Bodhidharma came from the West. His teaching did not rely on letters but pointed directly to the mind of man and advocated becoming Buddha by seeing into one’s self-nature. To say “direct pointing,” however, is already a meandering, and to add “becoming Buddha” is falling into senility. It is gateless from the beginning. Why is there the barrier or gate? His kindness is grandmotherly and spreads abusive voices. Muan (Mōkyō himself), by adding a superfluous word, wants to make a forty-ninth case. There might be some entanglement. Open your eyes widely and grasp it.
The summer of the fifth year of Shun’yū (1245 A.D.)
The second edition written by Mōkyō1
1. Mōkyō (Muan) was a warrior who spent most of his life on the battlefield. It is recorded that he was deeply interested in Zen and had a profound knowledge of it, even calling himself “Layman Muan.” “An” means “hermitage,” so Muan designates himself (the master of) Mu hermitage. He passed away in September in 1246 A.D. during the reign of Emperor Risō of the Southern Sung dynasty. Judging from the date of this epilogue, he is believed to have written it the year before his death. The second edition of the Mumonkan must have been issued with this epilogue in 1245, when Master Mumon was sixty-three years of age.