-- The Silent Recitation --

Once when Great Master Jōshū was at Kannon-in Temple, there was an old woman who sent the Great Master an offering of monetary alms along with a request that he recite the whole of the Tripitaka (Buddhist scriptures) for her.

The Master came down from his meditation seat, circled once around it, and then turned to her messenger and said, “I have already finished reciting the Tripitaka for her.”

The messenger, upon his return, reported this to the old woman.

The old woman said, “When I asked him the other day to recite all of the Tripitaka for me, why did the venerable monk read only half the Scriptures?”