strengthen the body,
sharpen the mind
and enrich the spirit
When I had my Karate studio (2000-2003) Jefferson, Texas, (Inner Spirit Martial Arts) the one factor I used was zen stories during the cool down period of the class. After an extensive work out I’d have the class sit and cool down, and I would tell a zen story and allow the class to meditate on the moral of each story. To keep the stories fresh I would read a lot of stories to tell, and have even made a few of my own. I even dabbled in zen poetry that I categorized as zen mountain poetry.
My favorite of all the stories I told was, ‘Enemies of the mind’, it is a tale of Da Mo, Da Mo, it is said to have created kung fu, when he went to a monastery and noticed that the monks had become sluggish from constantly sitting and writing books, mostly copying and creating more books for their religion. They meditated, prayed, and worked sitting down.
Da Mo was an energetic person and exercised frequently. One night the temple was being robbed and Da Mo not knowing what to do but certainly wasn’t going to allow the robbers to just walk away with the items belonging to the monastery, Da Mo thought that he would jump out and be as ferocious as a tiger. He leaped out growling and moving around the bandits like a tiger and the bandits in total fear dropped the stolen items and fled, hence, kung fu was born.
The days that followed, began the monks on an exercise regiment and self defense moves took place, creating the tiger, dragon, praying mantis, crane and snake styles of kung fu. After awhile Da Mo felt he had benefited physically from this new art but was now in search of something deeper, more mental, in short he was in search of zen. So, Da Mo set out in search of enlightenment.
After many days of traveling in the wilderness, Da Mo was growing hungry, it was becoming dark and it began to rain and visibility was getting harder to see. He now grew cold from the rains and it was getting harder to see now that night was setting in. Da Mo was feeling his way through the woods like a blind man, praying to the gods for help when he came upon a cave. “the gods have blessed me,” he thought. As he entered the cave and got out of the rain he could not see a thing but was stepping on something, ‘crunching’ sounds came from beneath his feet. ‘Perhaps twigs and leaves blown into the cave by the wind’ he thought. As he got deeper in the cave he sat down and found what felt like hay, ‘the gods have blessed me’ he thought as he balled the hay like material up and made a bed and pillow. Da Mo laid down and as he was falling asleep he thanked the gods for a place to lay his head for the night, out of the rain.
In the middle of the night Da Mo awoke with a powerful thirst and even though he could see nothing, he heard dripping of water near-by so he crawled over and found the water dripping, allowed it to drip on his hand, tasted it and it was good. As his hand dropped slightly, he felt a bowl like object that had trapped a small amount of water. He picked this goblet like object up and drank from it, thinking, ‘the gods have truly blessed me,’ so he quenched his thirst, set the object down, crawled back to his make shift bed and went back to sleep.
The next day, morning came and the sun’s light entered the cave and illuminated it enough that Da Mo could now see that the crunching sounds he heard coming into the cave was actually bones, the hay he had made a bed with was really hair and the bowl he had drank from in the dark was really a human skull. He was in a burial cave. Da Mo felt slightly ill from this thoughts and went back to the monastery feeling enlightened. What had Da Mo learned… Enemies of the Mind, for every thing was a blessing until his mind had told him it was not.
20 comments
Comments feed for this article
August 21, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Mr WordPress
Hi, this is a comment.
To delete a comment, just log in, and view the posts’ comments, there you will have the option to edit or delete them.
October 28, 2011 at 2:15 pm
zendictive (zen is addictive~) « choiceposts
[…] My name is Art, I created the blog, Zendictive, as a result of my notebook falling apart. I needed a place to put a mountain of zen stories that I have collected over the years. I was told, “Art, you need a blog,” so, I found WordPress. The original purpose of collecting these stories was to use them during the cool down periods of a martial arts class. At the end of a strenuous work out the body needs to cool down before going into a different climate (like a can of soda taken from a cooler and set on a table, condensation forms due to the instant climate change.) The body does the same thing, (it is called a cold) so I would have the students sit and meditate while their bodies cooled down. While meditating, I would give them something to meditate on. (Younger student have a hard time sitting still and stories seem to help them stay focused) I planted seeds in their minds that I hoped would grow a garden of wisdom. The motto for Inner Spirit Martial Arts is: Strengthen the body, Sharpen the mind and Enrich the spirit. My goal is to allow these zen stories to help others grow in a good way and help them to hurtle the obstacles we all encounter in life. So, I collected a lot of zen stories, wrote many my self and tried to give the class a new story every day (rather than tell a handful of stories over and over.) Zen tales give a feel of ancient oriental wisdom which can be alluring and seems to be expected from those who sign up for martial arts. The mind and body both need exercise and fuel to grow correctly. To instill zen in another is, to me, like the phrase “teach a man to fish and you feed them for life.” Instill them with zen and they find peace of mind in life. Teach them about honor and honor will be their guide. Zen is defined as the state of being, enlightenment and (my favorite) is the road one takes in order to be at peace with themself and finding tranquility in the universe. Remember, acceptance is the key to tranquility. The more I learned and read the more I wanted to read and learn. I literally hunt for new, fresh zen tales I haven’t read before (hence, I began creating my own). Poetry, well, that is just a part of me I can not contain. To me, zen became addictive, therefore, I came up with the name, zendictive! My favorite zen tale is the first post on my blog, zendictive, called: enemies of the mind […]
November 14, 2011 at 5:39 am
Divya Srikanth
Wow!
