Mumonkan / Wumenguan · CASE 30
This Mind Is Buddha
The Gateless Gate
Case
Daibai asked Baso, “What is Buddha?” Baso said, “This very mind is Buddha.”
Verse
Beneath the blue sky in broad daylight, above all, do not search. To ask again “What is it?” is to clutch stolen goods while crying injustice.
Footnotes 1
- 定盤星 is the reference mark used to establish a steelyard's balance. Wumen's criticism targets treating the formula as an invariant doctrinal calibration point. ↩
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- 即心即佛 — CBETA T2005: T48n2005_p0296c27–p0297a07.
- 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
- f451a3ba5e26
Wumen's commentary
If you can receive this directly, you wear Buddha's clothes, eat Buddha's food, speak Buddha's words, and carry out Buddha's conduct—you are Buddha. Even so, how many people has Daibai led into mistaking the fixed mark on a steelyard? They do not know that after saying the word “Buddha,” one should rinse one's mouth for three days. A real person, hearing “this mind is Buddha,” covers his ears and runs away.1