“Yesterday I came across one topic which I thought I might communicate to you, my pupils, to-day. But an old man such as I am is apt to forget, and the topic has gone off altogether from my mind. I cannot just recall it.” So saying, Goso remained quiet for some little time, but at last he exclaimed, “I forget, I forget, I cannot remember!” He resumed however, “I know there is a mantram in one of the Sutras known as _The King of Good Memory_. Those who are forgetful may recite it, and the thing forgotten will come again. Well, I must try.” He then recited the mantram, “Om o-lo-lok-kei svāha!” Clapping his hands and laughing heartily he said, “I remember, I remember; this it was: When you seek the Buddha, you cannot see him: when you look for the patriarch, you cannot see him. The muskmelon is sweet even to the stems, the bitter gourd is bitter even to the roots.” He then came down from the pulpit without further remark. VI In one of his sermons, Eckhart referring to the mutual relationship between God and man, says: “It is as if one stood before a high mountain and cried, ‘Art thou there?’ The echo comes back, ‘Art thou there?’ If one cries, ‘Come out!’ the echo answers, ‘Come out!’” Something like this is to be observed in the Zen masters’ answers now classified under “Repetition.” It may be found hard for the uninitiated to penetrate into the inner meaning of those parrot-like repetitions which sometimes sound like mimicry on the part of the master. In this case indeed the words themselves are mere sounds, and the inner sense is to be read in the echoing itself if anywhere. The understanding however must come out of one’s own inner life and what the echoing does is to give this chance of self-awakening to the earnest seekers of truth. When the mind is so timed as to be all ready to break into a certain note, the master turns the key and it sings out its own melody, not learned from anybody else but discovered within itself. And this turning the key in the form of repetition in this case is what interests us in the following quotations.