虛堂和尚語錄 4.9

4.9

Only when name and reality correspond, and practice and understanding are both complete, treating patch-robed monks from the four quarters with a great, impartial mind, can one occupy the curved wooden chair. Moreover, one must withstand attacks from all eight directions, giving and taking as occasions arise, so that neither the deviant nor the correct can advance, penetrating to where the Buddhas and patriarchs cannot set their eyes, causing the student's mind to die and thoughts to extinguish, whereupon he can vigorously arise and awe-inspiringly transform—only then can one be worthy of this title. If there is even the slightest hairsbreadth given to another to grasp, one becomes a sinner against the Buddha-dharma. How much more so if one is cowering and timid, half-dead and half-alive, tossed topsy-turvy by the twenty-four solar terms, unable to be master of oneself! For those like this to try to make the monasteries flourish and serve as a standard for later learners—would that not be difficult? An ancient worthy said, 'Great Master Bodhidharma came empty-handed and went empty-handed.' This was already raising dust and winnowing dirt, condescending for the sake of the present age. Among the seven hundred eminent monks at Huangmei, each and every one sought the Buddha-dharma; only Postulant Lu was illiterate and attended solely to pounding rice. Therefore, the robe and bowl of the Western land were secretly transmitted to him. This gate is truly not easy to approach. If one inherently has spiritual bones, without waiting for the raising of eyebrows, the blinking of eyes, or roundabout, clever expedients, one immediately overturns the old ulcerous den of those from of old, shouldering with one's whole being this single move of coming empty-handed and going empty-handed—would that not be delightful? What worry could there be that name and reality, practice and understanding, would not shine brightly in this age?"