虛堂和尚語錄 5.73

5.73

One day Magu was sitting inside paper curtains with a hand towel covering his head. Piyun entered, saw him, and immediately began to wail. After a long while he went out to the Dharma hall, circled the meditation bed once, and came back again. Magu removed the hand towel and sat. Yun said, "Finding life in the midst of death—not one in ten thousand." Magu came down from the bed and made a gesture of pulling out his sitting mat. Yun stepped forward, seized him, and said, "Dying first and living later—do you concede it or not?" Magu said, "Conceding is conceding, but what are you fit to do, Reverend?" Yun pushed him away and said, "I knew your earlier words did not match your later words."