When Dan Shen came into the world, he saw a wolf chasing a hare. He killed the wolf and saved the hare from death. Soon he saw another wolf chasing another hare. He caught the hare and fed the wolf. Then he saw the third hare and the third wolf, and said: “I cannot save all the hares and feed all the wolves. I tried both, and it is no longer interesting to me.” Someone asked Dan Shen: “You talk so much about power over feelings, but what will you do yourself if you are in unbearable pain?” "Like what?" — Dan Shen answered, “Yell!”
One day Dan Shen saw a man suffering from an arrow stuck in his shoulder.
“Let me take it out!” he suggested.
However, the man objected, saying that he had been walking with her for a long time, was used to it, and did not experience any inconvenience. Dan Shen rushed at the man, knocked him down and pulled out an arrow. He left, showering Dan Shen with abuse. After some time, he felt better and came to Dan Shen to thank and apologize for his unkind words.
“Your gratitude,” replied Dan Shen, “is as unnecessary to me as your curses. I did what I considered necessary, and whether you recovered or died is your business.”
"What is the Path?" - Dan Shen was asked. “If I were carving a Buddha statue according to the rule of one blow and three bows, and I was almost finished, and I had only one ear left to carve, and I got tired of this activity, then I would leave it. This is what the Path means.”
One day Dan Shen was walking along the road and saw a man sitting under a tree. The man said: “I haven’t eaten all day, give me something!” “But I have nothing,” Dan Shen replied. “Then could you climb the tree and gather some fruit for me, since I don’t know how to climb trees?”
Dan Shen was about to climb the tree, but asked: “What did you eat last time?” “A kind man climbed a tree and gave me a treat.”
Then Dan Shen walked away with the words: “It will be easier for me if you learn to climb trees!”
One day Dan Shen spent the night in a haystack, covered with a cloak. The owner of a nearby house, seeing this, invited him to his place. Dan Shen refused with the words: “As long as there is no rain, my cloak is no worse than your house. And if it were raining, I would have come to your house even before you came to me.”
Once someone argued to Dan Shen that there is no need to diligently engage in meditation, since the world constantly shows a person signs that one only needs to be able to interpret: the weather, the creaking of a door or tree, encounters on the roads, birds singing, the barking of a dog, finally... Dan Shen, having listened, kicked the dog that turned up at his feet, and when it ran away barking, he said: interpret this bark for me!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru