out his short staff and said,

“If you call this short staff, you oppose its reality.”

“If you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact.”

“Now what do you wish to call this?”

Questioner: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! Please help me understand…

Acharya Prashant: Joshu went to Hermit and asked, “What’s up? What’s up?” The Hermit lifted up his fist and Joshu said, “Water is too shallow to enter here and went away”. Joshu visited the Hermit once again, a few days later and said, “What’s up? What’s up?” The Hermit raised…

Joshu asked Nansen, “What is the way?”

Nansen answered: ‘Ordinary mind is the way.’

‘Then should we direct ourselves towards it or not? asked Joshu.

Nansen said: ‘If you try to direct yourself toward it, you go away from it.

‘Joshu then continued: ‘If we do not try how can…

A monk asked Joshu, “Has the dog Buddha nature?”

Joshu replied, “Moo”

Acharya Prashant: Moo stands for nothing. Everything about the dog and the Buddha is different. As long as you compare a thing about the dog and the Buddha, you’ll only find differences. As long as the dog is…

Whenever anyone asked him about Zen, the great master Gutei would quietly raise one finger into the air. A boy in the village began to imitate this behaviour. Whenever he heard people talking about Gutei’s teachings, he would interrupt the discussion and raise his finger. Gutei heard about boy’s mischief.…

A monk asked Seijo, “Daitsu Chisho Buddha did zazen (meditated) for ten kalpas in a Meditation Hall, could not realize the highest truth, and so could not become fully emancipated. Why was this?”

Seijo said, “Your question is a very appropriate one!”

The monk asked again, “Why did he not…

A monk told Joshu, “I have just entered this monastery. I beg you to teach me.”

Joshu asked, “Have you eaten your rice porridge?”

The monk replied, “I have.”

“Then,” said Joshu, “Go and wash your bowl.”

At that moment the monk was enlightened.

AP: Nothing except this is needed.…

Acharya Prashant: Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell…

Suiwo, the disciple of Hakuin, was a good teacher. During one summer seclusion period, a pupil came to him from a southern island of Japan. Suiwo gave him the problem: ‘Hear the sound of one hand.’ The pupil remained three years but couldn’t pass this test. One night he came…

एंटरिंग द फ़ॉरेस्ट ही मूव्स नॉट ऑन द ग्रास

एंटरिंग द वाटर ही मेक्स नॉट अ रिप्पल

~ जेनरिन कुशु

वक्ता: यही जीवन जीने का तरीका है। एक कविता है, बड़ी खूबसूरत है, जो बिलकुल ऐसे ही है कि किसी के कमरे में प्रवेश करना हो और चाहे किसी के…

Questioner (Q): Spiritual way tends to be more direct and I feel Zen-Buddhism actually misleads from the direct path.

Acharya Prashant (AP): Zen never imposes any rule. Or does it? Is that your question that Zen imposes rule?

Q: Yes.

AP: What kind of rules?

Q: Rules of the way…

The emperor asked Master Gudo, “What happens to a man of enlightenment after death?”

“How should I know?” replied Gudo.

“Because you are a Master”, answered the emperor.

“Yes Sir,” said Gudo, “But not a dead one.”

~ Zen Koan ~

Acharya Prashant: The man of Zen, lives in the…

Questioner (Q): Sir, ‘The sound of one hand clapping’. Please explain the Koan.

Acharya Prashant (AP): All our life, only that has happened to us, which has a cause and an effect. All our life, only that has happened to us, which is dualistic. When the Zen Master is saying…

Questioning pseudo-science and superstition is the first step toward genuine freedom. Beliefs such as *Vastu, Kundli,* and *Muhurat* should not be accepted merely because they have been followed traditionally. Fear and attachment to privileges often prevent people from questioning authority. A truth-seeker must be willing to challenge age, status, and authority. Human progress has come through curiosity, inquiry, experimentation, and reason—not through blind obedience.

THis is AP Article

हिन्दी स्मोक टेस्ट लेख का संक्षिप्त विवरण।

no dexcription is it still comming ?

Short description for the E2E smoke test article.

Questioner: Greetings, Acharya Ji. My question is that wherever I look on social media platforms, whether it is YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter, when I read the comment sections under the content posted there, I repeatedly see an allegation being made against the Foundation and against you, that you too are…

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युवावस्था बहुत ही नाज़ुक समय होता है। यही समय निर्धारित कर देता है कि जीवन किस दिशा जाएगा।

हमारा मिजाज हमेशा दूसरों और परिस्थितियों पर निर्भर करता है। नतीजे आपकी उम्मीदों के मुताबिक नहीं रहे। इसलिए अब आपको मनोबल बढ़ाने वाले किसी प्रेरक वक्ता की ज़रूरत है। जैसे ही वह व्यक्ति चला जाता है, आपकी ऊर्जा भी थम जाती है। लेकिन जीने का एक और तरीका भी है। अपने भीतर गहराई में, मुझे एक ऐसा बिंदु मिलता है जिसे कोई बाहरी परिस्थिति छू नहीं सकती। जो कुछ भी होता है, वह सतह पर ही घटित होता है। वह स्थिर, उदासीन और तटस्थ बना रहता है। तब आप सचमुच स्वतंत्र होते हैं।

Questioner(Q): What is the process of clarity? Is it just listening with immersion and no resistance? What is Truth? How we decide it?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Listening without effort, plus if there is Truth in what you hear, there is change and transformation, and that Truth becomes the master. We…

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, एक तरफ़़ तो फ़िल्में हमें मनोरंजन देती हैं, हँसाती हैं, रुलाती हैं और दूसरी ओर उसी इंडस्ट्री से दुःखद और चौका देने वाली खबरें भी आती रहती हैं। कुछ कहिए।

