虛堂和尚語錄 9.69

9.69

次日上堂：「大覺世尊二千年前，給孤園中聚一千二百五十比丘，至安居日起模畫樣，迨今繩繩未已。今日忽有箇漢，出來道：『我者裡是壺中天地別有日月，不入爾者保社。』山僧只得明窓下安排。何故？麒麟上瑞，舉世希逢。」

The next day, ascending the hall: "Two thousand years ago, the Greatly Awakened World-Honoured One gathered one thousand two hundred and fifty bhikṣus in Anāthapiṇḍada's park, and when the retreat day arrived, he set up the pattern and model, which has continued unbroken down to the present day. Today, if someone suddenly came forward and said, 'Here I have a universe inside a gourd with its own sun and moon, and I will not enter your commune'—this mountain monk could only arrange a place for him beneath a bright window. Why? A qilin is an auspicious sign of the highest order, rarely met in all the world."