"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 - This empty room


When the student met the master for the first time, he couldn’t think of a question to ask the old man. 
“What are you waiting for?” asked the master.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” replied the student.
“How is this possible?” said the master. “You’re the only one standing in this empty room.”


Master-student relationships reveal or hide depending on one’s expectations. To be a student, one must first be the master of one’s own head. This student, however, hadn’t found his body yet, so how could he know where his head was? The true master is simply the student once he’s found a way to begin the lesson.


If you know what you are looking for, you will never find it.
Just breathe. The lesson always begins where it ends.
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