Mumonkan / Wumenguan · CASE 42

The Woman Emerges from Samādhi

The Gateless Gate

Edition

ClassicalContemporaryAwaiting review

Names

JapaneseChinese

Names without a verified counterpart remain in their source form.

Case

Once Mañjuśrī came to the place where the buddhas had assembled. Each had returned to his own dwelling; only a woman remained, seated near Śākyamuni in samādhi. Mañjuśrī asked, “How can this woman sit near the Buddha when I cannot?” The Buddha said, “Wake her and ask her yourself.” Mañjuśrī circled her three times, snapped his fingers, and raised her as far as Brahmā's heaven. He exhausted his powers but could not bring her out. The Buddha said, “Even a hundred thousand Mañjuśrīs could not bring her out. More than twelve hundred million lands, each numerous as Ganges sands, below here is the bodhisattva Wangming. He can.” Wangming rose from the earth, bowed, went before the woman, and snapped his fingers once. The woman emerged from samādhi.¹

Verse

Able to bring her out, unable to bring her out—she herself is free. Spirit-heads and demon-faces: exposed failure becomes elegant style.

Wumen's commentary

Old Śākyamuni staged quite a farce, and not a minor one. Mañjuśrī taught seven buddhas—why could he not bring the woman out? Wangming was only a first-stage bodhisattva—why could he? See intimately here: karmic consciousness rushing busily, nāga-like great samādhi.

Footnotes 1

Wangming (罔明, “Obscure Light”) is portrayed as far lower in the bodhisattva hierarchy than Mañjuśrī. The story's dramatic force lies in that reversal, not in any demonstrated historical event. ↩

About this version and its sources

Full source citation: 女子出定 — CBETA T2005: T48n2005_p0298a25–p0298b13.
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.
Revision identifier: 3c533255261c