虛堂和尚語錄 2.23

2.23

上堂：「水中鹽味，色裏膠青，祖師只認得箇相似底，何異楚人以鷄為鳳。我者裏任爾三頭六臂，盡其來機，也無爾湊泊處。何故？慣將三尺喙，罵倒五湖僧。」

Ascending the hall: "Salt flavor in water, glue and green pigment in color—the ancestral masters only recognized a likeness; how does that differ from the man of Chu taking a chicken for a phoenix? In my place, even if you have three heads and six arms and exhaust your dynamic functioning as it comes, you will still have nowhere to gain a footing. Why? I am accustomed to using a three-foot beak to revile and overthrow the monks of the five lakes."