Three Pounds Flax

A monk asked Tozan, “What is the Buddha?” Tozan replied, “Masagin!” [three pounds of flax].

Mumon’s Comment: Old Tozan attained the poor Zen of a clam. He opened the two halves of the shell a little and exposed all the liver and intestines inside. But tell me, how do you see Tozan?

Mumon’s Verse: “Three pounds of flax” came sweeping along;

Close were the words, but closer was the meaning.

Those who argue about right and wrong

Are thus enslaved by right and wrong.”

–Case 18 from the Mumonkan, as translated

by Katsuki Sekida (71)

This story is a koan, which literally means something like Public Record, but which is a story about the earliest Zen Masters in Ancient China, used as a method of training in certain schools of Zen. My own school, the Soto Sect, doesn’t use koans in this way, but as a major component of Zen literature we still value them even if they defy interpretation by strictly analytic methods. Tozan’s–not the same Tozan who founded the Soto Sect, by the way—three pounds of flax is one of the more well-known koans in the West, though not nearly as widely known as stories such as “Joshu’s Mu”, or Hakuin’s “Sound of one hand clapping.” I think part of the appeal of this particular koan is the seeming utter randomness of Tozan’s answer. It is as if he just blurted out the first thing he happened to think, probably whatever he held in his hands or perhaps the flax caught his attention out of the corner of his eye just as he was asked. Yet, despite the seeming randomness, an inconceivable number of causes and conditions are behind his answer. Yes, it is definitely spontaneous, which is what makes it so delightful, but it isn’t truly random. Only that Zen Master, at that particular place and that particular time, could have given this answer. In Sekida’s notes we learn that Tozan himself achieved enlightenment when his master Ummon—founder of one of the five schools of Zen in Ancient China—shouted out “Rice Bag!!” Clearly, Ummon’s shout is echoed here in his disciple’s own answer, “Three pounds of flax!” Any number of different events could have occurred, such that Tozan would have given a completely different answer. Free and spontaneous, yet causally determined and non-random, this is what is at work in “Tozan’s Three Pounds of Flax.”

It is also what’s at work in my own life. There are so many factors at work in my life right now, that have put me in the position I’m in, disabled, in the midst of a divorce, raising two kids, and also seeking refuge in the buddhadharma. So I can’t up and take off for Japan right now, despite how much I feel called to monastic training. But, I am free to spontaneously take up the Buddha Way right here where I am, in a Southern Urban area in America, and I can even live a schedule as similar to monastic living as my physical body can take, except on every other weekend and one weekday afternoon when I have time with my kids. So, while in many ways I am completely confined by causality, I am also completely liberated by spontaneity and choice. This is my practice, and this practice I will share with you. I am not enlightened. I am not a teacher. I’m one guy, doing his best to wake-up, and willing to share the knowledge, practices, and choices that I try with all of you.

Gassho!

Kendo