佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 8.40

8.40

Touzi is plain and honest, yet he possesses eloquence that surpasses the crowd. Whenever a question is posed, as soon as he opens his mouth one sees his inner core; without expending spare effort, he immediately cuts off the other's tongue. He can truly be said to devise strategies within the commander's tent and decide victory a thousand miles away. This monk pasted views of sound, form, and the Buddha-Dharma onto his own forehead, asking everyone he met. Touzi is an adept and clearly distinguished the incoming wind. This monk knew Touzi was honest and straightforward, so from the start he set a snare to make Touzi step into it; this is why he had follow-up remarks. Touzi, however, employed a dynamic to trap a tiger, angling out his follow-up words. The monk met his reply and said, "The venerable monk shouldn't fart and make the sound of a boiling bowl." Sure enough, at one cast he took the bait. Had it been anyone else, they would have been helpless before this monk. Touzi possesses the eye, so he struck immediately thereafter. For moves that bite pigs and dogs, one must rely on an adept to do it right. Turning to the left, he rolls smoothly along with him; turning to the right, he rolls smoothly along with him. Since this monk had set a snare intending to pluck the tiger's whiskers, little did he realize that Touzi was already atop his snare. Touzi struck at once. What a pity for this monk: he had a head but no tail. At that moment, when Touzi picked up the staff, he should have overturned the meditation seat; even if Touzi had used his whole dynamic function, he would have had to retreat three thousand miles. The monk asked again, "Coarse words and fine speech all return to the paramārtha—is it so or not?" Touzi also said, "It is"—no different from his previous words. The monk said, "Can I call the venerable monk a donkey?" Touzi struck again. Although this monk made a lair, he was indeed remarkable. Had it been an old fellow on a curved-wood chair who lacked an eye on the crown of his head, it would have been hard to break and bring him down. Touzi has room to turn around. Since this monk made a rational principle to encroach on his market, in the end he was still helpless against old Touzi. Have you not seen Yantou say: "If we speak of battle, each stands at the turning point"? Touzi let go too slowly and gathered in too quickly. If at that moment this monk had known how to turn around and catch his breath, would he not have been a fellow whose mouth was like a blood basin? For a patch-robed monk, in for a penny, in for a pound. Since this monk could not pounce back, Touzi pierced his nostrils instead. The verse says: