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When Linji was about to die, he gave this direction to Sansheng: “After my death, don’t extinguish the eye treasure of my true teaching.”
Sansheng said, “Who would dare to destroy the treasury of your true dharma eye?”
“If someone asks you, how will you answer?”
Sansheng shouted.
Linji said, “Who’d have thought that the treasury of my true teaching would be extinguished by this blind donkey?”

It might be jet lag, but as I’ve been spending some time with this koan the first thing that came was the image that I used for another koan involving a donkey. In that koan, two friends are discussing their practice and one says his practice is like when a donkey sees a well. The other friend says that his practice is like when a well sees the donkey. I’m thinking that when the well sees the donkey, the donkey is blind. Then another koan came along that’s in our miscellaneous collection, which invites us to extinguish the fire across the river. Then another koan in the miscellaneous collection came along which invites us to extinguish a star. And with those two koans paying a visit, extinguishing Linji’s teaching revealed other facets.

Then there’s that question that Linji asked Sansheng and how he would respond to it if asked by someone. But what is that question? That’s a good question.

—David Weinstein

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David Weinstein Roshi, Director of Rockridge Meditation Community