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is standing no knowing, just pure innocence."
THE EMPEROR DID NOT GRASP HIS MEANING.
Obviously it would have been difficult for anybody to grasp the meaning -- unless one has already grasped it, but then he would not have asked.
Seeing that the emperor did not grasp his meaning, BODHIDHARMA CROSSED THE RIVER AND WENT TO THE LAND OF WEI. That was out of the territory of the emperor.
THE EMPEROR LATER SPOKE OF THIS TO SHIKO -- another Zen master -- WHO SAID, "DO YOU IN FACT KNOW WHO THIS PERSON IS?"
THE EMPEROR SAID, "NO KNOWING."
SHIKO SAID, "THIS IS THE BODHISATTVA KANNON, THE BEARER OF THE BUDDHA'S HEART SEAL."
THE EMPEROR WAS FULL OF REGRET AND WANTED TO SEND FOR BODHIDHARMA, BUT SHIKO SAID, "IT IS NO GOOD SENDING A MESSENGER TO FETCH HIM BACK. EVEN IF ALL THE PEOPLE WENT, HE WOULD NOT TURN BACK."
A man like Bodhidharma never turns back: what is past is past; you cannot bring him back into the past. You miss the opportunity, nothing can be done about it.
Another Zen teacher -- not a master -- has put the anecdote in this way:
THE HOLY TEACHING? "EMPTINESS!"
This is the way of teachers. This is not a lion roaring, this is a schoolmaster, a mouse creaking like the trees...
THE HOLY TEACHING? "EMPTINESS."
WHAT IS THE SECRET HERE?
AGAIN, "WHO STANDS BEFORE ME?"
"NO KNOWING!"
He is simply repeating what he has heard; he has not understood it himself.
INEVITABLE -- but he makes commentaries on it!
INEVITABLE, THE THORNS AND BRIARS SPRINGING UP;
SECRETLY, BY NIGHT, HE CROSSED THE RIVER.
ALL THE PEOPLE COULD NOT BRING HIM BACK.
NOW SO MANY YEARS GONE BY,
STILL BODHIDHARMA FILLS YOUR MIND -- IN VAIN.
STOP THINKING OF HIM!
A GENTLE BREEZE PERVADES THE UNIVERSE.
THE MASTER LOOKS AROUND...
I will not say "the master" because I cannot agree with him. I can accept at the most that the schoolteacher looks around and repeats something which is fashionable in Zen circles:
IS THE PATRIARCH THERE? The patriarch... he is referring to Bodhidharma. The founders of Zen are called patriarchs...
IS
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