Trollheart

What I like about it is the line about wanting to be like God. Really makes it. Your one about the two words every ten years was bloody hilarious. I assume that was a joke and not a real tale?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Mr. Charlie

Two college professors were visiting a Zen Master in the mountains. One day whilst walking in the woods, they heard a beautiful chirping coming the trees above. "What bird is that?", asked the first professor, turning to the master. "And why is it chirping like that?" enquired the second professor.
"It sounds beautiful", replied the master.

Frownland

George Mantor had an iris garden, which he improved each year by throwing out the commoner varieties. One day his attention was called to another very fine iris garden. Jealously he made some inquiries. The garden, it turned out, belonged to the man who collected his garbage.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Mr. Charlie

Haha. I like it.

Mr. Charlie

A Zen Master was walking in silence with one of his disciples along a mountain trail. When they came to an ancient cedar tree, they sat down under it for a simple meal of some rice and vegetables. After the meal, the disciple, a young monk who had not yet found the key to the mystery of Zen, broke the silence by asking the Master, "Master, how do I enter Zen?"

He was, of course, inquiring how to enter the state of conscious which is Zen.

The Master remained silent. Almost five minutes passed while the disciple anxiously waited for an answer. He was about to ask another question when the Master suddenly spoke. "Do you hear the sound of that mountain stream?"

The disciple had not been aware of any mountain stream. He had been too busy thinking about the meaning of Zen. Now, as he began to listen for the sound, his noisy mind subsided. At first he heard nothing. Then, his thinking gave way to heightened alertness, and suddenly he did hear the hardly perceptible murmur of a small stream in the far distance.

"Yes, I can hear it now," he said.

The Master raised his finger and, with a look in his eyes that in some way was both fierce and gentle, said, "Enter Zen from there."

The disciple was stunned. It was his first satori - a flash of enlightenment. He knew what Zen was without knowing what it was that he knew!

They continued on their journey in silence. The disciple was amazed at the aliveness as if for the first time. Gradually, however, he started thinking again. The alert stillness became covered up again by mental noise, and before long he had another question. "Master," he said, "I have been thinking. What would you have said if I hadn't been able to hear the mountain stream?"

The Master stopped, looked at him, raised his finger and said, "Then I would have told you to enter Zen from there."

Mr. Charlie

A Zen teacher saw five of his students returning from the market, riding their bicycles. When they arrived at the monastery and had dismounted, the teacher asked the students, “Why are you riding your bicycles?”

The first student replied, “The bicycle is carrying the sack of potatoes. I am glad that I do not have to carry them on my back!” The teacher praised the first student, “You are a smart boy! When you grow old, you will not walk hunched over like I do.”

The second student replied, “I love to watch the trees and fields pass by as I roll down the path!” The teacher commended the second student, “Your eyes are open, and you see the world.”

The third student replied, “When I ride my bicycle, I am content to chant nam myoho renge kyo.” The teacher gave praise to the third student, “Your mind will roll with the ease of a newly trued wheel.”

The fourth student replied, “Riding my bicycle, I live in harmony with all sentient beings.” The teacher was pleased, and said to the fourth student, “You are riding on the golden path of non-harming.”

The fifth student replied, “I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle.” The teacher sat at the feet of the fifth student and said, “I am your student!”

Mr. Charlie

Living in the Moment

There were two temples in a town - rivals, as temples are. Each didn't allow their devotees to go to the other temple. They were fiercely antagonistic. And both the priests - old priests, had a boy, one each, for odd things, odds and ends - to bring things from the market, this and that, and both had ordered their boy not to talk to the other, in the market or on the road: No! Those people of the other temple are so corrupted, don't talk to them!

But boys are boys, and when you forbid a boy and tell him not to do something he is bound to do it, it is natural. They became interested - what was the matter?

So one day they met on the road while they were going to the market to fetch something. The boy from temple one asked the other boy: "Where are you going?" The other boy said: "Wherever my legs will take me". The first boy was puzzled.

