374. ZEN REMARKS

374. When Goso asks 'Which was the real Seijo?' he is questioning not only the real identity of the practitioner engaged with koan practice but also the identity of Zen itself, an identity that has been hotly contested at various times through out its history. Now if Zen depends upon 'a special transmission outside the teaching', as exemplified in the Buddha's silent transmission to Kashyapa (see Mumonkan, Case 6), it seems to follow that the answer to Goso's question is to be sought outside the literary and cultural context of a ghost story about Seijo and her cousin.