concentration

  • The Hunchback Catching Cicadas

    This interprets the hunchback catching cicadas parable from Zhuangzi ‑ Da Sheng chapter. Through disciplined pellet stacking practice, the hunchback gains supreme skill via undivided focus, showing how humble craft can evolve into alignment with the Dao.

  • Caigentan 44. Rejecting vanity in virtue and scholarship

    A man who pursues learning must collect his scattered thoughts and concentrate all his mental powers on his studies.

  • The Story of Qiu the Go Master

    Playing Go is a minor art; yet even so, you must give your whole attention to it to learn it.

  • Neither One Nor Three

    Chan Master Wuzhu (714–774 CE), founder of the Baotang School — one of Tang Dynasty’s ten great Chan lineages — studied under Master Wuxiang at Chengdu’s Jingzhong Temple and became his Dharma heir. Master Wuzhu taught “no-thought” Zen, guiding seekers beyond dogma. His school’s essence lay in “Any arising thought is delusion; cease the…