佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 6.48

6.48

The staff swallows heaven and earth; (What is he saying? It is only good for beating dogs.) / In vain one speaks of peach blossoms surging on the waves. (Opening the transcendent aperture, the thousand sages stand downwind together. It does not lie in grasping clouds and seizing mists. Speaking of it a thousand or ten thousand times is not as good as taking it in hand once.) / Those whose tails are scorched do not grasp clouds and seize mists; (Left and right: this old monk just watches. It is merely a scrap of dry firewood.) / Why should those whose gills are exposed lose heart and soul? (Everyone's bearing is like a king's. Of yourself you are a thousand miles, ten thousand miles away; what can be done about your trembling fear?) / It has been brought up! (Thanks for the compassion. The grandmotherly heart is earnest.) / Did you hear? Did you hear? (Inescapably fallen into the weeds. What use is hearing?) / You must be completely clear and unattached; (Cold broth and spoiled rice. Where do heaven, earth, and the great universe come from?) / Do not go on being confused and turbulent! (He who executes the decree violates it first. Next it will come upon your head. Beating, he says: letting it pass is unacceptable.) / Seventy-two blows are lightly pardoned; (This mountain monk has never carried out this decree. Acting according to the decree, luckily you encounter this mountain monk.) / A hundred and fifty are hard to let you off! (When the authentic imperative is to be enforced, how could it be settled merely like this? Even three thousand blows in the morning and eight hundred in the evening—what would they be good for?) / The Master abruptly grabbed his staff and came down from his seat. The great assembly scattered all at once. (What is Xuedou doing, with a dragon's head and a snake's tail?) / (曝: pronounced pù, meaning dried in the sun; interchangeably written as 暴; also pronounced bó-bào).