proverb

Fox in the Audience

Mumonkan, Case 2

Tang

Traditionally attributed

Text

An old man came to my talks for many years, sitting at the back. He told me he had been a wild fox for five hundred lives because of one wrong word. We buried the fox with monks' rites. The wrong word, properly answered, frees not only the answerer.

tr. Zen Lineage editorial

license: cc_by

Attribution

Lineage: Nanyue line

By Baizhang Huaihai

Sources