Hakuin and the Baby: Is That So?

The Zen Master Hakuin was praised and respected by his neighbors as one living a pure life, as well as simplicity and virtue of his life.

A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store, lived near him. One day, suddenly without any warning, her parents discovered she was pregnant.

This made her parents angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.

In great anger the parents went to the master, "Is that so?" was all he would say.

After the baby was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the baby. He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else the little one needed.

A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth—that the real father of the baby was a young man who worked in the fish market.

The mother and the father of the girl along with dozens of villagers at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the baby back again.

Hakuin was willing. In yielding the baby, all he said was: "Is that so?"

He returned the baby to its mother with the same graciousness and poise as he had accepted it from her.

— from "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones"