"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 Dhyâna. A peculiarity of some of the Dhyâna 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 Dhyâna represents human effort to reach, through meditation, zones of thought beyond the range of verbal expression; and any thought narrowed into utterance loses all Dhyâna quality.... Well, this story is supp…
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