The Three Barriers

Text

Xuansha said to his assembly: "The teachers in all directions say they are going to help living beings. Now suppose a blind person comes to you—how will you teach him with form? Suppose a deaf person comes—how will you teach him with sound? Suppose a mute person comes—how will you have him express himself? If you cannot help these three kinds of people, what is the use of your teaching?" The assembly had no reply. Xuansha said: "If you cannot pass through the door of the blind, the deaf, and the mute, your understanding has not yet reached the gate."

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Xuansha Shibei

Lineage: Qingyuan line

By Xuansha Shibei

• The Whole World Is One Bright Pearlsaying
• Bodhidharma Never Came to Chinadialogue

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. 18, Xuansha Shibei chapter

  Jingde Chuandenglu: The Three Barriers