आचार्य प्रशांत: सबसे पहले तो हमें इस धारणा से बाहर आना होगा कि फ़िल्में हमें मात्र मनोरंजन…

How do you, asks the chief of police, patrol a city, where the butcher shops are guarded by vultures, where bulls get pregnant, cows are barren, and calves give milk three times a day, where mice are the boatmen, and tomcats row the boats, where frogs keep snakes as watchdogs,…

Overview Fighting Duryodhana is Dharma . Fight Duryodhana in the way you can, that is swadharma . Dharma is the same for everybody, but swadharma varies according to your physical, social, temporal conditions. But remember that swadharma can never be in contradiction of Dharma ; swadharma will always be something…

Now, mind is movement, right? Why does the mind move at all? The mind wants to reach somewhere. Where does the mind want to reach? Is that place within the mind? The mind wants to reach somewhere. Every thought, every action, every motivation, every emotion rides on a desire, is…

श्रद्धावान् लभते ज्ञानं तत्पर: संयतेन्द्रिय: | ज्ञानं लब्ध्वा परां शान्तिमचिरेणाधिगच्छति || ४, ३९ || जितेन्द्रिय, साधनापरायण और श्रद्धावान मनुष्य ज्ञान को प्राप्त होता है तथा ज्ञान को प्राप्त होकर वह बिना विलम्ब के तत्काल ही भगवत्प्राप्तिरूप शान्ति को प्राप्त हो जाता है। —श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, अध्याय ४, श्लोक ३९प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी,…

हम कहते हैं कि अब कुछ नया करते हैं, फ़ूड योगा , मूड योगा * । कोई ऐसा शब्द नहीं है जो अब * योगा के साथ नहीं जोड़ दिया गया है। नई-नई क्रियाएँ निकल रही हैं, नई-नई प्रक्रियाएँ निकल रही हैं। ये मुद्रा, ये आसान, ये करते हैं, वो…

If you are someone who cannot take care of herself, how will you be sure that your presence, your company is not becoming an influence of sickness on the other person?

Be very, very alert about cohabitation. Just don’t start living with anybody. Be very, very conscious of your personal…

If you take yourself as primarily physical, then beauty too for you would be something just physical. You will look at the woman most capable of successfully reproducing. That’s the prakritik definition of beauty.

The first thing that comes to mind is flowers. What are flowers? Flowers are the reproductive…

“I will beat him!”

“I will destroy her!”

“Did you just insult me? Did you?”

Four hours forty-eight minutes of deep intellectual perspiration!

“Did she? Did she not?”

Have some mercy upon yourself. Learn to ignore, please. Bypass the small issues. Learn to ignore the small for the big, would…

One can become an entrepreneur, for example, in the field of killing animals, cutting animal flesh, and supplying freshly cut flesh to people at their doorsteps. And this might be a successful business model.

This kind of an entrepreneurship is idiocy, perversion, profanity. The evil was present right in the…

The evil can consume you in two ways. One is, you look at evil and you find it beautiful. Some people do; they are captivated by the sheer charm of evil. Aren’t the dons in the movies sometimes very charming? In fact, the most charming characters in the movies in…

Just as the ego loves to take credit, it also loves to play the victim.

If something good has happened, “I did it!”

If something bad happened, “It happened to me.”

“Good things I do, bad things happen to me”—this is astounding.

Playing the victim is a favorite pastime of…

When you say that you go to your workplace for a purpose, the purpose is never work, or is it? The purpose is the salary cheque. In fact, if work could be bypassed and you could straight away reach the salary cheque, then who would want to work? Now, why…

Hold on. There will be temptations; old habits, old environments will beckon you, but stand still and strong. Don’t give up. It’s a battle worth fighting and worth winning. Don’t lose this one.

If you can win this one, then in all the forthcoming battles of life victory is guaranteed.…

There was this king of the demons; his name was Hiranyakashyupa. The king worked really hard. He kept austerities, he forced even God to come down and bless him. So, it would have required a very special effort. But then, what did he want from God? Nothing but the extension…

Love is when you start seeing the deep desire beneath all your superficial desires. Love is when you start seeing what you are really really thirsty for. Superficially, the desires of different people are different. Deeply, we all share one desire.

So, what is it that happens in love? In…

Let nobody say that he or she is making the right choices in life because she does not know. We all know. We prefer to suppress the inner knowledge. It’s an inner conspiracy against ourselves, just because we want to continue enjoying certain privileges in life—certain physical privileges, material privileges,…

Real relaxation is about relaxing even in the middle of activity. You are relaxed even as you exert yourself. You are relaxed even as you are running. You are relaxed even as you are drained out. You are not waiting for a special activity like going to bed or sitting…

If a woman is good and fine, then her lover or husband would spoil her. Women must be honored for her intelligence, her qualities, for her inner strength. But when you start giving her importance for reasons like, her body is attractive and she is very sexually appealing, then you…

You are so powerful actually that you are scared of yourself.

There are three ‘you’s in that statement. The first two refer to the small self or the ego. The third one refers to the best that you can be, the Great Self, the Truth—classically, the Ātman. And classically…

Emotions, they can do whatever they want to do. It doesn’t matter how I am feeling. What matters is what I must do.

Ask yourself: Had you not been feeling this way or that way, what would have you done? And you will get a very good answer.

When you…

Women like burly guys—and why do they like burly, big, and muscular guys? Because they are likely to have higher levels of testosterone. Unless you have testosterone, you cannot build muscles; you know that, right? And that is why you cannot build muscles, let’s say, after fifty or sixty. It’s…