On the Ōtōkan Bone

Text

A monk asked Juō: 'What is the essential teaching of the Ōtōkan line?' Juō held up his fist. Monk: 'And if I open the fist?' Juō opened his hand, then closed it again. Monk: 'I still do not see it.' Juō: 'Then you have seen something more important: your own not-seeing. Start from there.'

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Juo Sohitsu

Lineage: Rinzai

By Juo Sohitsu

• On Preserving the Line in Difficult Timessaying

From Daitoku-ji Historical Records

• On Preserving the Line in Difficult Times
• What Tettō Left
• Verse on Calligraphy

Sources

• contentZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation

  Zen project editorial

  Daitoku-ji historical records; cf. Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History, Vol. 2, pp. 155–159

  Daitoku-ji Historical Records: On the Ōtōkan Bone