Sept 29 – Oct 5

If we don’t begin with ourselves, we have no way of actually, truly loving others. 
 
–Ayya Khema, When The Iron Eagle Flies

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.
 

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