Cuiyan Lingcan

Cuiyan Lingcan was a Caodong school master known in the koan tradition for his famous statement about eyebrows. At the end of a summer retreat, Cuiyan said to the assembly, "Since the beginning of the summer retreat I have been talking to you brothers. Look—are Cuiyan's eyebrows still there?" This became a celebrated koan exploring the consequences of speech—whether the act of teaching depletes or corrupts the teacher's own realization.

The eyebrow koan invites the student to investigate the nature of teaching itself: does the teacher lose anything by speaking? Is there a risk in putting the inexpressible into words? Cuiyan's playful question points to the paradox at the heart of all Chan teaching—the necessity and impossibility of communicating what lies beyond communication.