The Gateless Gate - 無門關 - 无门关

Wu-Men

三

Many people ask many questions of Master Gutei. Whatever they asked about the Way, Master Gutei raised one finger. A visitor, who was already walking the Way, asked Master Gutei's servant, "What is the sort of teaching your master gives?" The boy stuck up one finger, too. Hearing of this, Gutei summoned his servant, saying, "There is something more to teach you but this is not it." And he cut off the boy's finger with a knife. The boy began screaming and ran away because he thought Gutei would not stop with one finger. But Gutei called to him. The boy still had enough presence of mind to turn around, and when he did, Gutei stuck up one finger. The boy was suddenly enlightened.
Later, when Gutei was on his deathbed--much to the boy's delight--he said to all the monks gathered around him, "I was taught this one-finger Way from Tenryu. I have relied on it all my life, but have never used it up." As he said this, he entered nirvana--he never stuck up one finger again.

Mumon's Commentary: The enlightenment of Gutei and the boy have nothing to do with the tip of a finger. If you realize this, Tenryu, Gutei, the boy, and you yourself, are all run through with one skewer.

四十

Master Isan was a monk under Hyakujo before he went to Mount Daii. Hyakujo wanted to choose a master for Mount Daii. He predicted reality TV and requested that all the monks come together to have them present their views so he could choose the most outstanding person to send.
He took a water jug, set it on the ground and said, "You may not call this a water jug. What will you call it?" The head monk who had quite a head but not enough of it said, "It cannot be called a wooden sandal." Hyakujo then asked Isan. Isan stood up, strode over to the water jug and kicked it over. Isan did not wait to see if he scored a goal with his shot but strode as purposefully out of the building.
Hyakujo laughed and chuckled and generally had a good time. He said, "First monk, you have been defeated by Isan." So he ordered Isan to found the new monastery on Mount Daii.

If you want I could talk for hours and days and nights and more than seventy coffee-cups, but the answer most likely wouldn't be in anything I said, nor even, though you might expect it, in the writing of it. Rather, if you think about it (and this is the strong point of Zen as I see it), you should come to the realization that you cannot realize any of this in your mind. Realization as a term even has already cheapened and missed the target as it were. We are no longer shooting at straw, but cardboard with little circles scrawled on it. That's going somewhere, isn't it?
On another note, if you are foolish enough to think I chose these particular koans because they were interesting, you should stop immediately and focus on their numbers. For those of you still reading, please recognize that you have stepped a step farther along the Way than those who are focusing on the numbers. Now it's only a pity that the Way is infinitely long and so where you are on it is meaningless. What is one, three, forty or a thousand on a continuum of infinity? The answer (using two languages to get to a third) is two.