No Interpretation

Anecdotes

oi-Staff

By Staff

Friday, September 25, 2009, 14:11

Once, Zen master Bokuju was walking the street in a village. Somebody came and struck him with a stick. The master fell down and so did the stick with which he was struck. The master immediately sprang up to his feet and picked up the stick. The man on seeing Bokuju up with the stick, took to his heels. The master started following the man with the stick shouting out "Wait, take your stick with you!"

Bokuju finally caught up with the man and gave him the stick. In the mean time a crowd had gathered and a person from the crowd asked Bokuju, "That man struck you hard, and you have not said anything!"

Bokuju said, "A fact is a fact. He has hit, that's all. It happened that he was the hitter and I was the hit. It is just as if I am passing under a tree, or sitting under a tree, and a branch falls down. What will I do? What can I do?"

The crowd however said that a branch is a branch but this is a man. We may not be able to reprimand the branch. We cannot say to the tree that it is bad as it is a 'tree' and has no mind.

Bokuju answered, "This man to me is also like a branch. If I am unable to say anything to the tree, why should I say anything to this man. It happened and I am not going to interpret what had happened. It has already happened. Why should one get worried of what had already happened. It is finished!"