# The Gateless Gate
or The Gateless Barrier (Chinese: Wu-wen kuan; Japanese: Mumonkan)
The author is Chinese Ch’an master Wu-men Hui-hai (Mumon Ekai, 1183–1260).
English Translation
by late Zen master Katsuki Sekida (Two Zen Classics 26-137)
# Mumon’s Preface
Buddhism makes mind its foundation and no-gate its gate.
Now, how do you pass through this no-gate?
It is said that things coming in through the gate can never be your own treasures. What is gained from external circumstances will perish in the end.
However, such a saying is already raising waves when there is no wind. It is cutting unblemished skin.
As for those who try to understand through other people’s words, they are striking at the moon with a stick; scratching a shoe, whereas it is the foot that itches. What concern have they with the truth?
In the summer of the first year of Jõtei, Ekai was in Ryusho Temple and as head monk worked with the monks, using the cases of the ancient masters as brickbats to batter the gate and lead them on according to their respective capacities.
The text was written down not according to any scheme, but just to make a collection of forty-eight cases.
It is called Mumonkan, “The Gateless Gate”.
A man of determination will unflinchingly push his way straight forward, regardless of all dangers.
Then even the eight-armed Nata cannot hinder him.
Even the four sevens of the West and the two threes of the East would beg for their lives.
If one has no determination, then it will be like catching a glimpse of a horse galloping past the window: in the twinkling of an eye it will be gone.
# Verse
The Great Way is gateless,
Approached in a thousand ways.
Once past this checkpoint
You stride through the universe.
# Case 1: Joshu’s ‘Mu’
A monk asked Joshu, “Has a dog the Buddha Nature?”.
Joshu answered, “Mu”.
# Mumon’s Comment
In order to master Zen, you must pass the barrier of the patriarchs. To attain this subtle realisation, you must completely cut off the way of thinking.
If you do not pass the barrier, and do not cut off the way of thinking, then you will be like a ghost clinging to the bushes and weeds.
Now, I want to ask you, what is the barrier of the patriarchs?
Why, it is this single word ‘Mu’. That is the front gate to Zen.
Therefore it is called the “Mumonkan of Zen”.
If you pass through it, you will not only see Joshu face to face, but you will also go hand in hand with the successive patriarchs, entangling your eyebrows with theirs, seeing with the same eyes, hearing with the same ears.
Isn’t that a delightful prospect?
Wouldn’t you like to pass this barrier?
Arouse your entire body with its three hundred and sixty bones and joints and its eighty-four thousand pores of the skin; summon up a spirit of great doubt and concentrate on this word ‘Mu’.
Carry it continuously day and night. Do not form a nihilistic conception of vacancy, or a relative conception of ‘has’ or ‘has not’.
It will be just as if you swallow a red-hot iron ball, which you cannot spit out even if you try.
All the illusory ideas and delusive thoughts accumulated up to the present will be exterminated, and when the time comes, internal and external will be spontaneously united. You will know this, but for yourself only, like a dumb man who has had a dream.
Then all of a sudden an explosive conversion will occur, and you will astonish the heavens and shake the earth.
It will be as if you snatch away the great sword of the valiant general Kan’u and hold it in your hand. When you meet the Buddha, you kill him; when you meet the patriarchs, you kill them. On the brink of life and death, you command perfect freedom; among the sixfold worlds and four modes of existence, you enjoy a merry and playful samadhi.
Now, I want to ask you again, “How will you carry it out?”.
Employ every ounce of your energy to work on this ‘Mu’.
If you hold on without interruption, behold: a single spark, and the holy candle is lit!
# Mumon’s Verse
The dog, the Buddha Nature,
The pronouncement, perfect and final.
Before you say it has or has not,
You are a dead man on the spot.
# Case 2: Hyakujo’s Fox
When Hyakujo Osho delivered a certain series of sermons, an old man always followed the monks to the main hall and listened to him.
When the monks left the hall, the old man would also leave.
One day, however, he remained behind, and Hyakujo asked him, “Who are you, standing here before me?”.
The old man replied.
“I am not a human being.
In the old days of Kashyapa Buddha, I was a head monk, living here on this mountain.
One day a student asked me, ‘Does a man of enlightenment fall under the yoke of causation or not?’.
I answered, ‘No, he does not’.
Since then I have been doomed to undergo five hundred rebirths as a fox.
I beg you now to give the turning word to release me from my life as a fox.
Tell me, does a man of enlightenment fall under the yoke of causation or not?”.
Hyakujo answered, “He does not ignore causation”.
No sooner had the old man heard these words than he was enlightened.
Making his bows, he said, “I am emancipated from my life as a fox. I shall remain on this mountain.
I have a favor to ask of you: would you please bury my body as that of a dead monk”.
Hyakujo had the director of the monks strike with the gavel and inform everyone that after the midday meal there would be a funeral service for a dead monk.
The monks wondered at this, saying, “Everyone is in good health; nobody is in the sick ward. What does this mean?”.
After the meal Hyakujo led the monks to the foot of a rock on the far side of the mountain and with his staff poked out the dead body of a fox and performed the ceremony of cremation.
That evening he ascended the rostrum and told the monks the whole story.
Obaku thereupon asked him, “The old man gave the wrong answer and was doomed to be a fox for five hundred rebirths. Now, suppose he had given the right answer, what would have happened then?”.
Hyakujo said, “You come here to me, and I will tell you”.
Obaku went up to Hyakujo and boxed his ears.
Hyakujo clapped his hands with a laugh and exclaimed, “I was thinking that the barbarian had a red beard, but now I see before me the red-bearded barbarian himself”.
# Mumon’s Comment
Not falling under causation: how could this make the monk a fox?
Not ignoring causation: how could this make the old man emancipated?
