The original face is a term in Zen Buddhism, pointing to one's real essence or Buddha-nature, one's 'real face'.[1]
The phrase "original face" originates in Huangbo's Chuanhsin fayao (857) and the Hui-sin edition (967) of the Platform Sutra:
This question appears in case 23 of the Mumonkan:
This koan is transformed in the question
According to Victor Hori, the "original face" points to "the nonduality of subject and object":
Comparable statements are: "Look at the flower and the flower also looks"; "Guest and host interchange".
It is not "pure consciousness", as it is often understood in western thinking, reached by "cleaning the doors of perception":
Zen masters have commented on the original face:
The American poet Philip Whalen has written a poem, Metaphysical Insomnia Jazz Mumonkan xxix, inspired by the Original Face-koan: Keith Kumasen has commented on this poem.
The American Buddhist musician Stuart Davis has recorded a song called "Original Face". The chorus goes: