虛堂和尚語錄 5.203

5.203

Yang Xiong wrote the *Taixuan*, and then said: "The world does not know me; there must be another Ziyun reborn." This too was a statement without shame. Receiving [the protection] of the sons of Śākya and sheltered by the Great Sage, I have often lamented that their wisdom-life was almost like a hanging thread, while eating and breathing were vainly wasted. Thereupon, with sincere devotion and strenuous effort, I investigated it thoroughly, and after a long time I attained it. When I made pilgrimages to the various patriarchs and traveled throughout Hu and Xiang, confronting circumstances and reflecting on the persons, I took those encounters that were quintessential and profound, and occasionally wrote verses on them. From Xiuxi back to Mount Mao, there were only forty-odd cases. In the summer of the xinchou year, resigning my duties at Zhifeng, I set up my eaves at Xiagu. The valley being deep and outer conditions severed, I again took from the Buddhas and patriarchs on down, all encounters that accorded with the senior patch-robed monks and high officials of the Tang, gathering them into one hundred cases. Originally not discriminating their superiority or inferiority by Confucianism, Buddhism, or Daoism, I sought only their correctness. Among them, whether congealed or flowing, rising or declining, they cannot be restricted by affairs nor eliminated by principles. If a person of the inner path sees them and understands them with clarity, how would I dare usurp their appreciation or strike the beat in unison? I simply wish to repay one ten-thousandth of the Buddhas and patriarchs; this is my wish. On the auspicious first day of the renyin month, the second year of Chunyou, respectfully written by Zhiyu.