On seeing a monk approach, Rinzai stretched out both hands, palms upwards. The monk made no response. Rinzai said, “Do you understand?” The monk said, “No, I do not.” The master said, “What an idiot! I give you two pence as travel expenses.”
Commentary:
When Rinzai, stretching out both hands, said to the monk, “Do you understand?”, he was asking the monk whether he could recognise the true-Self that Rinzai himself was revealing. Unfortunately, the monk failed to grasp Rinzai’s intention. Sensing that the monk missed the point, Rinzai added, “What an idiot! I give you two pence as travel expenses,” which means, “I reveal the true-Self one more time to you for the cost of your trouble in coming here. This is what the reward for the effort you made to come to see me.” The heart of the problem here is whether the readers who are reading this can really obtain the ‘two pence as travel expenses’.
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©Boo Ahm
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