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THE RESULTS OF SATORI 169 “An octagonal mill-stone rushes through the air;
A golden-coloured lion has turned into a cur; If you want to hide yourself in the North Star, Turn round and fold your hands behind the South
Star.”I But the oldest and most famous ge comes from the Pali Canon. It is a curious little story, and being a perfect and early example of the attainment of satori centuries before the Dhyana (Ch'an, Zen) School was born, it has always seemed to me strange that neither students of Zen, who are apt to claim satori as their own, nor students of the Thera Vâda, who are apt to sneer at Zen, take heed of it. Sariputta and Moggallana, two Brahmans who later became famous figures in the Buddha's Ministry (their “relics” were returned from England to Sanchi in 1948, to the Stupa whence they had been dug up in the nineteenth century), were disciples of the same Master, and each promised to tell the other as soon as he "attained the Immortal". One day Sariputta met the Venerable Assaji, a distinguished member of the Order. He asked Assaji about his Master's Teaching, but Assaji explained that he was new to the Order, and could not explain the Dhamma in detail. "But tell me the meaning," said Sariputta. “Why make so much of the letter?" The reply was remarkable. Is this indeed the essence of Buddhism?
“The Buddha hath the cause described
Of all things springing from a cause; And also how things cease to be
This is the Great One's Teaching." Not what the cause is, be it noted, but merely the fact 1 Chosen from others in Essays I, pp. 234-35.
