Tortoise: Quite a yarn. It's hard to believe it was really hidden inside my
string.
Achilles: Yet it was. Astonishingly, you seem to have created a well-formed
string right off the bat.
Tortoise: But what did the Grand Tortue's string look like? That's the
main point of this koan, I'd suppose.
Achilles: I doubt it. One shouldn't "attach" to small details like that inside
koans. It's the spirit of the whole koan that counts, not little parts of it.
Say, do you know what I just realized? I think, crazy though it sounds,
that you may have hit upon that long-lost koan which describes the
very origin of the Art of Zen Strings!
Tortoise: Oh, that would almost be too good to have Buddha-nature.
Achilles: But that means that the great master-the only one who ever
reached the mystical state of the Enlightenment 'Yond
Enlightenment-was named 'Tortue", not "Tutor". What a droll
name!
Tortoise: I don't agree. I think it's a handsome name. I still want to know
how Tortue's string looked. Can you possibly recreate it from the
description given in the koan?
Achilles: I could try ... Of course, I'll have to use my feet, too, since it's
described in terms of foot motions. That's pretty unusual. But I think I
can manage it. Let me give it a go. (He picks up the koan and a piece of
string, and for a few minutes twists and bends the string in arcane ways until he
has the finished product.) Well, here it is. Odd, how familiar it looks.
Tortoise: Yes, isn't that so? I wonder where I saw it before?
Achilles: I know! Why, this is YOVR string, Mr. T! Or is it?
Tortoise: Certainly not.
Achilles: Of course not-it's the string which you first handed to me,
before you took it back to tie an extra knot in it.
Tortoise: Oh, yes-indeed it is. Fancy that. I wonder what that implies.
Achilles: It's strange, to say the least.
Tortoise: Do you suppose my k6an is genuine?
Achilles: Wait just a moment ...
Tortoise: Or that my string has Buddha-nature?
Achilles: Something about your string is beginning to trouble me, Mr.
Tortoise.
Tortoise (looking most pleased with himself and paying no attention to
Achilles): And what about Tortue's string? Does it have Buddha-
nature? There are a host of questions to ask!
Achilles: I would be scared to ask such questions, Mr. T. There is some-
thing mighty funny going on here, and I'm not sure I like it.
Tortoise: I'm sorry to hear it. I can't imagine what's troubling you.
Achilles: Well, the best way I know to explain it is to quote the words of
another old Zen master, Kyogen. Kyogen said:
(^244) A Mu Offering