Description
The great joke in the end is that we’ve always been here, listening to the stone woman as she calls us home.
Summary
A monk asked Hongzhi, “What about the ones who’ve gone?”
Hongzhi said, “White clouds rise to the top of the valleys, blue peaks lean into the empty sky.”
The monk asked, “What about the ones who return?”
Hongzhi said, “Heads covered in white hair, they leave the cliffs and valleys.
In the dead of night they descend through the clouds to the market stalls.”
“What about the ones who neither come nor go?”
“The stone woman calls them back from their dream of the world.”
—PZI Miscellanous Koans, Case 34
Leaving the world is an essential stage in the path of Zen. Unmoored from the ballast of desire, we dissolve into the clear solution of spirit. We rise and rise until we disappear into the night sky, lost among the countless twinkling stars.
But the journey does not end there. The other half of our life lies in this world, with its burdens and surprises and beautiful, fragile bodies. And so we return bearing the fresh memory of our celestial ancestry, to find the stars now scattered throughout deserts and cities.
The great joke in the end is that we’ve always been here, listening to the stone woman as she calls us home.
Sunday Zen Guest Host Jesse Cardin & Friends, recorded July 27th, 2025
