Ch‘ien-yüan, a master, sat behind a paper screen.
A monk came for sanzen, lifted the screen, and greeted the teacher, “It is strange.”
The teacher gazed at the monk then said, “Do you understand?”
“No, I do not understand,” the monk replied.
“Before the seven Buddhas appeared in the world,” said the teacher, “it was the same as the present moment. Why do you not understand?”
Later the monk mentioned the incident to Shih-shuang, a Zen teacher of the Dharma family, who praised Ch‘ien-yüan, saying,
“Brother Ch‘ien-yüan is like a master archer. He never shot an arrow without hitting the mark.”
UExis: Silly Shih-Shuang. Before any arrows were unsheathed, the mark was already at the tip.
Source: The Iron Flute, Translated by Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless
Submitted May 09, 2020 at 04:53PM by UExis https://ift.tt/2SNiYfs
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