A young Zen student once went visiting several masters. He arrived at the home of Dokuon of Shokoku.
Eager to show off his accomplishments, he pronounced, “Everything is emptiness. The mind does not exist; neither does the Buddha or other sentient beings. There is nothing like enlightenment or delusion, no wisdom or folly. Nothing can be given or received.”
Dokuon listened silently, smoking his bamboo pipe. Suddenly, he whacked the student with his pipe! The young man’s face contorted in anger.
Asked Dokuon gently, “You say nothing exists? If so, where has this anger sprung from?”
The road to enlightenment is filled with wrong turns!
