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July 28, 2008

What Are You?

A nun asked Zen Master Lung-t'an as to what she should do in order to become a monk in the next life.

NunThe master asked, "How long have you been a nun?"

The nun said, "My question is whether there will be any day when I shall be a monk."

"What are you now?" asked the master.

To this the nun answered, "In the present life I am a nun. How can anyone fail to know this?"

"Who knows you?" Lung-t'an fired back.

Commentary
Zen Master Lung-t'an (782-865 C.E.) was a grand-student of Shih-t'ou and the great grand-teacher of Hsueh-feng and Yun-men. He was very generous to the nun in this story.

Source: The Golden Age of Zen
Photo by Steve Evans

Posted at 09:04 PM in Learning from All Beings |

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  • The role of women in the development of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism is poorly known. There have been imaginative attempts to construct a female lineage during the Tang Dynasty, but documentary records are quite limited. While reading through the case records over the past decade, I've noted stories involving female practitioners. This weblog compiles those stories in a single location.
  • As for me (Barry Briggs), I have trained for two decades in the Kwan Um School of Zen and serve that organization as a Bodhisattva Teacher. You can reach me at zenwomen [at] mac.com.
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