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Zhaozhou Can't Explain (BCR 58)
KOAN:
A student said to Zhaozhou, “You always say that the Great Way is not difficult if you just don’t pick and choose.”
And Zhaozhou said, “You’re not the first person to ask me that. The truth is I haven’t found a better way to say it.”
Commentary: Yuanwu says, “Zhaozhou didn’t use shouts the way some people did.”
—Blue Cliff Record Case 58 (transl. John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland)
A Blue Cliff Record Journey of Not Picking & Choosing
It’s remarkable that the Picking & Choosing koan appears four times in the Blue Cliff Record, which contains only one hundred cases. So, what to do with it? Whatever you see is going to be true, it’s going to belong to you.