The Incense That Never Burns Out

Text

Jayata said to a skeptic who questioned the value of meditation: 'Light a stick of incense. Watch the smoke rise and disappear. Now tell me: where did it go?' The skeptic said: 'Into the air—into nothing.' Jayata said: 'And the sitting—where does it go?' The skeptic fell silent. Jayata said: 'Now you are beginning to understand sitting.' Keizan's verse: The smoke rises and is gone— / yet the fragrance fills the room. / Where does practice go / when the sitting ends?

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Jayata

Lineage: Indian Patriarchs

By Jayata

• The Debate with the Abhidharma Mastersdialogue

From Denkoroku

• The Robe That Never Wears Out
• The Fragrance Without a Flower
• The Mind That Is Like Space
• The Auspicious Cloud
• The Wine Jar and the Dharma
• The Star That Does Not Move
• Entering the Gate as a Householder
• The Vow of Pārśva
• The Debate That Ended Without Debate
• Meeting Nāgārjuna

Sources

• contentZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation

  Zen project editorial

  Denkoroku, Case 21

  Denkoroku: The Incense That Never Burns Out