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外道問佛

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: a non-Buddhist questions the Buddha

Senses:

  • This is a reference to a gong'an 公案 story that appears in case 32 of the Wumen guan 無門關 and case 65 of the Biyanlu 碧巖錄. A non-Buddhist interviews the Buddha about being and non-being, and the Buddha responds with silence. This provokes an immediate awakening in the non-Buddhist. When questioned about this, the Buddha says, "A good horse runs when it sees the shadow of the whip." This story is also referred to by the phrases 外道良馬鞭影 and 外道不問有無. 〔無門關 T 2005.48.292c10; 碧巖錄 T 2003.48.195b26〕 [Stefan Grace; source(s): Yokoi, Ina-Z, FGD, ZGDJT]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 275b

    A Glossary of Zen Terms (Inagaki) 74, 445, 450

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 148

    Fo Guang Dictionary 1874

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)915c

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    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 2018-02-04