Old Risu's Toe Nails
126 - 150


126. A student asked the sensei,
"If a worthless monkey reads the sutras
Could he be enlightened?"
Old Risu laughed and replied,
"I see you've tried it."

127. "Beware when the old man
Locks his eyebrows.
Then he is really going nowhere,"
Said the sensei one morning.

128. Old Risu told his students,
"I don't dwell in my own house.
You don't dwell in your own house.
Where do you sleep at night?"
When no one answered he said,
"Mud snails passing but to where?"

129. "On a good day
I can stand and lay down.
How is it with you
When the bells rings,"
Said old Risu?

130. "Your futile gesture
Makes my umbrella open up,"
Said old Risu
Watching some students recite sutras.

131. Dokyo Chozen asked,
"What do you call it
When I kick your behind?"
Old Risu laughed saying,
"Obstinate old donkey!
Nothing.
I never saw it coming."

132. One note of Dharma.
No one can write such music.
Yet when Dokyo Chozen sat
He always heard it.

133. Everyday old Risu said,
"Vanishing near.
Vanishing far.
Vanishing here.
Now, where was I?"

134. "Your head is broken,"
Said old Risu to his student.
"How can you know when midnight arrives?
No knock on the door will show you."

135. One day a student confided to old Risu,
"Master, I cannot understand your thinking."
The sensei waved his stick and said,
"What a releif."

136. "Everyday all I hear from you students
Is Bodhidharma this and Bodhidharma that."
Old Risu rose and then threw his
Cushion at them shouting,
"See! Bodhidharma isdead!
Let him go."

137. A student asked,
"When were you born?"
Old Risu replied, "I never was."
The student made a face and whispered, "impossible."
The sensei told him,
"Rat on a stick."

138. Hoame asked,
"Where do I go to get enlightened?"
Old Risu told her,
"Three steps down the back road."

139. "When a student visits his sensei
What should he do,"
A student asked?
"The sensei should make some tea
And drink it himself."
"Ah, then what," added the student?
Old Risu pounded the floor.
""I'll make some rice but I'm not hungry."

140. "Of all the objects in the universe
Which is the most tangible,"
Asked old Risu of his sensei?
"Your head," said Dokyo Chozen.

141. A student said,
"What is the difference
Between me and you?"
Old Risu did not hesitate to say,
"In reality nothing at all."
"Then why am I the student
And you the sensei," challenged the student?
"Ahe, there you are in reality,"
Old Risu said.

142. "If you see a fish in a leaky barrel
Delivered through the door
What can you say,"
The sensei asked his attendant?
When no answer came old Risu said,
""How nice to meet new students."

143. One day Old Risu rose,
Tore his zafu to pieces,
And just stood there.
"Is that all there is," he thundered?
The sensei sat down.

144. A student said,
"I get up everyday
And eat everyday.
So what's wrong with me?"
Old Risu said,
"That's it exactly."

145. A student asked old Risu,
"Show me your mind!"
"Spare change,"
Was all the Sensei said.

146. One day old Risu hung a sign
Above the entry to the meditation hall.
It read:
"Patriarch killers need not apply."

147. "Master, I'm tired of being asked
What was your original face before you were born,"
Said a student.
"How about this then," said old Risu.
"Where did you come from before you were born?"

148. One day old Risu instructed his students,
"I have not come here today
So someone else must give you a lesson."
With that he left the meditation hall.

149. "This morning I tell you
When the moon comes up I sit down,"
Said the student sitting down.
"When the moon sets I stand,"
He continued as he stood.
"How about it now," said old Risu?

150. A priest told old Risu,
"I have never been here before
But I've seen you."
The sensei walked a circle around the priest
And said, "I've never seen you."
Screaming he cried,
"Help! The ape is loose!"

Enjoy and have a good night,
T.S., Nita, and the perniscious ten
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