"Longya's Thief in an Empty Room" from Eihei Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo

The Main Case - A monastic asked Zen master Judan of Longya (Zhankong), "When do the teachers of old get stuck?" Longya said, "When the thief slips into an empty room."

Capping verse - When the mind is empty, the eyes are finally clear. Shining through detachment and subtlety--the root of creation.


Just to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding between you, the reader, and myself, the writer, I’ll make it clear right off the bat: for me, ideas, concepts, and theory are not methods for acquiring objective knowledge but rather catalysts for subjective experience of life; my life; anyone's life. While I admit I’m not averse to being able to posit a thesis that many can agree on, what’s more important to me is to instigate reflection. Similar to the manner in which a koan operates, activating consciousness of premises, assumptions, and prejudices in a dialectic process leading to the emptiness of knowing, so I hope to illuminate my subjects, not by shedding light on them, but by casting shadows, tracing their forms in darkness, in silhouette relief, to know them only by inference, by what they are not. My tools? Arbitrarily constructed in language and consciously divided for the sake of an intellectual pursuit: my mind (reason and awareness), my body (instinct and corporeality), and my spirit (presence and desire).

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Koan - The old texts


A student asked the teacher, “Why do we study the old texts?”
“I have never told you what to read,” replied the teacher.
“But everyone knows them,” said the surprised student.
“If you know them, then can you tell me what they say?” asked the teacher, who covered his ears and waited.


Sacredness can be either personal or collective, but either way it escapes objectivity by nature. Not even the most humorless academics can assert the truth or falsity beneath a sacred text unless they experience it for themselves. Some would say that all sacredness is myth. Others that to write the sacred is to measure the infinite. Desire extends from all sides of dialogue and debate. To knowingly commit a futile gesture is a utopian act.


Thinking love.
Framing ecstacy.
Release the shutter.
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