What is this Zen?

If the practitioner of Zen could understand that everything he encountered was empty and meaningless then he could be free to focus on each moment as if that moment was all that he had in the world.

And indeed, each moment of now is all that he has in the world. The rest is an illusion. He would need to remember to discuss this with his master, but maybe not!

Zen Stories

It is told that a Zen master once threw a person out for the window when that person asked him how to meditate.

In another story, it is told that when two monks were arguing over ownership of a cat in a Zen monastery, the master simply took the cat, cut it in half with meat cleaver and give one half to each monk.

It is told that these sort of shock tactics often bring on states of enlightenment.