虛堂和尚語錄 1.87

1.87

Ascending the hall, he cited: "Xinghua saw a fellow practitioner coming. As soon as he came up to the Dharma hall, Xinghua shouted; the monk also shouted. Xinghua shouted again; the monk also shouted again. Xinghua took up his stick; the monk again shouted. Xinghua said, 'Look at this fellow, still acting as host!' The monk hesitated, and Xinghua struck him. The attendant asked, 'What offense did that monk just commit?' Xinghua said, 'That fellow has provisional and real, illumination and function. I moved my hand across in front of him twice, and he could not proceed. With a blind fellow like this, if not struck now, when else to wait for?'" The Master said: "Galloping a horse on a sword's edge, hiding one's body within raging flames: under Xinghua's gate, this is not out of the ordinary. For no reason this monk played clever, yet [Xinghua] turned around to recover his capital before the attendant."