虛堂和尚語錄 2.33

2.33

He then said: "With torn clothes and exposed elbows, broken doors and ruined house, if you wish to know when extreme adversity brings prosperity, naturally there are proper seasons and junctures. Patch-robed monks dream on and on; if you can push through day by day, that is being an adept. Who cares if you are lazy about washing your cloth shorts and do not spread your sleeping mat? Even if you manage to control the twelve hours, all you will gain is white mold growing around your mouth. When Baolin gives an announcement like this, it is only to strike a clean ball. Is there anyone who mixes with mud and water and transforms together with things? Come forward; I want to know you." After a good while, he made a stroke with his staff and said, "A mountain of nine fathoms about to be completed lacks the work of a single basketful of earth."