Zen masters gave personal advice in a secluded room. No one entered it while the teacher and student were there.
Mokurai, a Zen master at the Kennin Temple in Kyoto, loved to talk with merchants and newspapermen as well as with students.
One cooper was almost illiterate. He asked Mokurai stupid questions, drank tea and left.
One day, when the cooper was visiting, Mokurai wanted to talk privately with a student, so he asked the cooper to wait in another room.
“I know you are a living Buddha,” said the cooper. “But even the stone Buddha never refuses people who come together, even if there are many of them.” Why should I leave?
Mokurai had to go out to see the student.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru