佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 1.36

1.36

The pointer says:
The phrase prior to sound is not transmitted by a thousand sages; if you have not personally beheld it, you are separated as if by a great chiliocosm. Even if you were to distinguish it prior to sound and cut off the tongues of everyone under heaven, you would still not be a fellow of fierce mettle. Therefore it is said: Heaven cannot cover it, earth cannot support it, empty space cannot contain it, sun and moon cannot illuminate it. Only when one alone is proclaimed venerable where there is no Buddha does it come a little closer. If perhaps it is not yet so, penetrating through the tip of a single hair, one emits great radiance, traversing vertically and horizontally in all directions, free and unrestrained in the Dharma; reaching out one's hand and picking it up, there is nothing that is not it. But tell me: what has been attained to be so extraordinary? He further said: Does the great assembly understand? In the past, the sweat of war-horses went unrecognised; only when one seeks once more to debate prowess that covers the age is it seen. For now, let the matters of the present moment be set aside; how is Xuedou's gong'an? Look at what follows below.