虛堂和尚語錄 2.75

2.75

Ascending the hall, a monk asked: "Budai's many years down and out; Panshan's pork stall; the fish basket in Guanyin's hands; the cypress clappers at the Bodhisattva's gate—when this entangling web arrives before Xutang, what then?" The master said: "Sulu, sulu." The monk said: "Transforming an ordinary person into a sage, or demoting a sage to an ordinary person—then the upādhyāya is not lacking." The master said: "The house dog bites people." The monk said: "Budai opened it up in the busy bustle, picking up item after item and saying, 'Look! Look!' What is the meaning of this?" The master said: "Without even being cross-examined, he collapses in defeat." The monk said: "And tell me, how far is that from beating the cypress clappers at the gate?" The master said: "Poverty and starvation press upon each other." The monk said: "I do not ask about the fish basket in the hands, but what about the matter at the pork stall?" The master said: "Before the gates of hell, a ghost slips its shackles." The monk said: "Had I not put forward this question, I would have wasted an entire lifetime." The master then shouted.