A Zen master had a big monastery and he had a pet cat. And the monastery had two wings, right and left. Just in the middle was the cottage of the master. And there were one thousand monks – five hundred living on one side, five hundred living on the other side. And they all loved the cat of the master. Once, the master was out; when he came home, there was a great turmoil because both the wings were claiming that the cat belongs to their wing. And they were fighting.
The master came. They became silent. The master took his sword, and called all the monks from both the wings and said to them, ”If you can say or do something which shows your realization then the cat’s life will be saved; otherwise, I am going to cut it in two, and half the cat will go to the right wing and half the cat will go to the left wing so there will be no more conflict.” There was great silence. Nobody had expected this, and nobody could find any word or any way to show his realization.
The master waited for five minutes and he said, ”It seems there is nobody who can come out and claim his realization. So the responsibility of murdering the cat is not mine, it is yours.” And he cut the cat in two, and gave half the dead cat to one wing, the other half to the other wing. It was a very sad affair.
And just then Sosan, a disciple who had gone to preach in another town, returned. People said, ”Sosan, something very strange has happened. We were fighting over the cat – we should not have done it. And the master caught us fighting about it. And he gave us a chance to save it, but nobody could manage to declare his realization in some act, in some word, in any gesture. So finally he cut the cat in half. The poor cat is dead. She was so beautiful. Now what are we going to do with this dead cat divided into two?”
Sosan said, ”Wait. I will see the master.”
He went directly and slapped the master. The master laughed and said, ”Sosan, if you had been here just ten minutes before you could have saved the life of the cat.”
The meaning of this story is that a disciple can become so attuned with the master that his hand is not his, it is the master’s hand; that he is not hitting the master, he is hitting himself. He has, through that gesture, declared himself to be realized, enlightened.
And the master called the whole crowd and said, ”If Sosan had been here, the cat would have lived long. But alas, he was not here. And you idiots, none of you could show or say anything that could have saved the cat.”
Everybody asked Sosan, ”What have you done?”
He said, ”I don’t know what I have done. Now, thinking backwards, I feel amazed. Even to touch the feet of the master is a great blessing. But what came upon me? I simply hit him, slapped his face. I will cut off my hand.”
People had to prevent him, saying, ”Just cool down.”
He said, ”But how did it happen? And the master is such a beautiful man. I slapped him and he laughed. I slapped him and he recognized me as enlightened.” And Sosan became the master’s successor.