He came back and he asked his Master what to do: "You have prohibited me, but I am foolish; they are really bad people - I asked the boy a simple question: Where are you going? and he started talking nonsense, but he defeated me. I feel hurt."

The Master said: "You should not be so. Ask again tomorrow."

"He will say: Wherever my feet will take me, and then you ask him a Zen koan: If you had no feet then where would you go? Then he will be put right."

The next day the boy waited for the other boy to come. The other boy came, the first boy was ready, he asked: "Where are you going?" The other boy said: "I live spontaneously. Wherever the wind will take me." He never talked about feet.

The first boy was at a loss what to do: These people are really very cunning, and not reliable either. He has changed!

He came back very angry and said to the Master: "You are right, these people are very contradictory, inconsistent, not reliable at all. I was ready but the boy had changed his mind; he said: Wherever the wind takes me. I am like a white cloud. So what to say? Because clouds don't have any feet, legs, so how to..?" The Master said: "I know them well; these people are very inconsistent. Tomorrow you again ask him: Where are you going? He will say: Wherever the wind takes me. I am a white cloud. You ask him: If the wind is not blowing where will you be going?"

Next day the boy was ready again and when the two met he asked "Where are you going now?" The other boy said: I am going to the market to fetch vegetables.

Baihe

The Parable of the Lost Sheep
(Mt 18:12-14) “How think you? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”
I like this parable very much.Every time when I read this parable, I'm moved. This parable shows God's love for mankind. God likened everyone to a sheep, and if a sheep got lost, he would spare no effort to look for it.

Mr. Charlie

I think I remember that one from school.

Is Christianity popular in China, Baihe? I imagine that, in the same way religions like Hinduism and Buddhism seem exotic to the west, so religions like Christianity seem exotic to the east? But maybe not. Maybe it's only an imagining. And no more.

Baihe

Hi, friend. God bless you. I'm so pleased to tell you what I know. From the time when the Church of Almighty God was established, the chosen people of God have gained an ever deeper and higher knowledge of God, and the Church has increasingly expanded, with a growing number of believers and rapid spreading of the gospel. At present, there are tens of millions of followers of Almighty God in just China. This is God's power and almightiness. Almighty God says,"Today, God has returned to the world to do His work. His first stop is the grand assemblage of authoritarian rulers: China, the strong bastion of atheism. He has conquered a group of people by His wisdom and power. During the period, He is hunted by China’s ruling party in every means and subjected to great suffering, with no place to rest His head and unable to find a shelter. Despite this, God still continues the work He intends to do: He utters His voice and spreads the gospel. None can fathom the almightiness of God. In China, a country that regards God as an enemy, God has never ceased His work. Instead, more people have accepted His work and word, for God does all He can to save each and every member of mankind."(from The Word Appears in the Flesh)
Before I believe in God ,I had a imagination, I thought that God is the God of the Israelites or the God of the Jews but not the God of the Chinese.But Almighty God says,"Of the two stages of works in the past two ages, one was done in Israel and the other in Judea. On the whole, both stages of works were within Israel and were done on the first chosen people. So, to the Israelites, Jehovah God is only the God of the Israelites. And because Jesus worked in Judea and completed the work of crucifixion, in the eyes of the Jews, Jesus is the Redeemer of the Jews, he is only the king of the Jews, not the king of other people, he is not the Lord who redeems the British or the Lord who redeems the Americans but the Lord who redeems the Israelites, and the ones he redeems in Israel are the Jews. Actually, God is the Ruler of all things and the God of all created beings. He is not only the God of the Israelites or the God of the Jews; he is the God of all created beings. The past two stages of works were done in Israel; thus, there are some notions formed within people. They think that Jehovah did his work in Israel, and Jesus personally carried out his work in Judea and did it in Judea through being incarnated, and that in any case, God worked without going beyond the scope of Israel. He did not work on the Egyptians or on the Indians but only on the Israelites."(from The Word Appears in the Flesh)
After reading Almighty God's words, I understand that God is not only the God of the Israelites or the God of the Jews; he is the God of all created beings. God’s true identity is the Creator.Share a music video with you: