Zen and the Ways

Sakawa Koresada, a direct retainer of the Uesugi family, entered the main hall at Kenchoji and prayed to the Jizo-of-a-Thousand-Forms there. Then he asked the attendant monk in charge of the hall: ‘Of these thousand forms of Jizo, which is the very first Jizo?’ The attendant said, ‘In the breast of the retainer before me…