Heine: Shifting Shape Paper

According to the Fox Koan, the second case in the Wu-men Kuan Koan collection, Zen master Pai-chang encounters a fox who claims to be a former abbot punished through endless reincarnations for denying the efficacy of karmic causality. Most traditional interpretations of the Koan focus on the philosophical issue of causality in relation to earlier Buddhist doctrines, such as independent origination and emptiness.