If you come to understand this, you will realise how old Hyakujo would have enjoyed five hundred rebirths as a fox.
# Mumon’s Verse
Not falling, not ignoring:
Two faces of one die.
Not ignoring, not falling:
A thousand errors, a million mistakes.
# Case 3: Gutei Raises a Finger
Whenever Gutei Osho was asked about Zen, he simply raised his finger.
Once a visitor asked Gutei’s boy attendant, “What does your master teach?”.
The boy too raised his finger.
Hearing of this, Gutei cut off the boy’s finger with a knife.
The boy, screaming with pain, began to run away.
Gutei called to him, and when he turned around, Gutei raised his finger.
The boy suddenly became enlightened.
When Gutei was about to pass away, he said to his assembled monks, “I obtained one-finger Zen from Tenryu and used it all my life but still did not exhaust it”.
When he had finished saying this, he entered into eternal Nirvana.
# Mumon’s Comment
The enlightenment of Gutei and of the boy does not depend on the finger.
If you understand this, Tenryu, Gutei, the boy, and you yourself are all run through with one skewer.
# Mumon’s Verse
Gutei made a fool of old Tenryu,
Emancipating the boy with a single slice,
Just as Kyorei cleaved Mount Kasan
To let the Yellow River run through.
# Case 4: The Western Barbarian with No Beard
Wakuan said, “Why has the Western Barbarian no beard?”.
# Mumon’s Comment
Study should be real study, enlightenment should be real enlightenment.
You should once meet this barbarian directly to be really intimate with him.
But saying you are really intimate with him already divides you into two.
# Mumon’s Verse
Don’t discuss your dream
Before a fool.
Barbarian with no beard
Obscures the clarity.
# Case 5: Kyogen’s ‘Man up in a Tree’
Kyogen Osho said, “It is like a man up in a tree hanging from a branch with his mouth; his hands grasp no bough, his feet rest on no limb.
Someone appears under the tree and asks him, ‘What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?’. If he does not answer, he fails to respond to the question. If he does answer, he will lose his life.
What would you do in such a situation?”.
# Mumon’s Comment
Even if your eloquence flows like a river, it is of no avail.
Though you can expound the whole of Buddhist literature, it is of no use.
If you solve this problem, you will give life to the way that has been dead until this moment and destroy the way that has been alive up to now.
Otherwise you must wait for Maitreya Buddha and ask him.
# Mumon’s Verse
Kyogen is truly thoughtless;
His vice and poison are endless.
He stops up the mouths of the monks,
And devil’s eyes sprout from their bodies.
# Case 6: The Buddha Holds Out a Flower
When Shakyamuni Buddha was at Mount Grdhrakuta, he held out a flower to his listeners.
Everyone was silent.
Only Mahakashyapa broke into a broad smile.
The Buddha said, “I have the True Dharma Eye, the Marvelous Mind of Nirvana, the True Form of the Formless, and the Subtle Dharma Gate, independent of words and transmitted beyond doctrine. This I have entrusted to Mahakashyapa”.
# Mumon’s Comment
Golden-faced Gautama really disregarded his listeners.
He made the good look bad and sold dog’s meat labeled as mutton.
He himself thought it was wonderful.
If, however, everyone in the audience had laughed, how could he have transmitted his True Eye?
And again, if Mahakashyapa had not smiled, how could the Buddha have transmitted it?
If you say the True Dharma Eye can be transmitted, then the golden-faced old man would be a city slicker who cheats the country bumpkin.
If you say it cannot be transmitted, then why did the Buddha approve of Mahakashyapa?
# Mumon’s Verse
Holding out a flower,
The Buddha betrayed his curly tail.
Heaven and earth were bewildered,
At Mahakashyapa’s smile.
# Case 7: Joshu’s ‘Wash Your Bowl’
A monk said to Joshu, “I have just entered this monastery.
Please teach me”.
“Have you eaten your rice porridge?”, asked Joshu.
“Yes, I have”, replied the monk.
“Then you had better wash your bowl”, said Joshu.
With this the monk gained insight.
# Mumon’s Comment
When he opens his mouth, Joshu shows his gallbladder. He displays his heart and liver.
I wonder if this monk really did hear the truth. I hope he did not mistake the bell for a jar.
# Mumon’s Verse
Endeavouring to interpret clearly,
You retard your attainment.
Don’t you know that flame is fire?
Your rice has long been cooked.
# Case 8: Keichu the Wheelmaker
Gettan Osho said, “Keichu, the first wheelmaker, made a cart whose wheels had a hundred spokes.
Now, suppose you took a cart and removed both the wheels and the axle. What would you have?”.
# Mumon’s Comment
If anyone can directly master this topic, his eye will be like a shooting star, his spirit like a flash of lightning.
# Mumon’s Verse
When the spiritual wheels turn,
Even the master fails to follow them.
They travel in all directions, above and below,
North, south, east, and west.
# Case 9: Daitsu Chisho Buddha
A monk asked Koyo Seijo, “Daitsu Chisho Buddha sat in zazen for ten kalpas and could not attain Buddhahood. He did not become a Buddha. How could this be?”.
Seijo said, “Your question is quite self-explanatory”.
The monk asked, “He meditated so long; why could he not attain Buddhahood?”.
Seijo said, “Because he did not become a Buddha”.
# Mumon’s Comment
I allow the barbarian’s realisation, but I do not allow his understanding.
When an ignorant man realises it, he is a sage.
When a sage understands it, he is ignorant.
# Mumon’s Verse
Better emancipate your mind than your body;
When the mind is emancipated, the body is free,
When both body and mind are emancipated,
Even gods and spirits ignore worldly power.
