Categories
Kusen

218. Is Master Tozan here?

In Memoriam

1. During a Mondo, someone asked my late first teacher Nancy about Master Tozan.

Nancy said to this person ‘Is Tozan here, or not?’

The person said – ‘He’s not here’. Nancy struck him, playfully.

Then she asked again: ‘Is Master Tozen here?’

The person said ‘He is here’. Nancy struck him again.

Alive or dead? Nancy? Tozan? You and me?

2. The ignorant person thinks that this person, whom they call their self, is their possession; and where this person appears in the heart or eye or mind of someone else, then this simply is echo, or shadow

But this person is not a half finished fortification.

This person is multitudes. Being is numberless.