Practice Meetings
Tuesday Oct 1, 8:30am
Friday Oct 4, 7:00pm
This Week’s Koan
Gateless Gate #14, Blue Cliff Record #63 and 64, Book of Serenity #9
Nanquan Kills a Cat
Because the monks of the eastern and western halls were fighting over a cat, Master Nanquan picked it up and said, “If you can speak, I’ll spare the cat. If not, I’ll kill it.”
No one replied, so Nanquan killed it.
That evening Zhaozhou came back from somewhere else and Nanquan told him what had happened. Zhaozhou then took off his sandals, put them on his head, and walked out.
Nanquan said, “Had you been here, you could have saved the cat.”
Verse
Had Zhaozhou been present, He’d have executed the order in reverse, Snatching the knife away, Nanquan begging for his life.