Koan Exercise

Ho Koji was leaving Yakusan, The latter ordered ten of his Zen students to see Koji off at the temple gate. Koji pointed at the falling snow in the air and said,
          "Beautiful snow-flakes! - they don't fall on any other place."
At that time there was a student named Zen, who said,
          "Where then do they fall?"
Koji gave him a slap. Zen said,
          "Koji, don't be so rough."
Koji said,
          "If you name yourself Zen student in such a condition, Old En will never release you!"
Zen said,
          "What then would you say, Koji?"
Koji slapped him again and said,
          "You see with your eyes but you are just like a blind man. You speak with your mouth, but you are just like a dumb man."

(Setcho added his comment, "At the first word, I immediately would have made a snowball and threw it against him.")


                                        sticking out his tongue
                                        the blind man knows no other place
                                        where snow-flakes fall