have to give him a good thrashing.' 'You need not wait for him to
come; have it right this moment,' was the reply; and with this
Rin-zai gave his master a slap on the back.

"Obak said: 'How dares this lunatic come into my presence and play
with a tiger's whiskers?' Rin-zai then burst out into a Ho,[FN#85]
and Obak said: 'Attendant, come and carry this lunatic away to his
cell.'"


[FN#85] A loud outcry, frequently made use of by Zen teachers, after
Rin-zai. Its Chinese pronunciation is 'Hoh,' and pronounced 'Katsu'
in Japanese, but 'tsu' is not audible.



8. The Courage and the Composure of Mind of the Zen Monk and of the
Samurai.

Fourthly, our Samurai encountered death, as is well known, with
unflinching courage. He would never turn back from, but fight till
his last with his enemy. To be called a coward was for him the
dishonour worse than death itself. An incident about Tsu Yuen
(So-gen), who came over to Japan in 1280, being invited by
Toki-mune[FN#86] (Ho-jo), the Regent General, well illustrates how
much Zen monks resembled our Samurais. The event happened when he
was in China, where the invading army of Yuen spread terror all over
the country. Some of the barbarians, who crossed the border of the
State of Wan, broke into the monastery of Tsu Yuen, and threatened to
behead him. Then calmly sitting down, ready to meet his fate, he