虛堂和尚語錄 8.33

8.33

佛涅槃上堂，僧問：「釋迦老子，未離兜率，已降王宮，為什麼却有生滅？」師云：「不因汝問，大眾那知？」僧云：「過去已二千年，因甚煒煒煌煌尚在人間？」師云：「指鹿為馬。」師乃云：「暫戢化機，徇彼波旬之請；再垂方便，示以紫磨之軀，便見今日即有，明日即無。要見釋迦老子麼？」卓主丈。

Ascending the hall on the Buddha's Parinirvāṇa, a monk asked, "The old fellow Śākya had not yet left Tuṣita before already descending to the royal palace. Why then was there birth and cessation?" The master said, "Were it not for your asking, how would the great assembly know?" The monk said, "Two thousand years have already passed; why is he still blazing brilliantly in the human world?" The master said, "Pointing to a deer and calling it a horse." The master then said: "Temporarily withdrawing the mechanism of transformation, he complied with that request of Pāpīyas; once more displaying skillful means, he manifested the purple-golden body. Thus one sees that today it exists, and tomorrow it is gone. Do you want to see the old fellow Śākya?" He struck his staff.