jwp (05/09/83)
Relay-Version:version B 3/9/83; site harpo.UUCP
Message-ID:<534@sdchema.UUCP>
Date:Sun, 8-May-83 19:55:04 EDT
Joshu began the study of Zen when he was sixty years old and continued
until he was eighty, when he realized Zen.
He taught from the age of eighty until he was one hundred and twenty.
A student once asked him: "If I haven't anything in my mind, what
shall I do?"
Joshu replied: "Throw it out."
"But if I haven't anything, how can I throw it out?", continued the
questioner.
"Well," said Joshu, "then carry it out."
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Kyogen said: "Zen is like a man hanging in a tree by his teeth over
a precipice. His hands grasp no branch, his feet rest on no limb, and under
the tree another person asks him: 'Why did Bodhidharma come to China from
India?'
"If the man in the tree does not answer, he fails; and if he does
answer, he falls and loses his life. Now what shall he do?"
____________________________________________________________________________
John Pierce, Chemistry, UC San Diego
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