Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Even Kempo and Mumon did not know

A student monk once asked Master Kempo, "I understand that all Buddhas enter the one road into Nirvana. Where is this one road?”

Kempo, raising his walking stick, drew the figure "one" and said, "Here it is."

Later, the student monk went to Umon to ask the same question. Umon, opening his fan, said; "This fan will reach the thirty-third heaven and hit the nose of Sakra Devendra, the highest deity in these heavens. It is like the giant carp of the Eastern Sea tipping over a rain cloud with its tail to make the rain pour down."

Mumon's Comments:
One master walks on the deep ocean and raises dust. The other, standing on the tip of the high mountain, fills the heaven with white waves. The one holds the point, while the other liberates everything; together each supports the teaching with one hand. Kempo and Umon are like two powerful camels colliding. Seen from the truth, even Kempo and Mumon did not know where this one road really is.

They reach the goal before taking the first step.
They complete the speech before their tongue moves.
Even if they had foresight long ago, the origin of the road lies ahead of their foresight now. (e.g. they lost 'beginner's mind.')