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One Hand Clapping
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A monk named Ichhi labored his whole life in
the kitchen of the great monastery at Lake Hakkone. He was deemed a
"failed monk" by himself and his superiors because he had been
assigned the koan of "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
since his earliest days in the congregation and had never been able to
solve it. It was now fifty-five years of seeming failure and he was
nearing the end of his
lifetime.
But as he lay dying he suddenly realized that he cradled a great peace in
his soul. Gone was the striving for enlightenment, gone was the stridency
of his loins, and gone was the haunting koan - for he had found the
stillness of no longer striving in this exquisite silence alone in the
attic in the soft dark at the end of his life.
It was only then, when there remained no more questions nor need for
answers (or even the need for breathing) that Ichhi heard at last the
whooshing silence of one hand clapping.
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