4. STUDY WITH YOUR HEART
(A BEARDLESS FOREIGNER)
Wakuan complained when he saw a picture of bearded Bodhidharma:
“Why hasn’t that fellow a beard?”
MUMON’S COMMENT
If you want to study Zen, you must study it with your heart. When you attain realization, it must be true realization. You yourself must have the face of the great Bodhidharma to see him. Just one such glimpse will be enough. But if you say you met him, you never saw him at all.
MUMON’S VERSE
One should not discuss a dream
In front of a simpleton.
Why has Bodhidharma no beard?
What an absurd question!
HOKYO’S COMMENT
HOKYO’S COUPLET
The eyes see what is visible;
The heart sees what is essential.
previous
3. DON’T GIVE ME THE FINGER
next
5. HANGING BY THE TEETH
I AM NOT A HUMAN BEING
A Commentary on The Gateless Gate
©℗2020 Hokyo Jisetsu Walter Bitner
Illustrations ©2020 Carol-Margaret Bitner
Walter Bitner 