無門關
English translation by Katsuki Sekida
Mumon’s Preface
佛語心爲宗、無門爲法門。
Buddhism makes mind its foundation and no-gate its gate.
既是無門、且作麼生透。
Now, how do you pass through this no-gate?
豈不見道、從門入者不是家珍、從縁得者始終成壞。
It is said that things coming in through the gate can never be your own treasures. What is gained from external circumstances will perish in the end.
恁麼説話、大似無風起浪好肉抉瘡。
However, such a saying is already raising waves when there is no wind. It is cutting unblemished skin.
何況滯言句覓解會。 掉棒打月、隔靴爬痒、有甚交渉。
As for those who try to understand through other people’s words, they are striking at the moon with a stick; scratching a shoe, whereas it is the foot that itches. What concern have they with the truth?
慧開、紹定戊子夏、首衆于東嘉龍翔。因納子請益、遂將古人公案作敲門瓦子、隨機引導學者。
In the summer of the first year of Jotei, Ekai was in Ryusho Temple and as head monk worked with the monks, using the cases of the ancient masters as brickbats to batter the gate and lead them on according to their respective capacities.
竟爾抄録、不覺成集。初不以前後敍列、共成四十八則。
The text was written down not according to any scheme, but just to make a collection of forty-eight cases.
通曰無門關。
It is called Mumonkan, “The Gateless Gate.”
若是箇漢、不顧危亡單刀直入。
A man of determination will unflinchingly push his way straight forward, regardless of all dangers.
八臂那咤、擱他不在。
Then even the eight-armed Nata cannot hinder him.
縦使西天四七、東土二三、只得望風乞命。
Even the four sevens of the West and the two threes of the East would beg for their lives.
設或躊躇、也似隔窓看馬騎、貶得眼來、早已蹉過。
If one has no determination, then it will be like catching a glimpse of a horse galloping past the window: in the twinkling of an eye it will be gone.
Verse
大道無門 The Great Way is gateless,
千差有路 Approached in a thousand ways.
透得此關 Once past this checkpoint
乾坤獨歩 You stride through the universe.
Index
Case 1 Joshu’s “Mu”
Case 2 Hyakujo’s Fox
Case 3 Gutei Raises a Finger
Case 4 The Western Barbarian with No Beard
Case 5 Kyõgen’s “Man up in a Tree”
Case 6 The Buddha Holds Out a Flower
Case 7 Joshu’s “Wash Your Bowl”
Case 8 Keichu the Wheelmaker
Case 9 Daitsu Chisho Buddha
Case 10 Seizei Is Utterly Destitute
Case 11 Joshu Sees the Hermits
Case 12 Zuigan Calls His Master
Case 13 Tokusan Holds His Bowls
Case 14 Nansen Cuts the Cat in Two
Case 15 Tozan’s Sixty Blows
Case 16 When the Bell Sounds
Case 17 Chu the National Teacher Gives Three Calls
Case 18 Tozan’s “Masagin”
Case 19 Nansen’s “Ordinary Mind Is the Way”
Case 20 The Man of Great Strength
Case 21 Unmon’s “Kanshiketsu”
Case 22 Kashyapa’s “Knock Down the Flagpole”
Case 23 Think Neither Good Nor Evil
Case 24 Fuketsu’s Speech and Silence
Case 25 Kyozan’s Dream
Case 26 Two Monks Roll Up the Blinds
Case 27 Nansen’s “Not Mind, Not Buddha, Not Things”
Case 28 Ryutan Blows Out the Candle
Case 29 The Sixth Patriarch’s “Your Mind Moves”
Case 30 Baso’s “This Very Mind Is the Buddha”
Case 31 Jõshû Investigates an Old Woman
Case 32 A Non-Buddhist Philosopher Questions the Buddha
Case 33 Baso’s “No Mind, No Buddha”
Case 34 Nansen’s “Reason Is Not the Way”
Case 35 Seijo’s Soul Separated
Case 36 When You Meet a Man of the Way
Case 37 Joshu’s Oak Tree
Case 38 A Buffalo Passes the Window
Case 39 A Mistake in Speaking
Case 40 Tipping Over a Water Bottle
Case 41 Bodhidharma’s Mind-Pacifying
Case 42 The Girl Comes out of Samadhi
Case 43 Shuzan’s Shippei
Case 44 Basho’s Staff
Case 45 Hoen’s “Who Is He?”
Case 46 Proceed on from the Top of the Pole
Case 47 Tosotsu’s Three Barriers
Case 48 Kempo’s One Road
Mumon’s Postscript
πολυφλοίσβοιος 