虛堂和尚語錄 8.114

8.114

The master then said, "With no place to stand an awl, there only remain two eyes covering heaven and earth; having a different livelihood, who would use an inch of shadow to squander the bright day? During the long period of a hundred and twenty days, they could not restrict him: Mount Tiantai in the south, Mount Wutai in the north; among the eighty thousand subtle practices, they had no door to seize him: Tuṣita by day, Jambudvīpa by night. Patch-robed monks use this to protect life, and there is no life that is not protected; they use this to confine the feet, and there are no feet that do not sit cross-legged. Stroking the staff, waiting for the west wind, picking up the bowl-bag and shoe-sack once again—if along the road ahead someone suddenly asks, 'I hear that during one summer at South Mountain, [the teacher] trained students with Lingyun's two places of not answering; can you speak of it yet?' If you should hesitate, then since the old monk's temple already belongs to another, I will unavoidably have to go up Mount Jing once more."