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Koan Summer: Tokusan’s Last Word

  • 7 days ago
  • 1 min read

Our bowls are a deep teaching. They are the bowls of receptivity, of accepting whatever is coming, moment after moment after moment—bitter, sweet, salty, sour—yes, yes, yes and yes. In this koan (Mumonkon Case 13 and Book of Serenity Case 55), a student publicly chides his master for prematurely appearing for the meal. The master receives his student’s correction without complaint, turning and taking his empty bowls back to his room. A beautiful teaching of acceptance. Yet the koan continues: a second student later whispers to the master, and the master is changed. We wonder, what was whispered to create such a shift?


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