Explore — Taoverse

A monk asked, 'Does an enlightened person fall under the law of cause and effect?' The master answered, 'No.' For this answer, he was reborn as a fox for five hundred lifetimes.

Mumonkan, Case 2

awakening inquiry teaching life

Wakuan asked, 'Why has the Western Barbarian no beard?'

Mumonkan, Case 4

inquiry zen-koan

Kyogen said, 'It is like a man up in a tree hanging from a branch with his mouth. His hands grasp no branch, his feet rest on no limb. Someone appears beneath the tree and asks, "What is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West?" If he does not answer, he fails. If he does answer, he falls and loses his life. What should he do?'

Mumonkan, Case 5

inquiry paradox present-moment no-self

A monk asked Seijo, 'I understand that a Buddha who lived before recorded history sat in meditation for ten cycles of existence and could not realize the highest truth. Why was this so?' Seijo said, 'Your question is quite self-explanatory.' The monk asked, 'Since the Buddha was meditating, why could he not realize the truth?' Seijo said, 'He was not a Buddha.'

Mumonkan, Case 9

buddha-nature inquiry seeing no-self

A monk named Seizei asked Sozan, 'I am alone and poor. Please help me.' Sozan said, 'Seizei!' Seizei answered, 'Yes, master!' Sozan said, 'You have already drunk three cups of fine wine and still you say you have not yet moistened your lips.'

Mumonkan, Case 10

inquiry teaching seeing zen-koan

Joshu went to a hermit's cottage and asked, 'Is the master in? Is the master in?' The hermit raised his fist. Joshu said, 'The water is too shallow to anchor here,' and left. He went to another hermit and asked the same question. This hermit also raised his fist. Joshu said, 'Free to give, free to take, free to kill, free to save,' and made a deep bow.

Mumonkan, Case 11

inquiry teaching death life

Every day Zuigan would call to himself, 'Master!' and answer, 'Yes!' Then he would say, 'Be wide awake!' and answer, 'Yes! Yes!' 'Do not be deceived by others!' 'No! No!'

Mumonkan, Case 12

mind inquiry teaching present-moment

Monks of the eastern and western halls were disputing about a cat. Nansen held up the cat and said, 'If you can say a word of Zen, I will spare the cat. If not, I will cut it in two.' No one could answer. Nansen cut the cat. That evening Joshu returned. Nansen told him what had happened. Joshu took off his sandals, put them on his head, and walked out. Nansen said, 'If you had been there, the cat would have been saved.'

Mumonkan, Case 14

mind inquiry seeing beyond-words

When Tozan came to study with Ummon, Ummon asked, 'Where have you come from?' Tozan said, 'From Sato.' Ummon asked, 'Where were you during the summer?' Tozan replied, 'In the Hoji temple in Konan.' Ummon asked, 'When did you leave there?' Tozan answered, 'August twenty-fifth.' Ummon said, 'I spare you three blows.'

Mumonkan, Case 15

inquiry present-moment life zen-koan

Joshu asked Nansen, 'What is the Way?' Nansen answered, 'Everyday mind is the Way.' Joshu asked, 'Should I try to direct myself toward it?' Nansen said, 'If you try, you miss it.' Joshu asked, 'If I don't try, how can I know it is the Way?' Nansen replied, 'The Way does not belong to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is illusion, not knowing is blankness. If you truly reach the genuine Way, you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space. How can this be discussed at the level of affirmation and negation?'

Mumonkan, Case 19

emptiness mind inquiry everyday-life

A monk asked Unmon, 'What is Buddha?' Unmon answered, 'A dry shit-stick.'

Mumonkan, Case 21

buddha-nature inquiry sudden-insight zen-koan

Ananda asked Kashyapa, 'The World-Honored One transmitted to you the robe of gold brocade. What else did he transmit?' Kashyapa said, 'Ananda!' Ananda answered, 'Yes!' Kashyapa said, 'Knock down the flagpole at the gate.'

Mumonkan, Case 22

inquiry direct-experience life zen-koan

A monk asked Fuketsu, 'Both speech and silence are about essence and manifestation. How can we transcend both?' Fuketsu said, 'I always remember the spring in Konan, where the partridges sing. How fragrant the countless flowers!'

Mumonkan, Case 24

silence inquiry beyond-words no-self

Oryu said, 'There are three barriers to test students. First, you study Zen to see your nature. Where is your nature right now? Second, if you know your nature, you are free from birth and death. When your eyes close at death, how will you be free? Third, when you are free from birth and death, you know where to go. When your body separates into the four elements, where will you go?'

Mumonkan, Case 25

inquiry seeing beyond-thought present-moment

A non-Buddhist asked the Buddha, 'I do not ask for words, I do not ask for non-words.' The Buddha remained silent. The non-Buddhist said, 'The World-Honored One's great mercy has cleared away my delusions and enabled me to enter the path,' and he left. Ananda asked the Buddha, 'What did he realize?' The Buddha said, 'A good horse runs even at the shadow of the whip.'

Mumonkan, Case 32

buddha-nature silence inquiry beyond-words

A monk asked, 'What is Buddha?' Baso answered, 'No mind, no Buddha.'

Mumonkan, Case 33

buddha-nature mind inquiry present-moment

Goso said, 'Seijo and her soul were separated. Which was the real Seijo?'

Mumonkan, Case 35

inquiry no-self sudden-insight zen-koan

A monk asked Joshu, 'What is the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West?' Joshu said, 'The oak tree in the garden.'

Mumonkan, Case 37

inquiry seeing nature zen-koan

When Isan's teacher wanted to choose a successor, he asked who could answer correctly. He put a water vase on the ground and asked, 'Without calling it a water vase, what is it?' The head monk said, 'You cannot call it a wooden sandal.' Isan kicked the vase over and walked away. He became the teacher's successor.

Mumonkan, Case 40

emptiness inquiry teaching beyond-words

Yantou asked his brother monks, 'Every sutra teaches that all things return to the One. Where does the One return to?' Dongshan said, 'When I was in Qingzhou, I made a robe that weighed seven pounds.'

Blue Cliff Record, Case 1

inquiry no-self zen-koan

A monk asked Mazu, 'What kind of person is one who does not keep company with the ten thousand things?' Mazu said, 'When you swallow all the water of the West River in one gulp, I'll tell you.'

Traditional Zen

mind inquiry water zen-koan

Deshan carried his bowls to the dining room. Xuefeng said, 'The bell hasn't rung and the drum hasn't sounded. Where are you going with your bowls?' Deshan returned to his room.

Blue Cliff Record, Case 4

awakening perception inquiry teaching

It's like a person hanging in a tree by his teeth over a precipice. His hands grasp no branch, his feet rest on no limb. Someone under the tree asks him, 'Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?' If he doesn't answer, he fails. If he does answer, he falls to his death. What should he do?

Blue Cliff Record, Case 5

inquiry paradox present-moment death

Yunmen said, 'I don't ask you about fifteen days ago. But what about fifteen days hence? Come, say a word about this!' Since none of the monks answered, he said, 'Every day is a good day.'

Blue Cliff Record, Case 6

emptiness inquiry beyond-words present-moment

A monk asked, 'When the tortoise has no hair and the rabbit has no horns, how do you understand this?' Hsueh Feng said, 'To have a head is to have horns, to have a shell is to have hair.'

Traditional Zen

inquiry paradox seeing zen-koan

A monk asked Yaoshan, 'What is the way?' Yaoshan pointed upward and downward and said, 'Do you understand?' The monk said, 'No.' Yaoshan said, 'Clouds in the sky, water in the jug.'

Traditional Zen

inquiry water zen-koan

Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.

Alan Watts

self self-knowledge wisdom inquiry

The most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing.

Shunryu Suzuki

inquiry practice shunryu-suzuki wisdom

To study the self is to forget the self.

Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

no-self practice shunryu-suzuki inquiry

Men ask the way to Cold Mountain. Cold Mountain: there's no through trail. In summer, ice doesn't melt. The rising sun blurs in swirling fog. How did I make it? My heart's not the same as yours. If your heart was like mine You'd get it and be right here.

Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems, tr. Gary Snyder

nature stillness han-shan inquiry

My mind is like the autumn moon Shining clean and clear in the green pool. No, that's not a good comparison. Tell me, how shall I explain?

Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems

mind nature han-shan inquiry

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

Blue Cliff Record — Linji

zen-koan blue-cliff-record non-attachment freedom

Three pounds of flax.

Blue Cliff Record, Case 12 — Tung-shan's Three Pounds of Flax

zen-koan blue-cliff-record paradox mind

Not the wind, not the flag. It is your mind that moves.

Blue Cliff Record, Case 29 — The Sixth Patriarch and the Wind and Flag

zen-koan blue-cliff-record mind perception

Before thinking good and evil, what is your original face?

Blue Cliff Record — Huineng

zen-koan blue-cliff-record no-self inquiry

Not knowing is most intimate.

Book of Serenity, Case 20 — Dizang's Intimacy

zen-koan book-of-serenity inquiry non-knowing

A monk asked Zhaozhou, 'Does a dog have Buddha nature?' Zhaozhou said, 'Mu.'

Book of Serenity, Case 18 — Zhaozhou's Dog

zen-koan book-of-serenity inquiry emptiness

The whole world is medicine. What am I?

Blue Cliff Record, Case 87 — Yunmen's Medicine and Sickness

zen-koan blue-cliff-record inquiry unity

The foolish reject what they see, not what they think. The wise reject what they think, not what they see.

Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld

wisdom mind huang-po perception

To use the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not to use the mind to look for reality is awareness.

Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld

mind awareness huang-po inquiry

If you students of the Way do not awake to this Mind substance, you will overlay Mind with conceptual thought, you will seek Buddha outside yourselves, and you will remain attached to forms, practices, and so on, all of which are harmful and not at all the way to supreme knowledge.

Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld

mind inquiry huang-po practice

Beginning students of the Way often hear it said that there is fundamentally nothing to be attained. But hearing this, they jump to the conclusion that it means complete inactivity — that sitting blankly will do.

Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld

practice inquiry huang-po non-action

The foolish man seeks for truth abroad, while the wise man knows that it is within himself.

Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld

wisdom inquiry huang-po self

Beginners in Zen are afraid of the void. They run away from it and do not realize that the void is themselves.

Huang Po

emptiness no-self huang-po inquiry

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