Mumonkan / Wumenguan · CASE 46
Step Forward from the Pole
The Gateless Gate
Case
Sekisō said, “How do you step forward from the top of a hundred-foot pole?” An elder of old also said, “One who sits atop a hundred-foot pole may have gained entry, but it is not yet genuine. From the top of the pole one must step forward and manifest the whole body throughout the worlds of the ten directions.”
Verse
Blinding the eye at the crown of the head, mistaking the fixed mark on the scale— ready to cast away body and life, one blind person leads the blind multitude.
Footnotes 1
- “Hundred-foot” conventionally means an extreme height, not a surveyed measurement. The image asks for movement beyond an already maximal position. ↩
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- 竿頭進步 — CBETA T2005: T48n2005_p0298c11–p0298c19.
- 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
- dd5482994f2a
Wumen's commentary
If you can step forward and turn your body around, in what place would you not be honored? Even so, tell me: how do you step forward from the top of a hundred-foot pole? Ha!1