虛堂和尚語錄 1.51

1.51

At the informal gathering for the Winter Solstice: "The weather is cold and people are cold; carving iron with a needle's point. Water drips and freezes instantly; drawing a cake to satisfy hunger. Danxia burns a wooden Buddha; a hungry dog chews a dry skull. Jingqing does not spread his sleeping mat; seeking gravy inside a sesame cake. Since the old men from of old could not keep firm, they could not help following the seasons and pursuing the solar terms: thus one sees the yin waning and the yang waxing, the small departing and the great arriving, ashes flying at the warm pitch-pipe, and threads added to embroidered patterns. But in the land of neither yin nor yang, is there still any change?" He struck with his staff: "The moon is like a curved bow; little rain, much wind."