大慧普覺禪師語錄 17.4

17.4

師紹興二十六年，三月十一日，於臨江軍新淦縣東山寺，被旨還僧。謝恩罷，拈香祝聖畢，乃就座云：「青氈本是吾家物，今日重還舊日僧，珍重聖恩何以報，萬年松上一枝藤。」遂拈起拄杖云：「一枝藤在這裏，且報恩一句作麼生道？若也道得，粉骨碎身未足酬，一句了然超百億；其或未然，山僧不免為諸人道破。

On the eleventh day of the third month in the twenty-sixth year of the Shaoxing era, at Dongshan Temple in Xingan County of Linjiang Military Prefecture, the Master received an imperial decree restoring him to the monkhood. Having offered thanks for the imperial favor, he offered incense and prayed for the Emperor. He then ascended the seat and said: "The blue felt rug was originally a thing of my own family; today it is returned once more to the monk of old. How can I repay such precious imperial grace? A single branch of vine upon a ten-thousand-year pine." Thereupon he held up his staff and said: "The single branch of vine is right here; but tell me, how will you speak a phrase to repay the favor? If you can speak it, then 'even shattering one's bones and crushing one's body is not enough to repay it; a single phrase clearly understood surpasses hundreds of billions [of kalpas].' If you cannot yet do so, this mountain monk cannot avoid speaking it out plainly for you: