Obaku got here into the kitchen and requested the prepare dinner what he was doing. The prepare dinner mentioned, “I’m checking out the rice for the neighborhood of monks.” Obaku mentioned, “How a lot do they eat a day?” The prepare dinner answered, “Two and a half stone.” Obaku requested, “Isn’t that somewhat quite a bit?” The prepare dinner replied, “I somewhat concern it’s too little.” Obaku hit him. The prepare dinner reported this to Rinzai. The grasp mentioned, “I’ll go and check that previous fellow Obaku for you.”
Commentary:
When Obaku requested the prepare dinner what he was doing, he didn’t imply to ask what he was doing, however he, revealing the true-Self, checked whether or not the prepare dinner might discern the true-Self or not. He requested the prepare dinner if he knew whether or not the essence of his being that was sorting the rice is the true-Self, Vacancy. Within the realm of Vacancy there isn’t a rice and nobody to kind the rice. Failing to know the grasp’s that means, the prepare dinner made a cosmopolitan reply. Obaku had the kindness to current him with one other query ‘How a lot do they eat a day?’. Within the realm of the true-Self there can’t be any conceptions equivalent to ‘a lot’, ‘little’ and ‘eat’. The prepare dinner, deluded by phrases once more, responded with a secular reply. When the compassionate Obaku gave the prepare dinner yet one more probability by asking, ‘Isn’t that somewhat quite a bit?’, he, conscious that the prepare dinner was nonetheless misplaced, gave the reply to the three questions he had requested by hitting him. When Rinzai, listening to about this example from the prepare dinner, mentioned, “I’ll go and check that previous fellow Obaku for you”, not solely did he promise to check Obaku but in addition gave the identical reply to the three questions as Rinzai did by hitting the prepare dinner.
Scholar: “How would you will have answered the query ‘What are you doing?’?”
Grasp: “I might have sprinkled water on Obaku.”
Scholar: “What would your reply have been to the query ‘How a lot do they eat a day?’?”
Grasp: “I might have mentioned, ‘Why do you ask me how a lot you eat a day?’.”
Scholar: “How would you will have responded to the query ‘Isn’t that somewhat quite a bit?’?”
Grasp: “‘Quite a bit’ and ‘slightly’ are the complaints of those that eat with a mouth.”
Scholar: “What did Rinzai imply by ‘I’ll go and check that previous fellow Obaku for you’?”
Grasp: “He meant, ‘Why don’t you recognise what Obaku confirmed? What I’m displaying you now isn’t completely different from it. Take a detailed look.”
The king doesn’t know what rice is whereas the prepare dinner within the kitchen is at all times frightened whether or not there’s a lot or slightly.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All pictures ©Simon Hathaway
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