大慧普覺禪師宗門武庫 1.20

1.20

Chen Liaoweng of Yanping, named Guan, with the courtesy name Yingzhong, styled himself Layman Huayan. In court service he was uncompromising and upright, possessing the forceful style of the ancients; he turned his mind to the inner scriptures, and his discourses took the floor from all others. Only in investigating Chan had he not yet experienced great illumination, and he explained most Chan anecdotes through intellectual interpretation. He dearly loved the recorded sayings of Master Nan and had fully interpreted nearly all of them, but with 'the vajra-holder scrubbing the mud person's back,' his commentary could not proceed. He once said to others: 'This must have a source, only no one knows it yet.' As the proverb says: 'Before a person of great wisdom, there is three feet of darkness.' Truly this is not false.