Miscellaneous Koans · CASE 16
Tosotsu’s Three Barriers
Preliminary koans studied before The Gateless Gate
Case
a) The purpose of making one’s way through grasses And asking a Master about the subtle truth Is only to realize one’s self-nature. Now you venerable monks, Where is your self-nature at this very moment? b) When you have attained your self-nature, You can free yourself from life and death. How would you free yourself from life and death When the light of your eyes is falling to the ground [when you are about to die]? c) When you have freed yourself from life and death, You know where to go. After your four elements have decomposed, Where are you going?
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- Tulsa Zen Center legacy miscellaneous-koan workbook
- Method
- Legacy wording is preserved under the explicit miscellaneous-koan exception; no primary-source scholarly edition is asserted.
- Editorial uncertainty
- A primary source has not been established; scholarly and adaptation labels would be misleading.
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- Rights audit pending; do not redistribute outside this library without editorial review.
- Revision identifier
- legacy-r1