Tortoise: What are the other four legal starting positions?
Achilles: Each one is a position considered to be a SELF-EVIDENT manner
of picking up a string. Even novices often pick up strings in those
positions. And these five strings all have Buddha-nature.
Tortoise: Of course.
Achilles: Then there are some String Manipulation Rules, by which you
can make more complex string figures. In particular, you are allowed
to modify your string by doing certain basic motions of the hands. For
instance, you can reach across like this-and pull like this-and twist
like this. With each operation you are changing the overall configura-
tion of the string draped over your hands.
Tortoise: Why, it looks just like making cat's-cradles and such string
figures!
Achilles: That's right. Now as you watch, you'll see that some of these rules
make the string more complex; some simplify it. But whichever way
you go, as long as you follow the String Manipulation Rules, every
string you produce will have Buddha-nature.
Tortoise: That is truly marvelous. Now what about the koan concealed
inside this string you've just made? Would it be genuine?
Achilles: Why, according to what I've learned, it must. Since I made it
according to the Rules, and began in one of the five self-evident
positions, the string must have Buddha-nature, and consequently it
must correspond to a genuine koan.
Tortoise: Do you know what the koan is?
Achilles: Are you asking me to vIolate the Central Dogma? Oh, you
naughty fellow!
(And with furrowed brow and code book in hand, Achilles points along the
string inch by inch, recording each fold by a triplet of geometric symbols of
the strange phonetic alphabet for Mans, until he has nearly a napkinful.)
Done!
Tortoise: Terrific. Now let's hear it.
Achilles: All right.
A traveling monk asked an old woman the road to Taizan, a popular
temple supposed to give wisdom to the one who worships there. The old
woman said: "Go straight ahead." After the monk had proceeded a few
steps, she said to herself, "He also is a common church-goer." Someone
told this incident to Joshii, who said: "Wait until I investigate." The next
day he went and asked the same question, and the old woman gave the
same answer. Joshii remarked: "I have investigated that old woman."
Tortoise: Why, with his flair for investigations, it's a shame that Joshii
never was hired by the FBI. Now tell me-what you did, I could also
do, if I followed the Rules from the Art of Zen Strings, right?
Achilles: Right.
Tortoise: Now would I have to perform the operations in just the same
ORDER as you did?
240 A Mu Offering