April Koan with Step 4

 
Greetings,

In April we'll be sitting with Step 4 and this koan.  Hint ... you may begin sitting with this today!
More about this next month.

Bill K.


Step 4:  Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Koan: A soldier comes to visit a famous Zen master Hakuin. And the soldier asks, “Is there really a heaven and a hell?”

The Zen master replies, “Who are you?”

The soldier says, “I am a samurai.”

“You? A samurai? What kind of lord would have you as his guard? You look like a beggar.” The soldier starts to get angry and becomes so enraged that he’s about to draw his sword.

The Zen master continues and he says, “Oh, so you have a sword. It’s probably too dull to even cut my head.” At this point, the soldier is just indignant and he brandishes his sword.

The Zen master says, “Here, open the gates of hell.” And the soldier immediately recognizes the wisdom in those words and he puts his sword away.

The Zen master says, “Here, open the gates of heaven.”