虛堂和尚語錄 5.73

5.73

麻谷一日紙帳內坐，以手巾蓋頭，披雲入見便作哭聲，良久出去法堂，繞禪床一匝再來，谷去却手巾而坐，雲云：「死中得活，萬中無一。」谷下床，作抽坐具勢，雲近前把住云：「前死後活，爾還甘否？」谷云：「甘即甘，阿師堪作甚麼？」雲推開云：「知道爾前言不副後語。」

One day Magu was sitting inside paper curtains with a hand towel covering his head. Piyun entered, saw him, and immediately began to wail. After a long while he went out to the Dharma hall, circled the meditation bed once, and came back again. Magu removed the hand towel and sat. Yun said, "Finding life in the midst of death—not one in ten thousand." Magu came down from the bed and made a gesture of pulling out his sitting mat. Yun stepped forward, seized him, and said, "Dying first and living later—do you concede it or not?" Magu said, "Conceding is conceding, but what are you fit to do, Reverend?" Yun pushed him away and said, "I knew your earlier words did not match your later words."