but finding nothing stolen, they went to bed again.  The boy sat holding his breath a short while; but making up his mind to get out of his narrow prison, began to scratch the bottom of the box with his finger-nails.  The servant of the house, listening to the noise, supposed it to be a mouse gnawing at the inside of the box; so she came out, lamp in hand, and unlocked it.  On removing the cover, she was greatly surprised to find the boy instead of a little mouse, and gave alarm.  In the meantime the boy got out of the box and went down into the yard, hotly pursued by the people.  He ran as fast as possible toward the well, picked up a large stone, threw it down into it, and hid himself among the bushes.  The pursuers, thinking the thief fell into the well, assembled around it, and were looking into it, while the boy crept out unnoticed through the hole and went home in safety.  Thus the burglar taught his son how to rid himself of overwhelming difficulties by his own efforts; so also Zen teachers teach their pupils how to overcome difficulties that beset them on all sides and work out salvation by themselves.

[FN#230] Wu Tsu (Go So), the teacher of Yuen Wu (En Go).

2.  The First Step in the Mental Training.

Some of the old Zen masters are said to have attained to supreme Enlightenment after the practice of Meditation for one week, some for one day, some for a score of years, and some for a few months.  The practice of Meditation, however, is not simply a means for Enlightenment, as is usually supposed, but also it is the enjoyment of Nirvana, or the beatitude of Zen.  It is a matter, of course, that we have fully to understand the doctrine of Zen, and that we have to go through the mental training peculiar to Zen in order to be Enlightened.

The first step in the mental training is to become the master of external things.  He who is addicted to worldly pleasures, however learned or ignorant he may be, however high or low his social position may be, is a servant to mere things.  He cannot adapt the external world to his own end, but he adapts himself to it.  He is constantly employed, ordered, driven by sensual objects.  Instead of taking possession of wealth, he is possessed by wealth.  Instead of drinking liquors, he is swallowed up by his liquors.  Balls and music bid him to run mad.  Games and shows order him not to stay at home.  Houses, furniture, pictures, watches, chains, hats, bonnets, rings, bracelets, shoes—­in short, everything has a word to command him.  How can such a person be the master of things?  To Ju (Na-kae) says:  “There is a great jail, not a jail for criminals, that contains the world in it.  Fame, gain, pride, and bigotry form its four walls.  Those who are confined in it fall a prey to sorrow and sigh for ever.”