Harry Schwartz Eats the World

Three Pounds of Flax

Case 18 from Mumon’s Gateless Gate is one of the more classic koans:

THE CASE
A monk asked Master Tōzan in all earnestness, “What is Buddha?”
Tōzan said, “Masagin! (Three pounds of flax!)”

MUMON’S COMMENTARY
Old Tōzan realized a bit of clam Zen. Slightly opening the two halves of the shell, he exposed his liver and intestines. This may be so, but tell me, where do you see Tōzan?

THE VERSE
Masagin juts forth!
Words are intimate and the mind is even more intimate.
He who speaks about right and wrong
Is a man of right and wrong.

- Koun Yamada’s translation.

See also: Discordianism; the jargon file.

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