Sending Linji to Huangbo

Text

When Linji Yixuan came to study with Muzhou, Muzhou recognized his potential but directed him elsewhere. He said to Linji: "You have some understanding, but you have not yet reached the bottom. Go to Huangbo—his style of teaching may break through what my style cannot." Linji said, "How will I know when I have reached the bottom?" Muzhou said, "When you stop asking questions like that."

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Muzhou Daoming
• Respondent
  Linji Yixuan

Lineage: Linji

By Muzhou Daoming

• The Door-Kicking Masterdialogue

From Jingde Chuandenglu

• On Gradual Cultivation
• Watch the Mind
• On Sudden Enlightenment
• The Debate at Huatai
• Before Thinking Arises
• The One Who Has No Rank
• The Arrow on High
• Meeting the Poet Li Ji
• Just This Is It
• Cold Ashes, Dead Tree

Sources

• contentZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation

  Zen project editorial

  Jingde Chuandenglu, Vol. 12, Muzhou Daoming chapter; Record of Linji

  Jingde Chuandenglu: Sending Linji to Huangbo