CASE 61: Kempô’s "One Line"

A monk asked Master Kempô in all earnestness, “In a certain sutra it says, ‘Ten-direction Bhagavats, one Way to the gate of nirvana.’ I wonder where the Way is.”

Kempô lifted up his stick, drew a line and said, “Here it is.”

The monk told Unmon about this and asked him.

Unmon said, “This fan jumps up to the heaven of the thirty-three devas and adheres to the nose of the deva Taishaku. When a carp in the eastern sea is struck with a stick, it rains torrents as though a tray of water is overturned.”