# Case 10: Seizei Is Utterly Destitute
Seizei said to Sozan, “Seizei is utterly destitute.
Will you give him support?”.
Sozan called out, “Seizei!”.
Seizei responded, “Yes, sir!”.
Sozan said, “You have finished three cups of the finest wine in China, and still you say you have not yet moistened your lips!”.
# Mumon’s Comment
Seizei pretended to retreat. What was his scheme?
Sozan had the eye of Buddha and saw through his opponent’s motive.
However, I want to ask you, at what point did Seizei drink wine?
# Mumon’s Verse
Poverty like Hantan’s,
Mind like Kou’s;
With no means of livelihood,
He dares to rival the richest.
# Case 11: Joshu Sees the Hermits
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 he went away.
Coming to another hermit’s cottage, he asked again, “Is the master in? Is the master in?”.
This hermit, too, raised his fist.
Joshu said, “Free to give, free to take, free to kill, free to save”, and he made a deep bow.
# Mumon’s Comment
Both raised their fists; why was the one accepted and the other rejected?
Tell me, what is the difficulty here?
If you can give a turning word to clarify this problem, you will realise that Joshu’s tongue has no bone in it, now helping others up, now knocking them down, with perfect freedom.
However, I must remind you: the two hermits could also see through Joshu.
If you say there is anything to choose between the two hermits, you have no eye of realisation.
If you say there is no choice between the two, you have no eye of realisation.
# Mumon’s Verse
The eye like a shooting star,
The spirit like a lighting;
A death-dealing blade,
A life-giving sword.
# Case 12: Zuigan Calls His Master
Zuigan Gen Osho called to himself every day, “Master!”, and answered, “Yes, sir!”.
Then he would say, “Be wide awake!”, and answer, “Yes, sir!”.
“Henceforward, never be deceived by others!”. “No, I won’t!”.
# Mumon’s Comment
Old Zuigan buys and sells himself. He takes out a lot of god-masks and devil-masks and puts them on and plays with them.
What for, eh?
One calling and the other answering; one wide awake, the other saying he will never be deceived.
If you stick to any of them, you will be a failure.
If you imitate Zuigan, you will play the fox.
# Mumon’s Verse
Clinging to the deluded way of consciousness,
Students of the Way do not realise truth.
The seed of birth and death through endless eons:
The fool calls it the true original self.
# Case 13: Tokusan Holds His Bowls
One day Tokusan went down toward the dining room, holding his bowls.
Seppo met him and asked, “Where are you off to with your bowls? The bell has not rung, and the drum has not sounded”. Tokusan turned and went back to his room.
Seppo mentioned this to Ganto, who remarked, “Tokusan is renowned, but he does not know the last word”.
Tokusan heard about this remark and sent his attendant to fetch Ganto. “You do not approve of me?”, he asked.
Ganto whispered his meaning.
Tokusan said nothing at the time, but the next day he ascended the rostrum, and behold! he was very different from usual!
Ganto, going toward the front of the hall, clapped his hands and laughed loudly, saying, “Congratulations! Our old man has got hold of the last word!
From now on, nobody in this whole country can outdo him!”.
# Mumon’s Comment
As for the last word, neither Ganto nor Tokusan has ever dreamed of it!
When you look into the matter, you find they are like puppets on the shelf!
# Mumon’s Verse
If you realise the first,
You master the last.
The first and the last
Are not one word.
# Case 14: Nansen Cuts the Cat in Two
Nansen Osho saw monks of the Eastern and Western halls quarreling over a cat.
He held up the cat and said, “If you can give an answer, you will save the cat. If not, I will kill it”.
No one could answer, and Nansen cut the cat in two.
That evening Joshu returned, and Nansen told him of the incident.
Joshu took off his sandal, placed it on his head, and walked out.
“If you had been there, you would have saved the cat”, Nansen remarked.
# Mumon’s Comment
Tell me, what did Joshu mean when he put the sandal on his head?
If you can give a turning word on this, you will see that Nansen’s decree was carried out with good reason.
If not, “Danger!”.
# Mumon’s Verse
Had Joshu been there,
He would have done the opposite;
When the sword is snatched away,
Even Nansen begs for his life.
# Case 15: Tozan’s Sixty Blows
Tozan came to study with Unmon. Unmon asked, “Where are you from?”.
“From Sato”, Tozan replied.
“Where were you during the summer?”.
“Well, I was at the monastery of Hozu, south of the lake”.
“When did you leave there?”, Unmon asked.
“On August 25”, was Tozan’s reply.
“I spare you sixty blows”, Unmon said.
The next day Tozan came to Unmon and said, “Yesterday you said you spared me sixty blows.
I beg to ask you, where was I at fault?”.
“Oh, you rice bag!”, shouted Unmon. “What makes you wander about, now west of the river, now south of the lake?”.
Tozan thereupon came to a mighty enlightenment experience.
# Mumon’s Comment
If Unmon had given Tozan the true food of Zen and encouraged him to develop an active Zen spirit, his school would not have declined as it did.
Tozan had an agonising struggle through the whole night, lost in the sea of right and wrong. He reached a complete impasse. After waiting for the dawn, he again went to Unmon, and Unmon again made him a picture book of Zen.
Even though he was directly enlightened, Tozan could not be called brilliant.
Now, I want to ask you, should Tozan have been given sixty blows or not?
If you say yes, you admit that all the universe should be beaten.
If you say no, then you accuse Unmon of telling a lie.
If you really understand the secret, you will be able to breathe out Zen spirit with the very mouth of Tozan.
# Mumon’s Verse
The lion had a secret to puzzle his cub;
The cub crouched, leaped, and dashed forward.
The second time, a casual move led to checkmate.
The first arrow was light, but the second went deep.
