My neophyte Tossai arrives from his ascent of Mount FuJi on his unicycle. In Japan, the cycle or circle enso expresses elegance and enlightenment, but he lacks both and falls off, flat on his face outside my koan hall. Koans are zen teaching aids breaking through the monk's reliance on conventional logic.
Tossai reports difficulties in his meditations on finding one's self. So I tell my koan about the monk who travels to Edo manastery to find himself. Inside, he sees a mirror. and lo, there he is. He returns to Kyoto temple, looks down into his benjo, and lo, reflected in the water: there he is!
Tossai's jaw drops. "So I should travel more, master?" he gawps, remounting his unicycle.
"No, no, no," I growl hurling a rock at him. "You cannot arrive until you stop travelling!" Just then, the rock hits and he falls off his cycle into the river.
"Now I have arrived!" he calls, sitting up in his wet robe and beaming with Satori.
No, I reflect...but you may be halfway there.
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