An Ancient Koan Retold

April 07, 2003

In ancient China, two monasteries had been playing a game of go which
had started many years earlier. Once a year, a monk would be dispatched
to travel to the rival monastery to inform them of their opponent's move. However, the route between the two monasteries was both long and dangerous. One day, the master of the black monastery called a young novice to his side and informed him that it would be his honor to carry that year's move to the rival white monastery. He spent several days in meditation, in memorizing the history of the game and the complete sequence of moves up to that point, as well as the route to the other monastery, and when the master thought him ready, he was released to travel.

After some weeks on this journey, while walking through a dense forest, the young monk began to catch glimpses of white through the trees and realized he was being stalked by a rare, white tiger. He began running but soon found that he had made an error in choosing his path, and was trapped on a black promontory overlooking a deep dark canyon with the white tiger close behind. Noticing some black vines growing on the face of
the canyon wall, the young monk began to climb down. When he was
about half way down, he heard the roar of the tiger above and an answering echo below. When he looked below, however, he realized it was not an echo: there was another white tiger below. 

As the young monk stopped his descent, he noticed that two small rats, one black and one white, were gnawing on the vines that suspended him between the two tigers. He also noticed a wild strawberry plant growing from the canyon face, with a single perfect ripe red strawberry. He took the strawberry into his mouth and savored its succulent flavor, and in that moment what could have tasted sweeter?

- as told to Stephen Loughin by Villanova University Professor Wood Bouldin. 

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