# Case 16: When the Bell Sounds
Unmon said, “The world is vast and wide.
Why do you put on your seven-piece robe at the sound of the bell?”.
# Mumon’s Comment
In studying Zen, you should not be swayed by sounds and forms.
Even though you attain insight when hearing a voice or seeing a form, this is simply the ordinary way of things.
Don’t you know that the real Zen student commands sounds, controls forms, is clear-sighted at every event and free on every occasion?
Granted you are free, just tell me: Does the sound come to the ear or does the ear go to the sound?
If both sound and silence die away, at such a juncture how could you talk of Zen?
While listening with you ear, you cannot tell. When hearing with your eye, you are truly intimate.
# Mumon’s Verse
With realisation, things make one family;
Without realisation, things are separated in a thousand ways.
Without realisation, things make one family;
With realisation, things are separated in a thousand ways.
# Case 17: Chu the National Teacher Gives Three Calls
The National Teacher called his attendant three times, and three times the attendant responded.
The National Teacher said, “I long feared that I was betraying you, but really it was you who were betraying me”.
# Mumon’s Comment
The National Teacher called three times, and his tongue fell to the ground.
The attendant responded three times, and he gave his answer with brilliance.
The National Teacher was old and lonely; he held the cow’s head and forced it to eat grass.
The attendant would have none of it;
delicious food has little attraction for a man who is satiated. Tell me, at what point was the betrayal?
When the country is flourishing, talent is prized. When the home is wealthy, the children are proud.
# Mumon’s Verse
He carried and iron yoke with no hole
And left a curse to trouble his descendants.
If you want to hold up the gate and the doors,
You must climb a mountain of swords with bare feet.
# Case 18: Tozan’s ‘Masagin’
A monk asked Tozan, “What is Buddha?”.
Tozan replied, “Masagin!” [three pounds of flax].
# Mumon’s Comment
Old Tozan attained the poor Zen of a clam. He opened the two halves of the shell a little and exposed all the liver and intestines inside.
But tell me, how do you see Tozan?
# Mumon’s Verse
“Three pounds of flax” came sweeping along;
Close were the words, but closer was the meaning.
Those who argue about right and wrong
Are those enslaved by right and wrong.
# Case 19: Nansen’s ‘Ordinary Mind Is the Way’
Joshu asked Nansen, “What is the Way?”.
“Ordinary mind is the Way”, Nansen replied.
“Shall I try to seek after it?”, Joshu asked.
“If you try for it, you will become separated from it”, responded Nansen.
“How can I know the Way unless I try for it?”, persisted Joshu.
Nansen said, “The Way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing.
Knowing is delusion; not knowing is confusion.
When you have really reached the true Way beyond doubt, you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space.
How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?”.
With these words, Joshu came to a sudden realisation.
# Mumon’s Comment
Nansen dissolved and melted away before Joshu’s question, and could not offer a plausible explanation.
Even though Joshu comes to a realisation, he must delve into it for another thirty years before he can fully understand it.
# Mumon’s Verse
The spring flowers, the autumn moon;
Summer breezes, winter snow.
If useless things do not clutter your mind,
You have the best days of your life.
# Case 20: The Man of Great Strength
Shogen Osho asked, “Why is it that a man of great strength does not lift his legs?”.
And he also said, “It is not the tongue he speaks with”.
# Mumon’s Comment
It must be said that Shogen shows us all his stomach and intestines.
But alas, no one can appreciate him!
And even if someone could appreciate him, let him come to me, and I’ll beat him severely.
Why?
If you want to find pure gold, you must see it through fire.
# Mumon’s Verse
Lifting his leg, he kicks up the Scented Ocean;
Lowering his head, he looks down on the fourth Dhyana heaven.
There is no space vast enough for his body—
Now, somebody write the last line here.
# Case 21: Unmon’s ‘Kanshiketsu’
A monk asked Unmon, “What is Buddha?”.
Unmon replied, “Kanshiketsu!” [a dry shit-stick].
# Mumon’s Comment
Unmon was too poor to prepare plain food, too busy to speak from notes.
He hurriedly took up shiketsu to support the Way.
The decline of Buddhism was thus foreshadowed.
# Mumon’s Verse
Lightning flashing,
Sparks shooting;
A moment’s blinking,
Missed forever.
# Case 22: Kashyapa’s ‘Knock Down the Flagpole’
Ananda asked Kashyapa, “The World-honoured One gave you the golden robe; did he give you anything else?”.
“Ananda!”, cried Kashyapa.
“Yes, sir!”, answered Ananda.
“Knock down the flagpole at the gate”, said Kashyapa.
# Mumon’s Comment
If you can give a turning word at this point, you will see that the meeting at Mount Grdhrakuta is still solemnly continuing.
If not, then this is what Vipasyin Buddha worried about from remote ages; up to now he has still not acquired the essence.
# Mumon’s Verse
Tell me — question or answer — which was more intimate?
Many have knit their brows over this;
Elder brother calls, younger brother answers, and they betray the family secret.
They had a special spring, not one of yin and yang.
# Case 23: Think Neither Good Nor Evil
The Sixth Patriarch was pursued by the monk Myo as far as Taiyu Mountain.
The patriarch, seeing Myo coming, laid the robe and bowl on a rock and said, “This robe represents the faith; it should not be fought over. If you want to take it away, take it now”.
Myo tried to move it, but it was as heavy as a mountain and would not budge. Faltering and trembling, he cried out, “I came for the Dharma, not for the robe.
I beg you, please give me your instruction”.
The patriarch said, “Think neither good nor evil. At this very moment, what is the original self of the monk Myo?”.
At these words, Myo was directly illuminated. His whole body was covered with sweat.
