-- The Meaning --       

Great Master Kyōgen Chikan was a Dharma heir of Great Master Isan Reiyū. He once said to his assembly, “Imagine someone climbing up a tree at the edge of a thousand-foot-high cliff.( ‘Climbing a tree’ is a metaphor for doing one’s training and practice) He grabs hold of a branch with his mouth, since he cannot get a hold with his feet and he is unable to pull himself up with his hands. Just at that moment, a man at the bottom of the tree asks him, ‘Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?’ At such a time, were he to open his mouth to answer the man, he would lose his grip and forfeit his life. Were he not to answer, he would make a mistake due to the nature of what was asked. (That is, by not answering a spiritual question, he would be acting contrary to the Bodhisattva vow to spiritually help all sentient beings.) Speak up! What, for goodness sake, should he do at such a time?”

At that moment, a novice monk named Kotō Shō came forth from the assembly and said, “I have no question about the time when the man has gone up the tree but, Venerable Monk, please tell me, what about the time before he has climbed the tree?”

The master thereupon gave a great laugh, “Ha ha.”