Quote from Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics

Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics

Robert Aitken

North Point Press, San Francisco, California, 1984. 113 pages.

"At the monastery of Fugai Ekun, ceremonies delayed preparation of the noon meal one day, and when they were over, the cook took up his sickle and hurriedly gathered vegetables from the garden. In his haste, he lopped off part of a snake, and unaware that he had done so, threw it into the soup pot with the vegetables.

At the meal, the monks thought they have never tasted such a delicious soup, but the Roshi himself found something remarkable in his bowl. Summoning the cook, he held up the head of the snake, and demanded, "What is this?"

The cook took the morsel saying, 'Oh, thank you, Roshi,' and immediately ate it."

This is one of many mondo in Zen literature that teaches us how to use a challenge, and not be used by it in the ordinary way.     --Chapter Twelve:  Eating the Blame, page 105


Review submitted by Jennifer Knight

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