He wept and bowed, saying, “Besides the secret words and the secret meaning you have just now revealed to me, is there anything else, deeper still?”.
The patriarch said, “What I have told you is no secret at all.
When you look into your own true self, whatever is deeper is found right there”.
Myo said, “I was with the monks under Obai for many years but I could not realise my true self.
But now, receiving your instruction, I know it is like a man drinking water and knowing whether it is cold or warm.
My lay brother, you are now my teacher”.
The patriarch said, “If you say so, but let us both call Obai our teacher.
Be mindful to treasure and hold fast to what you have attained”.
# Mumon’s Comment
The Sixth Patriarch was, so to speak, hurried into helping a man in an emergency, and he displayed a grandmotherly kindness.
It is as though he peeled a fresh lichi, removed the seed, put it in your mouth, and asked you to swallow it down.
# Mumon’s Verse
You cannot describe it; you cannot picture it;
You cannot admire it; don’t try to eat it raw.
Your true self has nowhere to hide;
When the world is destroyed, it is not destroyed.
# Case 24: Fuketsu’s Speech and Silence
A monk asked Fuketsu, “Both speech and silence are faulty in being ri [inward action of mind] or bi [outward action of mind]. How can we escape these faults?”.
Fuketsu said,
“I always remember the spring in Konan,
Where the partridges sing;
How fragrant the countless flowers!“
# Mumon’s Comment
Fuketsu’s Zen spirit was like lightning and opened a clear passage.
However, he was entangled in the monk’s words and could not cut them off.
If you can really grasp the problem, you can readily find the way out.
Now, putting language samadhi aside, say it in your own words.
# Mumon’s Verse
He does not use a refined phrase;
Before speaking, he has already handed it over.
If you chatter on and on,
You will find you have lost your way.
# Case 25: Kyozan’s Dream
In a dream Kyozan Osho went to Maitreya’s place and was led in to sit in the third seat.
A senior monk struck with a gavel and said, “Today the one in the third seat will speak”.
Kyozan rose and, striking with the gavel, said, “The truth of Mahayana is beyond the four propositions and transcends the hundred negations.
Taicho! Taicho!” [Hear the truth!].
# Mumon’s Comment
Now tell me, did Kyozan preach or did he not not? If he opens his mouth, he is lost; if he seals his mouth, he is lost.
Even if he neither opens nor shuts his mouth, he is a hundred and eight thousand [miles away from the truth].
# Mumon’s Verse
In broad daylight, under the blue sky,
He forges a dream in a dream;
He makes up a monstrous story
And tries to deceive the whole crowd.
# Case 26: Two Monks Roll Up the Blinds
When the monks assembled before the midday meal to listen to his lecture, the great Hogen of Seiryo pointed at the bamboo blinds.
Two monks simultaneously went and rolled them up.
Hogen said, “One gain, one loss”.
# Mumon’s Comment
Tell me, who gained and who lost?
If you have an eye to penetrate the secret, you will see where Seiryo Kokushi failed.
However, I warn you strongly against discussing gain and loss.
# Mumon’s Verse
Rolling up the blinds, the great sky is open,
But the great sky does not come up to Zen.
Why don’t you throw them all down from the sky,
And keep your practice so close that no air can escape?
# Case 27: Nansen’s ‘Not Mind, Not Buddha, Not Things’
A monk asked Nansen, “Is there any Dharma that has not been preached to the people?”.
Nansen answered, “There is”.
“What is the truth that has not been taught?”, asked the monk.
Nansen said, “It is not mind; it is not Buddha; it is not things”.
# Mumon’s Comment
At this question, Nansen used up all his treasure and was not a little confused.
# Mumon’s Verse
Talking too much spoils your virtue;
Silence is truly unequalled.
Let the mountains become the sea;
I’ll give you no comment.
# Case 28: Ryutan Blows Out the Candle
Tokusan asked Ryutan about Zen far into the night.
At last Ryutan said, “The night is late.
Why don’t you retire?”.
Tokusan made his bows and lifted the blinds to withdraw, but he was met by darkness. Turning back to Ryutan, he said, “It is dark outside”.
Ryutan lit a paper candle and handed it to him.
Tokusan was about to take it when Ryutan blew it out.
At this, all of a sudden, Tokusan went through a deep experience and made bows.
Ryutan said, “What sort of realisation do you have?”.
“From now on”, said Tokusan, “I will not doubt the words of an old Osho who is renowned everywhere under the sun”.
The next day Ryutan ascended the rostrum and said, “I see a fellow among you. His fangs are like the sword tree. His mouth is like a blood bowl.
Strike him with a stick, and he won’t turn his head to look at you.
Someday or other, he will climb the highest of the peaks and establish our Way there”.
Tokusan brought his notes on the Diamond Sutra to the front of the hall, pointed to them with a torch, and said, “Even though you have exhausted the abtruse doctrines, it is like placing a hair in a vast space. Even though you have learned all the secrets of the world, it is like a drop of water dripped on the great ocean”.
And he burned all his notes.
Then, making bows, he took his leave of his teacher.
# Mumon’s Comment
Before Tokusan crossed the barrier from his native place, his mind burned and his mouth uttered bitterness. He went southward, intending to stamp out the doctrines of special transmission outside the sutras.
When he reached the road to Reishu, he asked an old woman to let him have lunch to “refresh the mind”.
“Your worship, what sort of literature do you carry in your pack?”, the old woman asked.
“Commentaries on the Diamond Sutra”, replied Tokusan.
The old woman said, “I hear it is said in that sutra, ‘The past mind cannot be held, the present mind cannot be held, the future mind cannot be held’.
Now, I would like to ask you, what mind are you going to have refreshed?”.
At this question Tokusan was dumbfounded.
However, he did not remain inert under her words but asked, “Do you know of any good teacher around here?”.
