Karin [the head monk from Isan's Bottle] was visited once by Haikyu, a scholar connected with the Obaku Branch of Zen. It was Kaikyu who collected Obaku's Den-shin-hoyo, and wrote a preface for it. Haikyu said to Karin, "You have no attendants?" "Yes, I have two, but I can hardly show them to visitors." "Where are they then?" At this Karin shouted, "Daiku! Shoku!" and, to the amazement of Haikyu, two great tigers came out from behind the temple. Karin said to them, "We have a visitor, so go back." The two tigers roared, and went off again. But from this rather doubtful-sounding anecdote comes the fact that a Zen attendant monk is called niku, or "two Emptinesses, also written as "two tigers." Niku also means "meat".
-Introduction to Isan's Bottle, Mumonkan, R.H. Blyth
Discussion:
Blyth an exceptional scholar! This reading is an wonderful example of two problems. First, there are clearly scholars of Zen who are not even attendants. Why would this matter? Zen, more than most things, is a foreign language. Zen does not contain any words or sentences, yet scholars try to examine Zen, to document it, who have nothing but words and sentences. It was as if they thought that Zen Masters did not use words or sentences because they lacked learning. But this is not the case. So Japan is a foreign country, and Zen is foreign too, a Persian with a red beard. It is very difficult to understand the perspective of life in a foreign country, and impossible to understand Zen. What does it mean that attendants are simply "meat"? That is a Zen joke. But they are also tigers. They are also Profound Emptiness. They are trying to find the Way, but they are not walking it yet.
On the other hand, scholars are not trying to find it, they are not walking it. Scholars, even dear Mr. Blyth, seek words and sentences. What fantastic things are words and sentences! Worthless!
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