As soon as the autumn arrived, a dog called Aison lost his master as well as his home. In order to survive, he had no choice but to seek help from the Abbot of Fenglin Temple. Aison was tremendously grateful to the Abbot who had decided to take him into his care, consequently, Aison tried to find ways and means to return the Abbot's kindness. One day, Aison became enraged by the sight of a mouse while in the chanting hall, and determined to drive the mouse away. Who would have thought that the mouse turned out to be a disciple of the abbot! His name was Ah Su, a Zen practitioner residing in the temple. After the dust had settled, Aison began to adore Ah Su and appealed to the abbot to let him learn the way of Zen. As all forms of life originated from the same source , the abbot accordingly accepted Aison's request, and he also told Ah Su to coach him. At this moment in time, Ah Su already had a fairly good standard of understanding Zen, he was therefore able to give Aison's questions a bit of advice, however, as far as he was concerned, Ah Su was an incomprehensible little fellow, because his answers invariably made him unable to begin to understand. In order to extricate Aison from his predicament, the abbot subsequently told him that there was a moon within everyone of us, and it was up to the individual to discover from one's own experience and understanding. The Abbot was fully aware that practising Zen did not confine to meditating and chanting in the temple, as the society was also a huge place where Buddhist rites could be performed. As a result, Aison was called to see the abbot who wanted him to take a leisurely stroll outside the temple, and returned the next day. Aison was full of cheerfulness, he dashed out of the temple and headed straight to the town centre where he once lived. During his journey Aison decided to have a short break in the park, where he never thought in his wildest dream that he would end up having a dispute with a crow. As a matter of fact, that crow was Zen practitioners' guarding angel, and he was only fooling around with Aison. However, the crow told Aison, in the style of verse, that lives merely repeat themselves, only returning to the Ultimate mind that one could be leisurely and carefree. This prompted Aison to ponder on the issue of mind. Aison had arrived at the town centre that he knew so well, the very sight immediately struck a chord in his heart and called to mind his past which upset him, but the recollection only served to intensify his desire to search for his true-self. In the process of looking for dinner, Aison came across two cats which threw abuse at him despite him talking politely to them. It was lamentable to think of the subjective preconceived ideas that cats had towards dogs. He understood that consciousness of the mind and that of true-self was an integral whole, and that true-self is always overwhelmed by consciousness of the mind and consequently led to the loss of our wisdom. The 'little me' (the fake-self) was inside the 'large me' (the true-self) , just liked white rabbit in the snowfield. After the hostile treatment by the cats, Aison moved on and eventually reached a river bank in the night brightened by the light of the silvery moon. The image of the moon in the river was the reflection of the moon in the sky; while the moon in one's heart originated from the source of life. Having walked all day long, Aison was truly exhausted and looked forward to have a sleep, by the river bank, that was free from dream, as well as the disturbance of the consciousness of the mind. he woke up to a beautiful and sunny morning the next day, there were young mothers pushing their prams leisurely along the bank, while young people were engaged in baseball game. Soon after Aison started to walk home lazily towards the Fenglin Temple, an accident broke out: a young baseball player trundled down the steep slope and collided head on with a young mother pushing the pram, the force of the collision sent the pram and the baby flying into the river. Aison was visibly shaken by what he saw, and without any consideration for his own safety, he leaped up with a big stride forward and dived into the river. Fortunately, Aison was good at swimming, and he eventually brought the baby safely to the shore. Those waiting on the bank rushed forward to lend a hand to take over the baby and left, not a single soul paid the slightest attention to Aison ,who could only watch people's back as they faded slowly out of view, felt being overlooked. However, he didn't fuss about it, as far as he was concerned, saving lives was the root of happiness Aison took a rest under the tree, and his mind had gone complete blank owing to exhaustion. While he was resting, a spot of light suddenly appeared in front of his eyes, and in the twinkling of an eye, the spot had transformed itself, right in front of Aison into a human form. That was a highly dignified angel surrounded with amiable atmosphere. He was full of praise for Aison and also felt regrettable that human beings did not attach much importance to dogs' loyalties for them. In any case, animals that quietly made contribution towards human beings would be justly reciprocated. Further more, the angel encouraged Aison to double up his effort to practise the way of Zen in order to have an early break away from transmigration. The angel melted into light and faded away as soon as he finished saying those words, and closely followed by Aison's involuntary screen, thinking that he was having a dream, but he heard the familiar voice of the crow telling him that wasn't a dream. It was a blessing from the angel for Aison's good deeds, which enabled him to experience the inner world. Aison dragged his tired out body to continue the journey home which was still far away, but he had no doubt that as long as didn't take any more break and not turning back, he was certain to reach home eventually. Fenglin Temple was finally within sight, and Aison had already felt the joy of being home again. The moon above Fenglin hill was round and bright that particular night, and under the moonlight, the mind of the three of them„omaster and apprentices, and the universe high level consciousness, had by then, merged into a unified entity, their existence was no longer confined to form and structure, because their mind contained everything, and Zen was that satisfactory mind. There was an important role in this story, and it was that of the crow which arrived on the scene at the very first page of the illustration for the story. The crow was the incarnation of the guarding angel. In real life, crows were perceived by people as negative images, however, it was a deliberate attempt, on the part of the guarding angel, to present himself as a negative figure so as to trap and test those who practised Zen. Similarly, in the case of Ah Su the mouse, who was also not normally welcome by people. Nonetheless, Ah Su actually played the part of an Enlightened creature. Being discriminated because of one's appearance or background were by no means rare among ancient Zen masters when they first became Enlightened. Among the best known example was about Hui Neng, the great Zen master, who was even pursued by his assailant but fortunately he came to no harm and went on to become the man who carried Zen Buddhism forward in China. Mind is said to be the central idea of Zen Buddhism, it shifts ordinary people's minds to the Ultimate mind of true-self people. Therefore, this story tells the process that Aison, the protagonist's inner mind gradually evolved, needless to say, the one thing that did not change is his quality. The last page of the illustration depicts the moon in the sky shines on these three persons„omaster and apprentices, whose shadows form the Chinese character "chuan" (three vertical strokes) which means river. This story adopts the ancient Zen poem: Moon shines on thousand rivers Where there are water there emerges the moon Cloudless sky extends endlessly Where the sky is boundless

Preview coming soon.

