Note f126 — PRACTICAL METHODS OF ZEN INSTRUCTION

There are many mondoes purporting to the same subject. The best known one by Jōshu is quoted elsewhere; of others we mention the following. A monk asked Risan (Li-shan), “All things are reduced to emptiness, but where is emptiness reduced?” Risan answered, “The tongue is too short to explain it to you.” “Why is it too short?” “Within and without, it is of one suchness,” said the master. (Ch. N., [6.6].)

A monk asked Keisan (Ch‘i-shan), “When relations are dissolved, all is reduced to emptiness; but where is emptiness reduced?” The master called out to the monk, and the monk responded, “Yes,” whereupon the master called his attention, saying, “Where is emptiness?” Said the monk, “Pray, you tell me.” Keisan replied, “It is like the Persian tasting pepper.” While the one light is an etiological question as long as its origin is the point at issue, the questions here referred to are teleological because the ultimate reduction of emptiness is the subject for solution. But as Zen transcends time and history, it recognises only one beginningless and endless course of becoming. When we know the origin of the one light, we also know where emptiness ends. (Ch. N., [6.7].)