A monk asked Joshu, “What will you do if the true-Self comes like this?” Joshu answered, “I meet it like this.” The monk said, “What will you do if it doesn’t come like this?” Joshu said, “I meet it like this.” The monk said, “Meeting it like this when it comes like this makes sense, but what do you mean by meeting it like this when it doesn’t come?” Joshu said, “That’s enough. We need not talk. My Dharma is so subtle and profound that it is beyond thinking.”
Student: “Why did Joshu say that he met the true-Self like that when it didn’t come.”
Master: “Because it came.”
Student: “When did it come?”
Master: “Not only when the monk said, ‘If the true-Self comes’ but also when he said, ‘If it doesn’t come’.”
Commentary:
Asking and answering is the function of the true-Self.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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