Koan: The Rhinoceros-Horn Fan

Wisdom Quarterly; The Book of Equanimity

(Tricycle.com)

   

PREFACE TO THE ASSEMBLY

Real rhinoceros fan (Genju/108ZenBooks)

Lands and seas [planets and space] are boundless; yet, they are not apart from right here.
Things and previous aeons, numerous as the dust, all exist right now.
As when one is asked to it face to face, being caught unprepared, one cannot present it.
Tell me: Where is the fault?

MAIN CASE

Attention! One day Enkan summoned his attendant and told him,
"Go out and fetch the rhinoceros-horn fan."
The attendant replied, "The fan is broken."
Enkan said, "If the fan is broken, bring me back the rhinoceros."
The attendant made no reply.
   
      Later, commenting on this case, Shifuku drew a circle
      and wrote within it the character for "ox" [True Nature].

APPRECIATORY VERSE

Break the fan and look for the rhinoceros.
The word within the circle has prior significance.
Who knows the thousand years' darkness of the new moon?
It subtly turns into autumn's harvest moon.

• Explanation