I left my public servant's job in 1982 to begin my Asian tour. During the 1980's, in addition to having different cultures, Asian nations also implemented different political and economic systems, and there was a huge variation for people from different regions in terms of life pattern, way of thinking and value orientation. As our livelihood depends on the various environments under which people bring about corresponding life patterns and ways of thinking. One could also put it this way, people do change according to their environment, in other words, people can be transformed and remoulded unconsciously if the environment in which they live is skilfully altered by design. It is not unlike to say that if you let a ray of white beam filter through a pane of colour glass that you like, then the colour of the light transmitted would precisely be the one you want. I started to ponder over an issue: what is human beings' original selves? What do human beings ought to do in order to maintain being in the state of white beam. We are currently living in the era of information explosion, the period of consumerism, various kinds of information are exactly like multicoloured glass panes through which people's thoughts shuttle to and fro, slowly and surely, people's conduct, habit and custom of life changed imperceptibly, and gradually lost the white- colour beam, and consequently deviate from the original self. So, what is meant by original self ? That is what Zen Buddhism usually refers to as "Liberated Mind" ƒ{it is a mind that integrates with high level of consciousness, and it is free from being influenced by improper thought. High level consciousness also called Buddha-nature and true-self etc., "Reveal my true features" is a saying that is frequently mentioned in Zen Buddhism, and it is this very sentence that arouses my interest in Zen. Zen was introduced by Bodhidharma, an Indian monk, to China in 475 AD, and it was prevalent during Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) periods, contrary to its gradual decline in China afterwards, it became widespread in Japan. It was also for this reason that I decided to make Japan my final destination. I returned to Singapore at a later date and worked there for a period of time before I went back to Japan where I stayed for nearly twenty years, only wanting to learn, through my personal experience, the influence that Zen Buddhism's culture has on the Japanese society. Zen Buddhism was introduced to Japan in c.1168 AD and it spreads to present generation. Japan is also the first Asian nation to become modernized after World War II and I found it highly interesting to observe how the society's mental outlook of this nation was going to unfold itself before one's eyes, further more, how many Japanese people had actually blended the spirit of Zen into the conduct of their daily lives. After putting three disciples to the test on the level of understanding of complete enlightenment, an ancient Zen Master told the first disciple that: " You have won my flesh" ; to the second one he said: " You have acquired my bone-marrow"; and to the third disciple : " You have captured my soul". Have the modern Japanese still preserves their understanding of the Way of Zen? As a matter of fact, Zen could only be realised through direct spiritual experiential knowledge, it isn't something with shape or shapeless, or even a concept, it could only be comprehended through one's mind, it is just like the tacit agreement between lovers. Understanding the Way of Zen refers to the renewal of agreement of integration between an individual's mind and the universe's high level consciousness, this high level consciousness is omnipresent, the level of understanding the way of Zen is tantamount to the level of integration between mind and this category of consciousness. Energy of all lives originated from higher consciousness, therefore, even if someone is not aware of the existence of high level consciousness, the manifestation of all his conduct and thought is still considered to be Zen. There is no level distinction as far as Zen is concerned, however, there is a different level in people's understanding of the way of Zen. It is truly commendable that, according to my own feeling, aftertaste of Zen's elegant demeanour still exists in today's Japanese society, this is because the spirit of Zen has, more or less, blended into their culture, although in general, people probably don't understand Zen a great deal. I reckon Japanese society is still able to maintain a certain degree of Zen flavour, this is mainly due to Japanese society still places strong emphasis on harmony, which manifests in their etiquette, language and the manner by which one deals with people. Japanese society attaches great importance to being in harmony with nature and environment. Secondly, the concentration of mind, the Japanese totally absorbed in what they pursueƒ{ cultivation and training of "The Way of Sword" and "The Tea Ceremony" are two classic examples. Thirdly, it is to maintain inner calmness. Japanese people are fond of the phrase "with light and dust" which means blending with the worldly things, it implies that one does not seek to be above others. The word "dust" refers to both the material world and dust in the atmosphere, in a nutshell, light and dust co-exist and free from contaminating and disturbing each other, and light still manages to preserve its original features. If one's mind is free from contamination of the material world, and treats fame and gain with sense of balance, then one would be able to maintain one's original features. Modern society has become increasingly complex, people spend too much time on pondering over matters. It is necessary for people to return to unsophisticated and kind-hearted sort of attitude. Therefore I contemplate embodying Zen's connotation, and particularly the relaxed, witty and carefree philosophy of life in the way of Zen, by adopting simple story with natural portray of characters. While watching a TV documentary, in 2008, on the ways dogs help blind people, I was tremendously impressed by these well disciplined and highly intelligent creatures, which truly possess the virtue of helping others. On one occasion, a monk asked Zhao Zou (778-897), the great Chinese Zen Master: "Does a dog have Buddha Nature ?" Zhao Zou said "No" in reply, he went on to explain that it was because dogs were not aware of their possession of it, therefore , in effect they do not have it. I think this also applies to mankind. Anyway, this book is only telling a story which does not have a religious dimension, although Zen thinking has been adopted as its background. I would like to dedicate this book to all dog and animal lovers in a wider sense.