Ikkyu's Well (MK22)
KOAN:
In a well that was never dug
water ripples from a spring that doesn’t flow.
Someone with no shadow or form
is drawing the water.
Pacific Zen Miscellaneous Koans, Case 22 (from a poem by Ikkyu)
We and everything we perceive are interwoven and not interwoven, and this interweaving continues on and on, while each thing stands in its own place.
—Shitou Xiqian
KOAN:
In a well that was never dug
water ripples from a spring that doesn’t flow.
Someone with no shadow or form
is drawing the water.
Pacific Zen Miscellaneous Koans, Case 22 (from a poem by Ikkyu)