Married, Father, United
My soul, seek the Only One . . . 
My soul, you have no part with the earth; for you are from heaven. 
You are the image of God: seek your First Image. 
For like strives after like. 
Each object finds its rest in its center and element — fish in water, fire in its
upward movement everything strives to its center. 
My soul, you are an immaterial spirit, immortal. . . 
In Him alone you will find your rest. 
We were created for eternal life by our Creator, we are called to it by the word of God, and we are renewed by holy Baptism. 
And Christ the Son of God came into the world for this, that He should call us and take us there, and He is the one thing needful. 
For this reason your very first endeavor and care should be to receive it. 
Without it everything is as nothing, though you have the whole world under you. 
A monk told Joshu: `I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.’
Joshu asked: `Have you eaten your rice porridge?’The monk replied: `I have eaten.’
Joshu said: `Then you had better wash your bowl.’
At that moment the monk was enlightened.
Mumon’s Comment: Joshu is the man who opens his mouth and shows his heart. I doubt if this monk really saw Joshu’s heart. I hope he did not mistake the bell for a pitcher.
It is too clear and so it is hard to see.
A dunce once searched for fire with a lighted lantern.
Had he known what fire was,
He could have cooked his rice much sooner.
When Buddha was in Grdhrakuta mountain he turned a flower in his fingers and held in before his listeners. Every one was silent. Only Maha-Kashapa smiled at this revelation, although he tried to control the lines of his face.
Buddha said: `I have the eye of the true teaching, the heart of Nirvana, the true aspect of non-form, and the ineffable stride of Dharma. It is not expressed by words, but especially transmitted beyond teaching. This teaching I have given to Maha-Kashapa.’
Mumon’s Comment: Golden-faced Guatama thought he could cheat anyone. He made the good listeners as bad, and sold dog meat under the sign of mutton. And he himself thought it was wonderful. What if all the audience had laughed together? How could he have transmitted the teaching? And again, if Maha-Kashapa had not smiled, how could he have transmitted the teaching? If he says that realization can be transmitted, he is like the city slicker that cheats the country dub, and if he says it cannot be transmitted, why does he approve of Maha-Kashapa?
At the turning of a flower
His diguise was exposed.
No one is heaven or earth can surpass
Maha-Kashapa’s wrinkled face.
O monk, 
take thou the greatest possible care that thou sin not,
lest thou disgrace God Who dwelleth in thee, 
and thou drive Him out of thy soul.
Kyogen said: `Zen is like a man hanging in a tree by his teeth over a precipice. His hands grasp no branch, his feet rest on no limb, and under the three another person asks him: `Why does Bodhidharma come to China from India?’
`If the man in tree does not answer, he fails; and if he does answer, he falls and loses his life. Now what shall he do?’
Mumon’s Comment: In such a predicament the most talented eloquence is no use. If you have memorized all the sutras, you cannot use them. When you can give the right answer, even though your past road was one of death, you open up a new road of life. But if you cannot answer, you should ages hence and the future Buddha, Maitreya.
Kyogen is truly a fool
Spreading that ego-killing poison
That closes his pupils’ mouths
And lets their tears stream from their dead eyes.
One of the old men said, 
“It is written concerning Solomon that he loved women, but every male loveth the females, and we must restrain and draw onwards our nature by main force to purity.”
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Wakun complained when he saw a picture of the bearded Bodhidharma: `Why hasn’t that fellow a beard?’
Mumon’s comment: If you want to study Zen, you must it with your heart. When you attain realization, it must be true realization. You yourself must have the face of the great Bodhidharma to see him. Just once such glimpse will be enough. But if you say you met him, you never saw him at all.
One should not discuss a dream
In front of a simpleton.
Why has Bodhidharma no beard?
What an absurd question!
I shall tell you something strange, but do not be surprised by it. 
Should you fail to attain dispassion because of the predispositions dominating you, but at the time of your death be in the depths of humility, you will be exalted above the clouds no less than the man who is dispassionate. 
Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger.
Gutei heard about the boy’s mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called and stopped him. When the boy turned his head to Gutei, Gutei raised up his own finger. In that instant the boy was enlightened.
When Gutei was about to pass from this world he gathered his monks around him. `I attained my finger-Zen,’ he said, `from my teacher Tenryu, and in my whole life I could not exhaust it.’ Then he passed away.
Mumon’s comment: Enlightenment, which Gutei and the boy attained, has nothing to do with a finger. If anyone clings to a finger, Tenyru will be so disappointed that he will annihilate Gutei, the boy and the clinger all together.
Gutei cheapens the teaching of Tenyru,
Emancipating the boy with a knife.
Compared to the Chinese god who pushed aside a mountain with one hand
Old Gutei is a poor imitator.
David Given Schwarm 