Week 2020-53: Koans

"The holy truths are empty?
What is the secret here?
Once more: 'Who is this standing here before me?'
'Don't know!'" (Xuedou Chongxian, "Sònggǔ Bǎizé" ["100 Verses on Old Cases"], 1030–1050) 

"All things return to the One, to what does the One return?" (Śūraṅgama Sūtra, cca. 11th century) 

"A buffalo is pushed through an open window. The head, horns, and four legs all go through, but why cannot the tail pass through?" (Mumonkan, Gateless Gate case 38, 1229)

"A monk asked Zhaozhou, 'What is the meaning of the fi rst patri-arch Bodhidharma coming from the West?' Th e master replied, 'The cypress tree standing in the courtyard.'” (Mumonkan, Gateless Gate case 37, 1229)

"Here’s a water pitcher, and so tell me what this is with-out either calling it a pitcher or not calling it a pitcher." (Mumonkan, Gateless Gate case 40, 1229)

"A ball of fierce flames reddens the vast sky
and the Buddhas of the three times are at its centre.
Having presented it, they are finished now.
A cool breeze moves above the brows." (Puning Yong [in Koun Ejō, "Komyozo Zanmai" ["The Practice of the Treasury of Luminosity"], 1243])

"Dismiss every clever or subtle thought no matter how holy or valuable. Cover it over with a thick cloud of forgetting." (Anon, "The Cloud of Unknowing", cca. 1375–1380) 

"The eye with which I see God is the very same eye with which God sees me." (Meister Eckhart, 14th century)

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it really is, infinite." (William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", cca. 1790) 

"What is the sound of one hand clapping?" (Hakuin Ekaku, 18th century)

"The same water becomes milk if taken by the cow or poison if taken by the snake." (Anon)