title: Nothing Holy: Tales of Zen Buddhist Scoundrels
author: Mel C. Thompson
description: Mel C. Thompson is a former Born Again Christian who got his degree in Philosophy in 1982 and fell in with unsavory lots of substance-abusers, blasphemers, sex-addicts, psychiatric patients, poets and religious lunatics of all kinds. Along the way, he tasted the offerings of conventional religion in all its forms and still dabbles with organized religion from time to time. After writing Christians songs and being a youth minister, he went on to develop a habit of sitting Za Zen and reading the Tao Te Ching and following the thinking of all of the most discredited gurus and teachers. He later wrote Buddhist hymns and Nerd-Core rap and became a part-time radio personality. He mingled with the stars and fraternized with world-class failures. There was more than a good share of dashing about the planet, searching all corners of the cosmos. The results were simple enough. 99% of what is presented is sheer fraud, the other 1% is accidental lies. In any case, this did not disillusion Mel C. Thompson, but amused him as he continued to write little aphorisms and short stories attempting to get at the marrow of our silly journey on this fleck of rock spinning around a fly-by-night sun. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a good bottle of sake and a good woman from the escort service. All that being said, Mel C. Thompson never equalled Bodhidharma's saying that, "If you see the Buddha in the road, kill him," but could only get as far as, "If you see a preacher that takes himself seriously, give him the finger."
zlib_text: > > **ZEN FLESH, ZEN BONES**
  
  Compiled by
  
  Paul Reps
  
  Table of Contents
  
    *  _Foreword_
    * 101 ZEN STORIES
      * 1\. A Cup of Tea
      * 2\. Finding a Diamond on a Muddy Road
      * 3\. Is That So?
      * 4\. Obedience
      * 5\. If You Love, Love Openly
      * 6\. No Loving-Kindness
      * 7\. Announcement
      * 8\. Great Waves
      * 9\. The Moon cannot be Stolen
      * 10\. The Last Poem of Hoshin
      * 11\. The Story of Shunkai
      * 12\. Happy Chinaman
      * 13\. A Buddha
      * 14\. Muddy Road
      * 15\. Shoun and His Mother
      * 16\. Not Far from Buddahood
      * 17\. Stingy in Teaching
      * 18\. A Parable
      * 19\. The First Principle
      * 20\. A Mother’s Advice
      * 21\. The Sound of One Hand
      * 22\. My Heart Burns Like Fire
      * 23\. Eshun’s Departure
      * 24\. Reciting Sutras
      * 25\. Three Days More
      * 26\. Trading Dialogue for Lodging
      * 27\. The Voice of Happiness
      * 28\. Open Your Own Treasure House
      * 29\. No Water, No Moon
      * 30\. Calling Card
      * 