虛堂和尚語錄 1.68

1.68

乃云：「形聲未兆，積岳堆山，言跡纔彰，難尋影響，所以釋迦掩室於摩竭，淨名杜口於毘耶，以致西天四七、唐土二三，天下老凍膿，用盡機關，無捕手處，只得平高就下，以二千年前用不著底斷貫，穿天下衲僧鼻孔，謂之禁足護生，剋期取證，愈見狼藉。報恩修行無力，未免隨例顛倒去也。」卓主丈：「不因射鵰手，誰識李將軍。」

He then said, "Before forms and sounds portend, mountains pile upon mountains; as soon as traces of words become evident, echoes and shadows are hard to seek. Therefore, Śākya shut his room in Magadha, and Vimalakīrti closed his mouth in Vaiśālī, leading the twenty-eight [patriarchs] of the Western Heaven and the six of the land of Tang, those old sacks of pus throughout the realm, to exhaust all their mechanisms without finding any handhold. They could only level the high to accommodate the low, taking a broken cord that could not be used two thousand years ago to pierce the nostrils of patch-robed monks throughout the world, calling it 'restricting footsteps to protect living beings' and 'attaining realization within a set period', which only looks all the messier. Bao'en has no strength in cultivation, so he cannot avoid following the precedent and acting topsy-turvy." Striking his staff: "If not for his skill at shooting condors, who would know General Li?"