Gateless Gate 16

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Gateless Gate (Mumonkan, Wumenguan) #16
The Sound of the Bell and the Seven-Panel Robe

Personnel

• YUNMEN Wenyan (Ummon Bunen, 864-949, 13th gen), disciple of Xuefeng

Case (Yamada)

Yunmen said, "The world is vast and wide like this. Why do we put on our seven-panel robe at the sound of the bell?"

Wumen's Comment (Yamada)

Generally speaking, in practicing and studying Zen, it is most detestable to follow sounds and pursue colors.
Even though you may become enlightened through hearing sounds and come to realize mind by seeing colors, that is the ordinary way of things.
People do not know that for real Zen monks, when they are riding on sounds and becoming one with colors, everything is clear, moment by moment, everything is full of wonder, action after action.
When you hear a sound, however, just tell me, does the sound come to the ear or the ear go to the sound?
Even though you have extinguished both sound and silence, what will you realize here?
If you hear with the ear, you cannot realize it.
When you hear with the eye, for the first time it will become intimate.

Wumen's Verse (Yamada)

With realization, all things are of one family;
Without realization, everything is separate and different.
Without realization, all things are of one family;
With realization, everything is separate and different.

KOAN INDEX
Hotetsu's Verses on Koans