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discover that you have every capacity, every potentiality, to become a buddha. Why bother about Buddhism when you can become a buddha yourself? What is the point, if your eyes are closed, of asking people what light is, when you can open your eyes and see the light of the sun? And do you think anybody can explain to you what light is if your eyes are closed? There is no way. You have to open your eyes.
Bokushu was saying, "Don't be bothered about these things -- the meaning of Buddhism, or why Bodhidharma came from the West. It is not your problem. Why don't you come a little closer, a little nearer?" In that closeness your questions will melt away on their own because the closer you come, the more your darkness disappears. The closer you come the more your ego disappears. As you come closer you start seeing your original face reflected in the master's heart. It is a heart-to-heart silent message.
THE MONK WENT NEARER AND THEN BOKUSHU SAID, "WHEN I CALL A MAN ONE FROM EAST OF SETSU, ONE FROM WEST OF SETSU IS INCLUDED. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THAT?"
The disciple may have come a little closer, but half way, partially. One can come closer only if one is total, east and west together. The disciple must have been partly holding back and partly coming closer just because the master had asked. But no master is satisfied with any partial involvement. Every master down the ages has asked his disciples to come with their fullness, with their totality, not leaving anything behind, not holding anything back. Just come with totality and all your questions will disappear of their own accord.
THE MONK THEN ASKED, "WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF THE MEANING OF SOKEI?" -- (WHICH WAS WHERE ENO LIVED).
Eno was Bokushu's master. Now Bokushu has become a master in his own right. The monk's answer is sarcastic, skeptical. When he says, "WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF THE MEANING OF SOKEI?" he is asking "What were you doing at Sokei? You don't know what the meaning of Buddhism is, you don't know what was the cause of Bodhidharma coming to China. If you don't know anything, what have you been doing with your master Eno in Sokei?"
BOKUSHU SAID, "WHEN YOU MEET A
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