虛堂和尚語錄 8.26

8.26

The monk then said: "The ancient buddhas' family tradition coincides with the thirtieth night of the twelfth month; the ancestral masters' nose-rein—tomorrow will certainly be the dawn of the New Year. Shaking out the bowels of excrement to speak to him, the profound and wondrous mechanism was never secret from the start. For those who penetrate through, in the blink of an eye they know the price of rice in Shezhou; for those who are muddled, the old staff cannot turn their heads back. Comings and goings are pushed along by the twenty-four solar terms, sometimes just like a tiger watching a watermill. Who could manage them? Let them be scorched by the sun and blown by the wind. Even though it is like this, what is a phrase that does not involve the seasons?" Striking his whisk, he said: "The ridge plums first break open their jade; / The river willows have not yet shaken their gold."