Mumonkan / Wumenguan · CASE 37
The Cypress in the Courtyard
The Gateless Gate
Case
A monk asked Jōshū, “What is the meaning of the ancestral teacher's coming from the west?” Jōshū said, “The cypress in the courtyard.”1
Verse
Words do not unfold the matter; speech does not meet the occasion. One who accepts the words is lost; one who sticks in the phrase is bewildered.
Footnotes 1
- The “ancestral teacher” is Bodhidharma. The translation does not replace the tree with an allegorical meaning absent from the reply. ↩
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- 庭前柏樹 — CBETA T2005: T48n2005_p0297c04–p0297c11.
- 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
- f442b8eece12
Wumen's commentary
If you see intimately at Jōshū's answer, there is no Śākyamuni before and no Maitreya after.