Guishan’s “You Have to Find Out for Yourself”

Guishan’s “You Have to Find Out for Yourself”

Guishan was once asked by Commander Lu in the monastics’ hall, “Among these advanced monastics, who are meal servers and who are meditators?”
Guishan said, “There are no meal servers and no meditators.”
Lu said, “Then what are they doing here?”
Guishan said, “Officer, you will have to find that out for yourself.”

Student: “What did they do if they neither served meals nor meditated?”
Master: “They did what you do now.”
Student: “I am asking you questions now. How could they do what I am doing now when they couldn’t ask you like this?”
Master: “You don’t know what they did because you don’t know what you are doing now.”

Commentary:
A drop of seawater is enough to know that seawater is salty.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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