大慧普覺禪師宗門武庫 1.11

1.11

One day, Chan Master Fenyang Wude said to the assembly, "Last night in a dream, my deceased parents sought wine, meat, and paper money. I cannot but follow convention and set out an offering for them." When the arrangements were made in the storehouse hall, seats were set up according to worldly etiquette; having poured wine, offered meat, and burned paper money, he ordered the monastic officers and senior monks to be gathered to distribute the remaining platters. The monastic officers declined them. Wude sat alone at the feast, drinking and eating at ease. The monks reproached him, saying, "How could a monk of wine and meat be fit to serve as a teacher and model?" With packs on their waists, they all left, leaving only six or seven persons, including Ciming, Dayu, and Quan Dadao. The next day, Wude ascended the hall and said, "So many idle spirits and wild ghosts have been sent off with merely a platter of wine and meat and two hundred sheets of paper money! The Lotus Sutra says: 'This assembly has no branches or leaves; it consists only of what is genuine and real.'" He then stepped down from the seat.