佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 1.10

1.10

The holy truth is vast and void; / (The arrow has passed to Silla. Oh!) / When will you distinguish it clearly? / (It is past. What is hard to distinguish?) / 'Who is facing me?' / (Coming again, it's not worth half a coin. Gone like that again!) / He still said, 'I do not know.' / (Three or four have hit the mark. Tut!) / Because of this, he secretly crossed the river; / (Unable to pierce another's nostrils, he had his own pierced by another instead. Blue heaven, blue heaven! How unheroic!) / How could he avoid generating brambles? / (Beneath his feet it is already several fathoms deep.) / Though all the people of the country pursue him, he will not return; / (A double gong'an. What use is pursuing? Where is he? Where is the spirit of a great hero?) / For thousands of ages and myriad ages, remembering him in vain! / (Beating the chest with alternating hands; calling out into the empty void.) / Stop remembering! / (What are you saying? Making a living in a ghost cave!) / The pure breeze sweeps the earth—what limit is there? / (Indeed. Old and young Xuedou rolls in the grass.) / The Master looked around to the left and right and said, 'Is there an ancestral master here?' / (Are you waiting to change your testimony? Still putting on this performance!) / He answered himself, 'There is.' / (Muddled and clumsy.) / 'Call him over to wash this old monk's feet.' / (Giving him thirty more blows of the staff and driving him out would not be excessive either. Putting on this performance is still a bit better.)