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ZEN TECHNIQUE
139
that?" "When winter comes you shiver," said the Master; "when summer comes you perspire."
Even the Buddhist doctrine of the "great compassionate heart", the power of Maha-Karuna, which, with MahaPrajna, "great wisdom", is one of the two pillars on which the Mahayana rests, is taught concretely. One day an officer-disciple was late in arriving at his Master's house. He apologised and said that he had been watching a polo match. "Were the men tired?" asked the Master. "Yes, Master." "Were the horses tired?" "Yes, Master." "Is the wooden post here tired too?" The pupil failed to answer. That night he could not sleep, but at dawn hurried back to the Master. The answer had come to him. He asked the Master to repeat the question, which he did. "Yes, Master," he said, and the Master was delighted. A later Roshi pointed out that unless the post was tired there could be no tiredness anywhere.1
Often a silent gesture by Master or pupil reveals the content of the mind. A Master wanted a pupil capable of founding a branch monastery elsewhere. The most amazing tests were applied to the various applicants. Finally a monk was chosen as soon as he walked into the room. The head monk, overlooked, was furious, and a contest was prepared. When all the monks were assembled, the Master produced a pitcher. "Do not call this a pitcher," he said. "What would you call it?" One said, "You could not call it a block of wood." The Master was not satisfied, and beckoned the monk he had chosen to come forward. The latter gently pushed over the pitcher, and left the room. He won.
For silence in the end is the only medium for a truth 1 The Essence of Buddhism, p. 54.
