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The Gateless Gate · 27 of 48

27. It Is Not Mind, It Is Not Buddha, It Is Not Things

A monk asked Nansen: “Is there a teaching no master ever preached before?”

Nansen said: “Yes, there is.”

“What is it?” asked the monk.

Nansen replied: “It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things.”

Mumon’s comment: Old Nansen gave away his treasure-words. He must have been greatly upset.

Nansen was too kind and lost his treasure. Truly, words have no power. Even though the mountain becomes the sea, Words cannot open another’s mind.

Echoes elsewhere

Mysticism, Christian and Buddhist · Buddhismway to Taisan, felt hungry and tired and stopped at a roadside teahouse and asked for refreshments. The old woman who kept the house, finding that Tokusan was a great student of th Essays in Zen Buddhism · Buddhism(Teh-shan Hsüan-chien, 779–865) was a great scholar of the Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā). Learning that there was such a thing as Zen ignoring all the written scriptures and direct Mysticism, Christian and Buddhist · Buddhismsouth of China. Wishing to refute it he came out of Szŭ-ch’uan in the southwestern part of China. His objective was to visit a great Zen monastery in the district of Li-yang. When Essays in Zen Buddhism · Buddhismand the old master could not but be pleased with this treatment from his former tearful Rinzai. When Tokusan gained an insight into the truth of Zen, he immediately took up all his