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YOU MEET A SWORDSMAN IN THE STREET, GIVE HIM A SWORD. IF HE IS NOT A POET, DON'T SHOW HIM YOUR POEM."
He is saying, "I am giving you what you are capable of. I will not give you a poem if you are not a poet. I am not blind to your potentiality. If I see that you can become a great swordsman, I will present you with a sword, I will not bother you with any poetry."
It seems that the inquirer could not get the point. Zen is not like any philosophical school of the world where you can ask questions and you can be answered. Your questions are intellectual, the answers are intellectual. But the questioner does not know exactly what he is asking. He is unconscious, but he can be forgiven. The teacher does not know what he is answering because he also is unconscious. He is simply transferring borrowed knowledge that he has gathered from other teachers. One blind man is trying to explain to another blind man what is the meaning of light. Zen is not interested in philosophy at all, it is anti-philosophy.
ONCE UMMON EXCLAIMED, "BUDDHISM IS JUST TERRIFIC! THE TONGUE IS SO SHORT." THEN HE ADDED, "SO LONG." HE THEN SAID, "WHEN WE HAVE FINISHED CUTTING WITH A GREAT AXE, WE RUB OUR HANDS TOGETHER."
It looks like a puzzle but it is not a puzzle. What he is saying is: "BUDDHISM IS JUST TERRIFIC!" -- it is an experience beyond words, beyond explanations, beyond human capacities. Our tongues are so short that they cannot utter the great experience. Our words are so small that they cannot contain the infinity, the eternity, the immortality of the experience. And the experience is so long! Our tongues are so short, our hands are so small, and the moon is so far away.
HE THEN SAID, "WHEN WE HAVE FINISHED CUTTING WITH A GREAT AXE, WE RUB OUR HANDS TOGETHER."
First let us try to finish cutting all the weeds that are dividing us -- weeds are symbols in Zen of thoughts. Cut out all your thoughts and when I don't have any thoughts and you don't have any thoughts, then there is nothing to be said. But then we can share. We can rub our hands together in deep love, in gratitude. Something can be said with the hand that words cannot utter.
Have
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