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Zen Stories
Banishing a Ghost
The wife of a man became very sick. On her deathbed, she
said to him, "I love you so much! I don't want to leave you,
and I don't want you to betray me. Promise that you will not see any
other women once I die, or I will come back to haunt you."
For several months after her death, the husband did avoid other
women, but then he met someone and fell in love. On the night that
they were engaged to be married, the ghost of his former wife
appeared to him. She blamed him for not keeping the promise, and
every night thereafter she returned to taunt him. The ghost would
remind him of everything that transpired between him and his fiancee
that day, even to the point of repeating, word for word, their
conversations. It upset him so badly that he couldn't sleep at all.
Desperate, he sought the advice of a Zen master who lived near the
village. "This is a very clever ghost," the master said
upon hearing the man's story. "It is!" replied the man.
"She remembers every detail of what I say and do. It knows
everything!" The master smiled, "You should admire such a
ghost, but I will tell you what to do the next time you see
it."
That night the ghost returned. The man responded just as the master
had advised. "You are such a wise ghost," the man said,
"You know that I can hide nothing from you. If you can answer
me one question, I will break off the engagement and remain single
for the rest of my life." "Ask your question," the
ghost replied. The man scooped up a handful of beans from a large
bag on the floor, "Tell me exactly how many beans there are in
my hand."
At that moment the ghost disappeared and never returned.
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