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A monk asked Joshu, “With what intention did Bodhidharma come to China?” Joshu answered, “The oak tree in the front garden.”
If you grasp Joshu’s answer precisely, there is no Shakyamuni Buddha before you and no Maitreya Buddha after you.
Words do not express fact,
Phrases do not reveal the delicate motion of mind.
He who accepts words is lost,
He who adheres to phrases is deluded.
Goso said, “When you meet a Man of the Way on the road, greet him not with words, nor with silence. Tell me, how will you greet him?”
If you can answer Goso exactly, it will be extremely heartening. If you cannot answer properly yet, then you must do your best to watch out everything.
Meeting the man of the Way on the road,
Greeting him not with words, nor with silence.
Give him an uppercut,
Then he will understand you at once.
Goso asked a monk, “Sei, the Chinese girl, who was separated from her soul. Which was the real Sei?”
If you obtain genuine awareness of reality, you will know that the soul passes from one husk to another as travellers lodged in an inn. But if you have not obtained the awareness, you should not run around in confusion when the four elements are suddenly ready to become separated (i.e., to die), like a crab with its seven arms and eight legs thrown into the boiling water. Never say that I did not warn you.
The moon in the clouds is one and the same,
Valleys and mountains are various.
Fortunes above fortunes,
Is it one, or is it two?
Nansen said, “Mind is not Buddha. Knowledge is not the Way.”
Growing old, Nansen forgot to be ashamed. With his stinking mouth open he spread the scandal of his own house (such as knowledge is not the Way) to others. However, few appreciate their indebtedness to him.
When the sky is clear the sun appears,
when rain falls, the earth becomes moistened.
How wholeheartedly he explains,
how few have faith in him and his words.
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