大慧普覺禪師語錄 17.4

17.4

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: