Zen Koan – Hekiganroku – No. 4 – Zen Master Tokusan visits Isan

The Case

The wandering scholar Tokusan came to the monastery of the Zen master Isan. With the bundle under his arm he climbed up to the teaching hall, crossed it to the west, went back from west to east, saw the monks, said: "Nothing there, nothing there," and left the hall.

(Setcho says: "See through it!")

When they reached the courtyard gate, the private scholar Tokusan hesitated and said to himself: I must not be hasty either; He adjusted his pilgrim's robe, entered for the second time and announced himself at the gate for his visit. When Master Isan was seated in the audience, Tokusan solemnly raised his knee shawl and addressed him: VENUE! Isan made a hand gesture as if he wanted to reach for his yak tail (originally a fly whisk, later a symbol of mastery). You roared Tokusan: Ho! - brushed off his sleeves and walked out of the hall.

(Setcho says: "See through it!")

Tokusan tied his sandals back on and went on his way. In the evening, Isan asked the chairman of the brotherhood: "Where did the wandering priest from before go?" The chairman replied: "He then immediately left the hall, tied his sandals on and went out and away." Isan then said to his monks: "This man of honor will one day visit the loneliest mountain peak; weave a rush hut for himself on the top and from there curse the Buddha and revile all the patriarchs."

(Setcho says: "Frost on top of snow!")

Engo's Introduction

Somebody should understand this: one time “the great work” grabs a blade of grass on the Way and turns it into a sixteen-foot gold Buddha. The other time it takes the sixteen-foot gold Buddha and makes a blade of grass out of it. The same master encourages a novice to sit and meditate for years, and uses a humorous parable to dissuade another monk, who spent years meditating on a rock as if he were carved from stone, from doing so. Because your own heart is already Buddha. Cloudless blue sky, bright midday sun: you can no longer show where to go east or mark the way to the west. And if a dragon runs into a tiger, which is better: hold on or let it run free?

Verse

Seen through in the first pass; Looked through with knee towel and ho' There wasn't much missing to fall. Daring rider in the enemy's camp, came out again, alive and unharmed... In the highest mountains he sits in the flowering grass at the bottom of the mountain slope. Well, stop the poor singing already.