Joshu Tests The Hermits

The Main Case

Zen Master Joshu went to a hermit’s hut and said, “Anything here? Anything here?” The hermit lifted up his fist. Joshu said, “The water is to shallow to anchor here,” and went away. 

He went to another hermits’s hut and said “Anything here? Anything here?” The hermit lifted up his fist. Joshu said, “Freely you give, freely you take away. Freely you bestow life, freely you destroy,” and made a profound bow.

Commentary

Both stuck up their fist; why is one accepted, and the other rejected?  Just say, where is the source of the confusion between the two? If, in regard to this you can speak a word of understanding, then you realize that Joshu’s tongue has no bone in it. Now he raises up, now he dashes down, in perfect freedom. But though this is so, remember that the two hermits also saw through Joshu.  Further, if you imagine that there was a comparison of superiority and inferiority to be made in regard to the two hermits, you have not an open eye. Neither have you an open eye if you suppose there is no deference of superiority and inferiority between the two hermits.

The Closing Verse
His eye is a shooting star;

The movements of his soul are like lightning.
He is a death dealer,
A life-giving sword.