The old woman said, “Five miles from here you will find Ryutan Osho”.
Coming to Ryutan, Tokusan got the worst of it.
His former words were inconsistent with his later ones.
As for Ryutan, he seemed to have lost all sense of shame in his compassion toward his son.
Finding a bit of live coal in the other, enough to start a fire, he hurriedly poured on muddy water to annihilate everything at once.
A little cool reflection tells us it was all a farce.
# Mumon’s Verse
Hearing the name cannot surpass seeing the face;
Seeing the face cannot surpass hearing the name.
He may have saved his nose,
But alas! he lost his eyes.
# Case 29: The Sixth Patriarch’s ‘Your Mind Moves’
The wind was flapping a temple flag, and two monks started an argument.
One said the flag moved, the other said the wind moved;
they argued back and forth but could not reach a conclusion.
The Sixth Patriarch said, “It is not the wind that moves, it is not the flag that moves; it is your mind that moves”.
The two monks were awe-struck.
# Mumon’s Comment
It is not the wind that moves; it is not the flag that moves; it is not the mind that moves. How do you see the patriarch?
If you come to understand this matter deeply, you will see that the two monks got gold when buying iron.
The patriarch could not withhold his compassion and courted disgrace.
# Mumon’s Verse
Wind, flag, mind, moving,
All equally to blame.
Only knowing how to open his mouth,
Unaware of his fault in talking.
# Case 30: Baso’s ‘This Very Mind Is the Buddha’
Daibai asked Baso, “What is the Buddha?”.
Baso answered, “This very mind is the Buddha”.
# Mumon’s Comment
If you directly grasp Baso’s meaning, you wear the Buddha’s clothes, eat the Buddha’s food, speak the Buddha’s words, do the Buddha’s deeds — that is, you are a Buddha himself.
However, alas! Daibai misled not a few people into taking the mark on the balance for the weight itself.
How could he realise that even mentioning the word ‘Buddha’ should make us rinse out our mouths for three days?
If a man of understanding hears anyone say, “This very mind is the Buddha”, he will cover his ears and rush away.
# Mumon’s Verse
The blue sky and bright day,
No more searching around!
“What is the Buddha?”, you ask:
With loot in your pocket, you declare yourself innocent.
# Case 31: Joshu Investigates an Old Woman
A monk asked an old woman, “What is the way to Taisan?”.
The old woman said, “Go straight on”.
When the monk had proceeded a few steps, she said, “A good, respectable monk, but he too goes that way”.
Afterward someone told Joshu about this.
Joshu said, “Wait a bit, I will go and investigate the old woman for you”.
The next day he went and asked the same question, and the old woman gave the same answer.
On returning, Joshu said to his disciples, “I have investigated the old woman of Taisan for you”.
# Mumon’s Comment
The old woman only knew how to sit still in her tent and plan the campaign; she did not know when she was shadowed by a spy.
Though old Joshu showed himself clever enough to take a camp and overwhelm a fortress, he displayed no trace of being a great commander.
If we look at them, they both have their faults.
But tell me, what did Joshu see in the old woman?
# Mumon’s Verse
The question was like the others,
The answer was the same.
Sand in the rice,
Thorns in the mud.
# Case 32: A Non-Buddhist Philosopher Questions the Buddha
A non-Buddhist philosopher said to the Buddha, “I do not ask for words; I do not ask for non-words”.
The Buddha just sat there.
The philosopher said admiringly, “The World-honoured One, with his great mercy, has blown away the clouds of my illusion and enabled me to enter the Way”.
And after making bows, he took his leave.
Then Ananda asked the Buddha, “What did he realise, to admire you so much?”.
The World-honoured One replied, “A fine horse runs even at the shadow of the whip”.
# Mumon’s Comment
Ananda was the Buddha’s disciple, but his understanding was not equal to that of the non-Buddhist. I want to ask you, what difference is there between the Buddha’s disciple and the non-Buddhist?
# Mumon’s Verse
On the edge of a sword,
Over the ridge of an iceberg,
With no steps, no ladders,
Climbing the cliffs without hands.
# Case 33: Baso’s ‘No Mind, No Buddha’
A monk asked Baso, “What is the Buddha?”.
Baso answered, “No mind, no Buddha”.
# Mumon’s Comment
If you understand this, you have finished studying Zen.
# Mumon’s Verse
Present a sword if you meet a swordsman;
Don’t offer a poem unless you meet a poet.
When talking, tell one-third of it;
Don’t divulge the whole at once.
# Case 34: Nansen’s ‘Reason Is Not the Way’
Nansen said, “Mind is not the Buddha, reason is not the Way”.
# Mumon’s Comment
Nansen, growing old, had no shame.
Just opening his stinking mouth, he let slip the family secrets.
Yet there are very few who are grateful for his kindness.
# Mumon’s Verse
The sky clears, the sun shines bright,
The rain comes, the earth gets wet.
He opens his heart and expounds the whole secret,
But I fear he is little appreciated.
# Case 35: Seijo’s Soul Separated
Goso said to his monks, “Seijo’s soul separated from her being. Which was the real Seijo?”.
# Mumon’s Comment
When you realise what the real is, you will see that we pass from one husk to another like travellers stopping for a night’s lodging.
But if you do not realise it yet, I earnestly advise you not to rush about wildly.
When earth, water, fire and air suddenly separate, you will be like a crab struggling in boiling water with its seven or eight arms and legs.
When that happens, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
# Mumon’s Verse
The moon above the clouds is ever the same;
Valleys and mountains are separate from each other.
All are blessed, all are blessed;
Are they one or are they two?
# Case 36: When You Meet a Man of the Way
Goso said, “When you meet a man of the Way on the path, do not meet him with words or in silence. Tell me, how will you meet him?”.
