1. Barriers

    When you once attain true self-realization, these barriers disappear in an instant as though they were nothing but mirages, and you will find that from the very beginning you have always been in a world where there is neither inside nor outside. That is what "gateless" means. Therefore, all koans are impassable barriers for those who are unenlightened, but for the enlightened there is no gate at all. They can come and go quite freely.

  2. One striking sound

    One day, as Kyogen was clearing the undergrowth, a pebble bounced off the tip of his broom and resounded against a bamboo tree. Hearing the sound, he suddenly experienced great enlightement. The first stanza of the poem he composed on this occasion is very famous:

    One striking sound,
    and I have forgotten all I knew.

  3. A thousand different roads

    They great Way has no gate;
    There are a thousand different roads.
    If you pass through this barrier once,
    you will walk independently in the universe.