Mumonkan / Wumenguan · CASE 32
An Outsider Questions the Buddha
The Gateless Gate
Case
An outsider asked the World-Honored One, “I do not ask with words. I do not ask without words.” The World-Honored One remained seated. The outsider praised him: “The World-Honored One, in his great kindness and compassion, has opened my clouds of delusion and enabled me to enter.” He bowed fully and left. Ānanda then asked the Buddha, “What did the outsider realize that made him praise you and leave?” The World-Honored One said, “He is like a fine horse that moves when it sees the shadow of the whip.”1
Verse
Walking on a sword's edge, running along a ridge of ice, without using steps or a ladder— letting go with both hands from a cliff.
Footnotes 1
- 外道 marks someone outside the Buddhist path or community; “outsider” preserves that relation without importing the modern polemical meanings of “heretic.” ↩
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- 外道問佛 — CBETA T2005: T48n2005_p0297a21–p0297b02.
- 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
- 4cfc41853062
Wumen's commentary
Ānanda was the Buddha's disciple, yet his understanding did not come up to the outsider's. Tell me: how far apart were the outsider and the Buddha's disciple?