# Mumon’s Comment
In such a case, if you can manage an intimate meeting with him it will certainly be gratifying.
But if you cannot, you must be watchful in every way.
# Mumon’s Verse
Meeting a man of the Way on the road,
Meet him with neither words nor silence.
A punch on the jaw:
Understand, if you can directly understand.
# Case 37: Joshu’s Oak Tree
A monk asked Joshu, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming to China?”.
Joshu said, “The oak tree in the garden.“
# Mumon’s Comment
If you understand Joshu’s answer intimately, there is no Shakya before you, no Maitreya to come.
# Mumon’s Verse
Words cannot express things;
Speech does not convey the spirit.
Swayed by words, one is lost;
Blocked by phrases, one is belwildered.
# Case 38: A Buffalo Passes the Window
Goso said, “A buffalo passes by the window. His head, horns and four legs all go past. But why can’t the tail pass too?”.
# Mumon’s Comment
If you make a complete about-face, open your eye, and give a turning word on this point, you will be able to repay the four kinds of love that have favoured you and help the sentient beings in the three realms who follow you.
If you are still unable to do this, return to this tail and reflect upon it, and then for the first time you will realise something.
# Mumon’s Verse
Passing by, it falls into a ditch;
Coming back, all the worse, it is lost.
This tiny little tail,
What a strange thing it is!
# Case 39: A Mistake in Speaking
A monk said to Unmon, “The brilliance of the Buddha silently illuminates the whole universe…”.
But before the could finish the verse, Unmon said, “Aren’t those the words of Choetsu the Genius?”.
“Yes, they are”, answered the monk.
“You have slipped up in your speaking”, Unmon said.
Afterward, Shishin Zenji brought up the matter and said, “Tell me, at what point did the monk err in his speaking?”.
# Mumon’s Comment
If you clearly understand this and realise how exacting Unmon was in his method, and what made the monk err in his speaking, you are qualified to be a teacher of heaven and earth.
If you are not yet clear about it, you are far from saving yourself.
# Mumon’s Verse
A line cast in the rapids,
The greedy will be caught.
Before you start to open your mouth,
Your life is already lost!
# Case 40: Tipping Over a Water Bottle
When Isan Osho was with Hyakujo, he was tenzo [head cook] of the monastery.
Hyakujo wanted to choose a master for Mount Tai-i, so he called together all the monks and told them that anyone who could answer his question in an outstanding manner would be chosen.
Then he took a water bottle and stood it on the floor, and said, “You may not call this a water bottle. What do you call it?”.
The head monk said, “It cannot be called a stump”.
Hyakujo asked Isan his opinion.
Isan tipped over the water bottle with his feet and went out.
Hyakujo laughed and said, “The head monk loses”.
And Isan was named as the founder of the new monastery.
# Mumon’s Comment
Isan displayed great spirit in his action, but he could not cut himself free from Hyakujo’s apron strings. He preferred the heavier task to lighter one.
Why was he like that, eh?
He took off his headband to bear the iron yoke.
# Mumon’s Verse
Tossing bamboo baskets and ladles away,
He made a glorious dash and swept all before him.
Hyakujo’s barrier cannot stop his advance;
Thousands of Buddhas come forth from the tips of his feet.
# Case 41: Bodhidharma’s Mind-Pacifying
Bodhidharma sat facing the wall.
The Second Patriarch stood in the snow.
He cut off his arm and presented it to Bodhidharma, crying, “My mind has no peace as yet! I beg you, master, please pacify my mind!”.
“Bring your mind here and I will pacify it for you”, replied Bodhidharma.
“I have searched for my mind, and I cannot take hold of it”, said the Second Patriarch.
“Now your mind is pacified”, said Bodhidharma.
# Mumon’s Comment
The broken-toothed old Hindu came so importantly, thousands of miles over the sea.
This was raising waves where there was no wind.
In his last years he induced enlightenment in his disciple, who, to make matters worse, was defective in the six roots.
Why, Shasanro did not know for ideographs.
# Mumon’s Verse
Coming east, directly pointing,
You entrusted the Dharma, and trouble arose;
The clamour of the monasteries
Is all because of you.
# Case 42: The Girl Comes out of Samadhi
Once, in the old days, in the time of the World-honoured One, Manjusri went to the assembly of the Buddhas and found that everyone had departed to his original dwelling place.
Only a girl remained, sitting in samadhi close to the Buddha’s throne.
Manjusri asked Shakyamuni Buddha, “Why can the girl get near the Buddha’s throne, while I cannot?”.
Shakyamuni Buddha said, “Bring her out of her samadhi and ask her yourself”.
Manjusri walked around the girl three times, snapped his fingers once, took her to the Brahma heaven, and exerted all his miraculous powers to bring her out of her meditation, but in vain.
The World-honoured One said, “Even a hundred thousand Manjusris cannot make her wake up.
But down below, past twelve hundred million lands as innumerable as the sands of Ganges, there is a Bodhisattva Momyo.
He will be able to rouse her from her samadhi”.
Instantly the Bodhisattva Momyo emerged from the earth and made a bow to the World-honoured One, who gave him his imperial order.
The Bodhisattva went over to the girl and snapped his fingers once.
At this she came out of her samadhi.
# Mumon’s Comment
Old Shakyamuni put a petty drama on the stage and failed to enlighten the masses.
I want to ask you: Manjusri is the teacher of the Seven Buddhas; why couldn’t he arouse the girl from her samadhi?
How was it that Momyo, a Bodhisattva at the beginner’s stage, could do it?
If you understand this intimately, you will enjoy Nagya’s grand samadhi in the busiest activity of consciousness.
