Guishan Plays with a Rat
Guishan was sitting with his disciple Yangshan. He saw a rat cross the floor, and said,
"
Look at this rat. It is a being of the Buddha-nature, yet it must hide from people and steal to live."
Yangshan stepped forward, placed his bowl on the ground, and the rat ran into it. He then covered the bowl with his other bowl and stood before Guishan.
Guishan said nothing.
Reflection
Guishan's interaction with Yangshan about a rat examines the tension between abstract principle and compassionate action. Yangshan traps the rat in his bowl, but Guishan says nothing. The silence is the teaching: there is no final answer to the dilemma of how awakened beings respond to suffering. Each moment requires a fresh response, not a pre-formulated principle.