Ma Tsu pinched Huai Hai’s nose and Huai Hai had the Great Awakening.

       Ten thousand imitators of Zen can pinch ten thousand noses, but it will not cause a single awakening.  Only the unique action of an enlightened Master carried out at the right moment with the right individual of rising potential will assist the rising potential to fully awaken.  This is not a product of sitting still, stiff and rigid.  Nor will asking someone to pinch your nose, shout at you or strike you be of any avail.  Neither the Teacher nor the Student can afford to imitate an Ancient Master or an Ancient Student.

       The purpose of any Koan is not to provoke imitation.  Even an intellectual “understanding” of a Zen “theory” will not help, for only the Great Essence can understand the Great Action.  The modern student of Zen trying to get at the heart and core of any Koan has an impossible task.  Can your reflected mouth in a mirror chew food or drink tea?  What can only be done directly within one’s own Self-nature cannot be done indirectly even if one strives hard to sit with a quiet mind for one hundred lifetimes contemplating old Koans.

       It was my nose that was pinched.  It was I who wept and laughed.  My direct experience will never be yours.  Forget my nose and Ma Tsu’s zazen fingers!  The Receiver and the Giver are a unitary transaction of non-dual awareness alive with all the fire of the boundless universe wheeling in the Void.  Anything but a nose may be the right target; anything but fingers may be the right arrow.