When Yamaoka was a brash young student, he visited the master Dokuon. Wanting to impress the master, he said:
“There is no mind, there is no body, there is no Buddha. There is no better, there is no worse. There is no master and there is no student; there is no giving, there is no receiving. What we think we see and feel is not real. All that is real is Emptiness. None of these seeming things really exists.”
Dokuon had been sitting quietly smoking his pipe, and saying nothing. Now he picked up his staff, and without warning gave Yamaoka a terrible whack. Yamaoka jumped up in anger.
“Since none of these things really exists,” said Dokuon, “and all is Emptiness, where does your anger come from? Think about it.”
A Good Zen Whacking….
When Yamaoka was a brash young student, he visited the master Dokuon. Wanting to impress the master, he said:
“There is no mind, there is no body, there is no Buddha. There is no better, there is no worse. There is no master and there is no student; there is no giving, there is no receiving. What we think we see and feel is not real. All that is real is Emptiness. None of these seeming things really exists.”
Dokuon had been sitting quietly smoking his pipe, and saying nothing. Now he picked up his staff, and without warning gave Yamaoka a terrible whack. Yamaoka jumped up in anger.
“Since none of these things really exists,” said Dokuon, “and all is Emptiness, where does your anger come from? Think about it.”