Mumonkan / Wumenguan · CASE 22
Kāśyapa's Flagpole
The Gateless Gate
Case
Ānanda asked Kāśyapa, “Besides the gold-brocade robe, what else did the World-Honored One transmit to you?” Kāśyapa called, “Ānanda!” Ānanda answered, “Yes?” Kāśyapa said, “Go take down the flagpole in front of the gate.”1
Verse
How could the question be as intimate as the answer? How many people grow sinews in their eyes here? Elder brother calls and younger brother answers, displaying the family's disgrace. It belongs neither to yin nor yang: this is another spring.
Footnotes 1
- Raising a banner could announce a Dharma address; lowering it can therefore mark the teaching's completion. That historical association clarifies the object but does not exhaust Kāśyapa's imperative. ↩
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- 迦葉剎竿 — CBETA T2005: T48n2005_p0295c12–p0295c21.
- Method
- Direct critical-edition translation from the cited received base text. Source claims, hagiography, uncertainty, and unresolved readings remain identified in the notes and project record.
- Editorial uncertainty
- Independent philological and reader review remain pending.
- Rights
- Project translation © Tulsa Zen Center Critical Edition contributors. Source text is cited by edition; redistribution policy requires final organizational approval.
- Revision identifier
- 58949c1c4f87
Wumen's commentary
If you can give a turning word here, you will intimately see the assembly at Vulture Peak still solemnly gathered, not yet dispersed. If not, Vipaśyin Buddha took care over it long ago and has not reached the subtle point even now.