November 26, 2011 at 7:20 pm
7×7 award « zendictive
[…] Most Helpful, well I think my first post is the most enlightening story that I tell so that would be… Enemies of the mind […]
December 14, 2011 at 4:19 am
The Twelve Days of a Zen Christmas « zendictive
[…] enemies of the mind 4 blind men an an elephant […]
December 26, 2011 at 5:26 pm
WordsFallFromMyEyes
That’s just great. He really did believe it was all a blessing, until his mind told him it was not. But ugh, who wants to drink from a human skull?
I didn’t know you used to teach kung fu! Is that a picture of you on the right? I do love martial arts; it’s really wholesome.
Happy New Year to you & your family, Zendictive 🙂
January 4, 2012 at 7:45 pm
sufilight
Wow! I subscribed to your blog, thanks to Kathy (Pocket Perspectives) mentioning your House of Mirrors story in her latest blog. 🙂 Our personal world is literally created by our perception and this story clearly illustrates it. I fully realized this about a week ago, when my mate and I were having our daily spiritual chats in the park. As I looked at the lake in front of me with the geese and ducks, the trees, twigs and grass sorrounding the lake, and with a quiet mind I realized everything in that lake was equal: the ducks, geese, trees, twigs, grass, it all was subject to my perception and definition of it. It brought me to tears when I saw/experienced this clearly. I cried because I realize that we humans suffer from our identifaction with our minds, bodies and our filters.
January 14, 2012 at 1:20 pm
ntexas99
I found my way here by way of the Candle Lighter Award where your blog was nominated by Moonlightened Way.
I love the wisdom in this story … “for every thing was a blessing until his mind had told him it was not.” What an astonishing way to illustrate the power of our minds, and perspective. Lovely.
January 18, 2012 at 10:09 am
have a zendictive day « zendictive
[…] enemies of the mind […]
March 9, 2012 at 5:40 am
Treasures « zendictive
[…] enemies of the mind […]
May 17, 2012 at 2:33 pm
rococonnor
Reblogged this on rococonnor and commented:
such a great story.
May 17, 2012 at 2:35 pm
rococonnor
What a lovely story – I did martial arts too, so really relate to it. I love your writing, and come back here often.
August 4, 2012 at 2:34 pm
Karina
Hi Art, Thank you so much for such an inspiring blog and for re-blogging my “Short story about a ladybird beetle” and for the wonderful pictures that you added to it. By the way I recently saved another ladybird beetle, so it seems that they have a communication as well… 😉 Nice to find like-minded people in the net. Thank you.
Karina
February 10, 2014 at 4:42 am
cardio workout plan
It’s the best time to make a few plans for the longer term and it’s time
to be happy. I have read this put up and if I may just I
wish to suggest you few interesting things or advice.
Perhaps you could write subsequent articles regarding this article.
I wish to read more things approximately it!
February 20, 2014 at 6:00 am
family survival system
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this excellent blog!
I guess for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS
feed to my Google account. I look forward to brand new updates and will share this blog with my Facebook
group. Talk soon!
March 7, 2014 at 1:03 pm
discover more
Valuable info. Lucky me I found your site by chance,
and I am shocked why this twist of fate didn’t came about in advance!
I bookmarked it.
April 23, 2014 at 4:21 pm
lifestyle
Greetings from Los angeles! I’m bored at work so
I decided to browse your website on my iphone during lunch break.
I really like the info you present here and can’t wait to take a look
when I get home. I’m surprised at how quick your blog loaded on my mobile ..
I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, good blog!
April 28, 2014 at 8:13 am
windows 8 loader
Hey there! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance
from an established blog. Is it tough to sset up your own blog?
I’m not very techincal but I can figure things
oout pretyy fast. I’m thinkin about setting up my own but I’m not
sure where to begin. Do you have any points or suggestions?
Appreciate it
April 30, 2014 at 6:32 am
zendictive
word press is easy and has a lot of features that keep the blog fresh. good luck!
August 20, 2014 at 8:33 pm
how to get pregnant with multiple babies naturally
I know this web page provides quality depending posts and extra information,
is there any other site which provides these kinds of things in quality?