Yamaoka Choshu, as a young Zen student, visited one teacher after another.
One day he came to Dokuon.
Wanting to show his knowledge, he said:
- Mind, Buddha, sensory being - all of them do not really exist. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no embodiment, no delusion, no wisdom, no mediocrity. Nothing can be given, nothing can be taken.
Dokuon, who was quietly smoking, said nothing.
Suddenly he hit Yamaoka hard on the head. The young man became very angry.
“If nothing exists,” asked Dokuon, “where does this anger come from?”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru