Mumonkan - Case 47: Tosotsu's Three Barriers

Master Tosotsu, setting up the three barriers, always tried the pursuer of
the Way:
  "To search for the Way, the Zen student tries to grasp one's own nature
   and be enlightened. Now where is your true nature?"
Secondly,
  "Once having grasped one's own nature, one is free from birth and death.
   If then, one's eyeballs have dropped dead, how can one be free from life?"
Thirdly,
  "Being free from birth and death,
      one instantly knows where to go after death.
   Being dead and the body dispersed into the four elements,
      where then does one go?"


Mumon's Comments:

Whoever can pass these three barriers will be a master anywhere. Whatever
happens, this person should be able to become the founder of Zen. Should one be
not yet capable of answering these three questions, this person must diligently
chew them well to finally comprehend them. Humble meals fill one's stomach, and
chewing them well, one will never starve.

    To instantly realize is to see endless time.
    Endless time is this very moment.
    If one sees through the thought of this very moment,
    At this very moment, one can see through the one who sees through.