# Mumon’s Verse
One was successful, the other was not;
Both secured freedom of mind.
One in a god-mask, the other in a devil-mask;
Even in defeat, a beautiful performance.
# Case 43: Shuzan’s Shippei
Shuzan Osho held up his shippei [staff of office] before his disciples and said, “You monks! If you call this a shippei, you oppose its reality.
If you do not call it a shippei, you ignore the fact.
Tell me, you monks, what will you call it?”.
# Mumon’s Comment
If you call it a shippei, you oppose its reality.
If you do not call it a shippei, you ignore the fact.
Words are not available; silence is not available.
Now, tell me quickly, what is it?
# Mumon’s Verse
Holding up the shippei,
He takes life, he gives life.
Opposing and ignoring interweave.
Even Buddhas and patriarchs beg for their lives.
# Case 44: Basho’s Staff
Basho Osho said to his disciples, “If you have a staff, I will give you a staff.
If you have no staff, I will take it from you”.
# Mumon’s Comment
It helps me wade across a river when the bridge is down. It accompanies me to the village on a moonless night.
If you call it a staff, you will enter hell like an arrow.
# Mumon’s Verse
The depths and shallows of the world
Are all in its grasp.
It supports the heaven and sustains the earth.
Everywhere, it enhances the doctrine.
# Case 45: Hoen’s ‘Who Is He?’
Hoen of Tozan said, “Even Shakya and Maitreya are servants of another.
I want to ask you, who is he?”.
# Mumon’s Comment
If you can really see this ‘another’ with perfect clarity, it is like encountering your own father at a crossroads. Why should you ask whether you recognise him or not?
# Mumon’s Verse
Don’t draw another’s bow,
Don’t ride another’s horse,
Don’t discuss another’s faults,
Don’t explore another’s affairs.
# Case 46: Proceed On From the Top of the Pole
Sekiso Osho asked, “How can you proceed on further from the top of a hundred-foot pole?”.
Another eminent teacher of old said, “You, who sit on the top of a hundred-foot pole, although you have entered the Way you are not yet genuine.
Proceed on from the top of the pole, and you will show your whole body in the ten directions”.
# Mumon’s Comment
If you go on further and turn your body about, no place is left where you are not the master.
But even so, tell me, how will you go on further from the top of a hundred-foot pole? Eh?”.
# Mumon’s Verse
He darkens the third eye of insight
And clings to the first mark on the scale.
Even though he may sacrifice his life,
He is only a blind man leading the blind.
# Case 47: Tosotsu’s Three Barriers
Tosotsu Etsu Osho set up three barriers for his disciples:
1. You leave no stone unturned to explore profundity, simply to see into your true nature.
Now, I want to ask you, just at this moment, where is your true nature?
2. If you realise your true nature, you are free from life and death.
Tell me, when your eyesight deserts you at the last moment, how can you be free from life and death?
3. When you set yourself free from life and death, you should know your ultimate destination. So when the four elements separate, where will you go?
# Mumon’s Comment
If you can put turning words to these three questions, you are the master wherever you may stand and command Zen whatever circumstances you may be in.
If otherwise, listen: gulping down your meal will fill you easily, but chewing it well can sustain you.
# Mumon’s Verse
This moment’s thoughts sees through eternal time;
Eternal time is just this moment.
If you see through this moment’s thought,
You see through the man who sees through this moment.
# Case 48: Kempo’s One Road
A monk asked Kempo Osho, “It is written, ‘Bhagavats in the ten directions. One straight road to Nirvana’.
I still wonder where the road can be”.
Kempo lifted his staff, drew a line, and said, “Here it is”.
Later the monks asked the same question to Unmon,
who held up his fan and said, “This fan jumps up to the thirty-third heaven and hits the nose of the deity Sakra Devanam Indra.
When you strike the carp of the eastern sea, the rain comes down in torrents”.
# Mumon’s Comment
One, going to the bottom of the sea, lifts up clouds of dust; the other, on the top of the highest mountain, rises towering waves to wash the sky.
One holding fast, the other letting go, each stretches out his hand to support the profound teaching.
They are just like two riders starting from opposite ends of the course and meeting in the middle.
But none on earth can be absolutely direct.
When examined with a true eye, neither of these two great masters knows the road.
# Mumon’s Verse
Before a step is taken, the goal is reached;
Before the tongue is moved, the speech is finished.
Though each move is ahead of the next,
There is still a transcendent secret.
# Mumon’s Postscript
The sayings and doings of the Buddha and the patriarchs have been set down in their original form.
Nothing superfluous has been added by the author, who has taken the lid off his head and exposed his eyeballs.
Your direct realisation is demanded; it should not be sought through others.
If you are a man of realisation, you will immediately grasp the point at the slightest mention of it.
There is no gate for you to go through; there are no stairs for you to ascend.
You pass the checkpoint, squaring your shoulders, without asking permission of the keeper.
Remember Gensha’s saying, “No-gate is the gate of emancipation; no-meaning is the meaning of the man of the Way”.
And Hakuun says, “Clearly you know how to talk of it, but why can’t you pass this simple, specific thing?”.
However, all this kind of talk is like making a mud pie with milk and butter.
If you have passed the Mumonkan, you can make a fool of Mumon.
If not, you are betraying yourself.
It is easy to know the Nirvana mind but difficult to attain the wisdom of differentiation.
When you have realised this wisdom, peace and order will reign over your land.
The change of era to Jotei [1228], five days before the end of summer session
Respectfully inscribed by Mumon Ekai Bhikkhu, eighth in succession from Yogi
Wu-wen kuan (Mumonkan)
End of the book
Source: English translation by late Zen master Katsuki Sekida (Two Zen Classics 26–137)
https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/mumonkan.htm