The Koan:

Joshu went to the hut of a Zen Hermit.  Opening the door and looking in, he asked:  “Is anything here?”  The hermit thrust up his fist.  Joshu said, “The water here is too shallow for a ship even to anchor.”  Thereupon he left.

Then he made his way to yet another hut of a Zen Hermit.  Again opening the door and looking in, he asked, “Is anything here?”  That hermit also thrust up his fist.  Joshu then said, “Freely you give, freely you take away.  Freely you kill, freely you give life.”  Thereupon he bowed deeply to the hermit.

Primary Commentary:

I am a Zen Hermit and I am thrusting up my fist, but you cannot see it!

Secondary Commentary:

I was Po Chang, direct disciple of the Great Master, Ma Tsu, but you cannot see it!  I was re-enlightened in this present Western body in 1970 in Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada.  After that, I would sit long hours each day in the forest on Beaman Hill, near Digby, ever able to perform the Great Function, ever dwelling alone and unrecognized in my own Self-nature.  No one in the West has ever been validly drawn to this body for Enlightenment because (A) this body is not Oriental, and (B) I have never advertised myself or created a facility with come-one-come-all courses or sessions, but have adhered to the ancient principle.  Since 1970, I have been a Zen Hermit near or upon many great mountains in North America and Europe, but no one of sincere and real potential has ever been brought to this body.  There have been episodes with various greedy or deluded, shallow, groups of would-be students, but in the end they have always been dispersed.  True Zen is too great a leap for most Western aspirants.  They get caught up in trying to learn Japanese or Chinese, studying books on Zen and treating self-appointed Oriental pseudo-masters as Authentic Authority.  These culture-bound pseudo-masters have been as blind shepherds leading blind sheep over a cliff.  And, in actual fact, Zen is failing, dying out, in China, Korea and Japan because of contemporary social and political conditions.

Even in the time of Joshu, monasteries were no longer built around qualified Zen Master Hermits, and there were fewer and fewer Masters of the caliber who could see the real difference between Zen Hermits, just as in the story.

Why were the two hermits (and many others) thrusting up their fist?  It was to show the invisible, but traditional fly-brush, as the standard ostensible Great Function performed by awakened Self-nature.  But how to tell the difference between an Authentic Great Function and an Imitation Great Function?  Both, after all, appear the same to an ordinary external observer.  And, to make matters worse, I myself am for you a third Zen Hermit thrusting up my fist, holding an invisible fly-brush.  Am I the Real Thing or not?  How will you decide?  If you are an ordinary Western aspirant or self-appointed Expert-on-Zen, you will compare my words to the words of others, in your Zen Expert material brain, trying to use all sorts of conceptual and cultural standards or judgmental frameworks that have nothing whatsoever to do with awakening Self-nature of yourself or others.  Also, you want to be recognized about Zen and achieve shallow social respect from others.  You are afraid to be an actual hermit of Zen in the West or the East who is not seeking a following or trying to impress others.  Your idea of a “Zen Master” is one who gets a monastery built around his “enlightened” Ego after Ego’s (Guest Position) “Enlightenment”.  But to make Enlightenment a social aim is just vanity and pretence, further covering-up Self-nature.  Real awakening of Self-nature is natural, free, intrinsically blissful, full of boundless clear light and compassionate without social ambition.  Real awakening of Self-nature does not seek anything whatsoever, certainly does not seek social recognition and a following.  My old disciple, Hsu Yun, Huang Po, for instance, when he reincarnated in South India as Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi, when re-enlightened as a young man (outstanding!), did not seek a following or advertise himself.  He was simply drawn to his proper mountain (Arunachala), again in accordance with the ancient principle, whereupon he went and sat endlessly in enlightened Silence as a Hermit Sage, a Jnani.  An ashram was formed around him, just as at Huang Po.  Can you learn to see all this?

Remote Auxiliary Commentary:

Mumon’s commentary is just plain crap and misses the mark entirely.  Far too long have Japanese Zen teachers relied on Mumon as authoritative.  That is why available commentaries in English from Koun Yamada, Zenkei Shibayama and Katsuki Sekida are also useless crap.  What a pity that so many Western Zen aspirants try to rely on such commentaries on deeply important Koans!

The two hermits were inwardly as far apart as Heaven and Earth, though outwardly they appeared as the same kind of individual in the same kind of situation.  There is a major difference in the kind of energy, vibration and feeling that accompanies an authentic or imitation Great Function.  Superficial seekers cannot see energy or vibration, cannot feel actual feeling in others, so they try to rely on outer appearances.  They form useless cognitive rules, such as: “How can you tell if a man is an Enlightened Master?  He thrusts up his fist!”

When Laymen Peng, a fellow disciple of mine to Ma Tsu, visited a false Zen Hermit similar in quality to Joshu’s First Hermit, he simply performed his Great Function and spat in the face of the false Zen Hermit.  If he had encountered the famous Mumon of Japan, he may have had to spit in Mumon’s face as well, but Mumon was unlucky and not destined for such a blessing!

Try to understand that whoever or whatever you presently consider to be authoritative in Zen is deeply and constantly in question.  If you really want inside any Koan, you must push your consciousness beyond the boundaries of all socially and culturally accepted authority.  Only the Authentic can register the presence or absence of the Authentic.

Whatever people decide about Zen as outsiders trying to look in will only add to their inner confusion and outer pretence.  No amount of rigid sitting in attempted Zazen can directly solve this problem.  The direct solution is the only solution, which is exactly like taking one step backward into an abyss.  The Real Thing is so frightening to the ordinary seeker (Western or even Oriental) that all sorts of secondary maneuvers in the name of Enlightenment, Satori or Kensho are undertaken subconsciously to prevent it by setting up a time-accumulation of something.  Time-accumulation just builds up Guest Position as a growing “expert on Zen”.  Ordinary tradition thrives on pushing people up ladders of hierarchy as a substitute for “Direct Entry through a single chopper”.

The Real Cosmic Void is way beyond any culture-bound Ego playing at becoming more important in Zen circles or Web forums.  The Real blows away all secondary motives and social considerings.