Not going, not coming – Koan 75
No. 75. Not going, not coming
One night of the Rohatsu training week, in the third year of Jowa (1347) at Kenchoji, a senior priest Doshu went to a cave for a night-sitting meditation, and came back at the third watch (about midnight). The monk who was guarding the door of the meditation hall scolded him, saying:
‘Where have you been all this time?’
He replied in a sutra verse:
Not going, not coming, the primal deep —
Neither in nor out nor in the middle.
The monk on guard said: ‘This sutra-copier has got both his eyes; I suppose I ought to let him come in again.’
(Imai’s note: It was known that Doshu had once copied out the 25th chapter of the Lotus sutra in his own blood.)
TESTS
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What does Not going, not coming, really mean?
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If it is not inside nor outside nor in the middle, where is it?
This incident became a koan in Kamakura Zen at the interviews of Jitsuo, the 36th master at Kenchoji.