虛堂和尚語錄 9.124

9.124

The Master then said: "The divine merit abdicated the residence, and Great Awakening laid the foundation. For six hundred years of extraordinary rises and falls, ten thousand fingers lodged in an aged building; from the very beginning it has been renovated, creating a brand new order. Seizing the moment with a heart of iron and stone, we converse and laugh amidst the gathering of wind and clouds. Six dragons rise in dance, and five phoenixes vie in height. There is no need to erect a stone to record the deed; this seeing and hearing alone is not deluded. If an extraordinary fellow of the Way should suddenly come forth and say, 'Old man Xutang, granted it is so, but using illusion to cultivate illusion, what wondrous principle is there in abruptly completing this functional establishment?' the mountain monk would merely say to him: 'The work was assembled in the autumn of the wuchen year of the Xianchun reign, and completed on the tenth day of the sixth month of the yisi year.'"