{"id":17646,"date":"2017-11-21T01:30:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T09:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?p=17646"},"modified":"2017-11-21T14:03:30","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T22:03:30","slug":"looking-zen-teacher-thoughts-might-qualified-well-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2017\/11\/looking-zen-teacher-thoughts-might-qualified-well-not.html","title":{"rendered":"The Monkey Is Reaching: Zen Master Hakuin Gives Us a Pointer"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/81\/2017\/11\/Monkey-Reaching-for-The-Moon-Ohara-Koson.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17654\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-17654\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/81\/2017\/11\/Monkey-Reaching-for-The-Moon-Ohara-Koson-300x278.jpg\" alt=\"Monkey Reaching for The Moon - Ohara Koson\" width=\"400\" height=\"378\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>The monkey is reaching<\/em><br>\n<em> for the moon in the water.<\/em><br>\n<em> Until death overtakes him<\/em><br>\n<em> he\u2019ll never give up.<\/em><br>\n<em> If he\u2019d let go of the branch and<\/em><br>\n<em>disappear in the deep pool,<\/em><br>\n<em> the whole world would shine<\/em><br>\n<em> with dazzling pureness.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hakuin_Ekaku\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Hakuin Ekaku<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And it this isn\u2019t startlingly clear, here\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lionsroar.com\/about-a-poem-henry-shukman-on-hakuin-ekakus-the-monkey-is-reaching-september-2012\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">brief comment<\/a> by Zen teacher Henry Shukman<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 The monkey is reaching for the moon in the water. Until death overtakes him he\u2019ll never give up. If he\u2019d let go of the branch and disappear in the deep pool, the whole world would shine with dazzling pureness. Hakuin Ekaku And it this isn\u2019t startlingly clear, here\u2019s a brief comment by Zen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":17654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,5],"tags":[706,707,41,705,39,8,176],"class_list":["post-17646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buddhism","category-zen","tag-hakuin-ekaku","tag-monkey-reaching-for-the-moon","tag-shikantaza","tag-teaching-zen-meditation","tag-zazen","tag-zen","tag-zen-meditation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Monkey Is Reaching: Zen Master Hakuin Gives Us a Pointer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; The monkey is reaching for the moon in the water. Until death overtakes him he&#039;ll never give up. 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