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Gateless Gate

 

The Gateless Gate or The Gateless Barrier (Chin. Wu-wen kuan; Jap. Mumonkan)

The author is Chinese Ch'an master Wu-men Hui-hai (無門慧開 Mumon Ekai, 1183-1260).

 

English Translation

By late Zen master Katsuki Sekida (Two Zen Classics 26-137)

 

Original Chinese Text

The original Chinese text is taken from the following Japanese web site:

 

                  http://homepage1.nifty.com/poem-club/mumonnkan/mumonkanwoyomu.htm

 

The Chinese and Japanese texts in this web site are taken from the book titled Mumonkan, published in Japan by Iwanami Bunkõ.

 

Chinese Characters

Unfortunately a few Chinese characters were not given in this site. Luckily these characters are less than 1% of the text. Where there was a definition about these ideograms, they are entered them using Chinese system (Big 5). There are also ideograms that appear as mere black boxes, without any explanations. These are replaced with dummy characters (empty square boxes).

 

 

The Gateless Gate 無門關

Wu-wen kuan (Mumonkan)

 

Case 15 Tõzan's Sixty Blows   十五 洞山三頓

 

 

 

 

雲門、因洞山參次、門問曰、近離甚處。

Tõzan came to study with Unmon. Unmon asked, "Where are you from?"

山云、査渡。

"From Sato," Tõzan replied.

門曰、夏在甚處。

"Where were you during the summer?"

山云、湖南報慈。

"Well, I was at the monastery of Hõzu, south of the lake."

門曰、幾時離彼。

"When did you leave there," Unmon asked.

山云、八月二十五。

"On August 25" was Tõzan's reply.

門曰、放汝三頓棒。

"I spare you sixty blows," Unmon said.

山至明日却上問訊。

昨日蒙和尚放三頓棒。

The next day Tõzan came to Unmon and said, "Yesterday you said you spared me sixty blows.

不知過在甚麼處。

I beg to ask you, where was I at fault?"

門曰、飯袋子、江西湖南便恁麼去。

"Oh, you rice bag!" shouted Unmon. "What makes you wander about, now west of the river, now south of the lake?"

山於此大悟。

Tõzan thereupon came to a mighty enlightenment experience.

 

Mumon's Comment

無門曰、雲門、當時便與本分草料、使洞山別有生機一路、家門不致寂寥。

If Unmon had given Tõzan the true food of Zen and encouraged him to develop an active Zen spirit, his school would not have declined as it did.

一夜在是非海裏著到、直待天明再來、又與他注破。

Tõzan had an agonizing struggle through the whole night, lost in the sea of right and wrong. He reached a complete impasse. After waiting for the dawn, he again went to Unmon, and Unmon again made him a picture book of Zen.

洞山直下悟去、未是性燥。

Even though he was directly enlightened, Tõzan could not be called brilliant.

且問諸人、洞山三頓棒、合喫不合喫。

Now, I want to ask you, should Tõzan have been given sixty blows or not?

若道合喫、草木叢林皆合喫棒。

If you say yes, you admit that all the universe should be beaten.

若道不合喫、雲門又成誑語。

If you say no, then you accuse Unmon of telling a lie.

向者裏明得、方與洞山出一口氣。

If you really understand the secret, you will be able to breathe out Zen spirit with the very mouth of Tõzan.

 

Mumon's Verse 頌曰

獅子教兒迷子訣    The lion had a secret to puzzle his cub;

擬前跳躑早翻身    The cub crouched, leaped, and dashed forward.

無端再敍當頭著    The second time, a casual move led to checkmate.

前箭猶輕後箭深    The first arrow was light, but the second went deep.

 

 

Next chapter: Case 16 When The Bell Sounds

 

Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Mumonkan: The Gateless Gate

 

 

 

Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Mumonkan: The Gateless Gate

 

 
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