禅Wumen Huikai

proverb

A Painted Cake Will Not Satisfy Hunger

Song

Traditionally attributed

Text

A painted cake does not satisfy hunger. So the koan repeated to others does not feed the one who repeats it. Eat the cake yourself; the hunger does the rest.

tr. Zen Lineage editorial

license: cc_by

Attribution

Lineage: Linji

By Wumen Huikai

Sources

  • contentThe Kōan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism

    Heine, Steven & Dale S. Wright (eds.)

    pp. 163–188

No per-field confidence has been recorded for this teaching yet. Treat individual claims with the caution appropriate to the source list below.

Attribution status: traditional — see editorial policy for what this means.

1 supporting citation on record (see Sources above).

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