Koan cup of tea

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a cup of tea
and a koan to go -
my cold morning





Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea.
He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself.
"It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said,
"you are full of your own opinions and speculations.

How can I show you Zen
unless you first empty your cup?"
source : Zen Koans Database

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Once two traveling monks visited Joshu, a 19th century Zen master. He asked both of them,
“Have you ever been here before?”
One monk said yes. Joshu said, “Have some tea.”
The other monk answered no. Joshu said, “Have some tea.”

Joshu’s attendant monk wondered about his master’s answer and asked him,
“Why do you say, ‘Have some tea’ to a spiritually advanced monk and then say, ‘Have some tea’, to a monk who has still not seen the truth?”
to which Joshu replies,
“Have some tea!”



. KOAN and Haiku (01) .





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