虛堂和尚語錄 9.113

9.113

Ascending the hall, he brought up: "A monk asked Fayan: 'Huichao asks the upādhyāya, what is the Buddha?' Fayan said: 'You are Huichao.' Upādhyāya Xuedou's verse says: / 'The spring wind of the river country does not stir; / The partridge cries deep within the blossoms. / The three tiers of waves rise high, the fish turns into a dragon; / Yet a foolish man still bails out the water of the night pond.'" Raising the case, [the master] said: "Fayan truly illuminated this monk, yet there is still inexhaustible Dharma. If someone asks Jingshan what the Buddha is, I would only say to him: 'Even if you carry water in a wicker basket, circumambulating Mount Sumeru hundreds and thousands of times, claiming for yourself that not a single drop was spilled, I still have not spoken to you. Why? How could the single word "Buddha" be casually bandied about?'"