NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
1900
_Copyright, 1900_, by
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
UNIVERSITY PRESS
JOHN WILSON AND SON
CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
_Preface_
"What is the book?"
"According to the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters of
the title, we call it _Mu-Mon-Kwan_, which means 'The Gateless Barrier.'
It is one of the books especially studied by the Zen sect, or the sect
of Dhyana. A peculiarity of some of the Dhyana texts--this (story) being
a good example--is that they are not explanatory. They only suggest.
Questions are put, but the student must think out the answers for
himself. He must _think_ them out but not write them. You know that
Dhyana represents human effort to reach, through meditation, zones of
thought beyond the range of verbal expression; and any thought narrowed
into utterance loses all Dhyana quality.... Well, this story is supposed
to be true; but it is used only for a Dhyana question...."