Monk Ch'ing-jui asked: ``I am lonely and poor. Please help me, Master.''
``Teacher Jui, please come near.''
As Jui went near, the Master said: ``Someone drank three cups of wine brewed by the House of Pai in Ch'üan-chou, and still said that his lips were not wet.''
Ching-ch'ing asked: ``What is the Principle of Pure Vacuity like, since after all it has no body?''
The Master said: ``The Principle is originally like that. Where did facts [the external world, body] arise?''
Ching-ch'ing said: ``Principle is the same as facts and facts are the same as Principle.''
The Master said: ``It is all right to insult Ts'ao-shan himself, but what are you going to do with all the divine eyes [that is, how can you cheat all wise men]?''
A monk said: ``Your disciple is sick all over. Please cure me.''
The Master said: ``I shall not cure you.''
The monk said: ``Why don't you cure me?''
The Master said: ``So that you neither live nor die.''
A monk asked: ``Aren't monks persons of great compassion?''
The Master said: ``Yes.''
The monk asked: ``Suppose the six bandits [sensuous desires] come at them. What should they do?''
The Master answered: ``Also be compassionate.''
The monk asked: ``How is one to be compassionate?''
The Master said: ``Wipe them out with one sweep of the sword.''
The monk asked: ``What then?''
The Master said: ``Then they will be harmonized.''
A monk asked: ``Master, are the eye and the eyebrow acquainted with each other?''
The Master answered: ``Not acquainted.''
The monk asked: ``Why not acquainted?''
The Master said: ``They are in the same place.''
The monk asked: ``Why are they not separated?''
The Master said: ``The eyebrow is not the eye and the eye is not the eyebrow.''
The monk said: ``What is the eye?''
The Master answered: ``To the point!''
The monk asked: ``What is the eyebrow?''
The Master said: ``I have my doubts.''
The monk asked: ``Why do you doubt?''
The Master said: ``If I don't doubt, it would mean to the point.''
A monk asked: What kind of people are those who avoid the company of all dharmas?''
The Master said: ``There are so many people in the city of Hung-chou. Where would you say they have gone?''
A monk asked: ``In admitting phenomenon, what is true?''
The Master said: ``Phenomenon is truth and truth is phenomenon.''
The monk asked: ``How is that revealed?''
The Master lifted the tea tray.
A monk asked: ``How is illusion true?''
The Master answered: ``Illusion is originally true.''
The monk asked: ``How is illusion manifested?''
The Master answered: ``Illusion is manifestation and manifestation is illusion.''
Question: ``What kind of people are those who are always present?''
The Master said: ``It happens that Ts'ao-shan has gone out for a while.''
Question: ``What kind of people are those who are always absent?''
The Master said: ``Difficult to find such.''
A monk asked: ``What did Patriarch Lu indicate by facing the cliff?''
The Master covered his ears with his hands.
A monk asked: ``An ancient wise man said, `There has never been a person who, having fallen to the ground, does not rise from the ground.' What is falling?''
The Master said: ``The fact is recognized.''
The monk said: ``What is rising?''
The Master said: ``Rising.''
Question: ``In the teachings we have received, it is said, `The great sea does not harbor a corpse.' What is the great sea?''
The Master said: ``It embraces all things.''
The monk asked: ``Why not harbor a corpse?''
The Master said: ``He whose breath has stopped clings to nothing.''
The Master continued: ``Things are not its accomplishments, and the breathless has its own character.''
The monk asked: ``With regard to progress toward the highest truth, is there anything else?''
The Master said: ``It is all right to say yes or no, but what are you going to do with the Dragon King who holds the sword?''
A monk asked: ``How can silence be expressed?''
The Master said: ``I will not express it here.''
The monk said: ``Where will you express it?''
The Master said: ``Last night at midnight I lost three pennies by my bed.''
The Master asked the monk: ``What are you doing?''
The monk answered: ``Sweeping the floor.''
The Master said: ``In front of the Buddha figure or behind it?''
The monk answered: ``Both at the same time.''
The Master said: ``Give your sandals to Ts'ao-shan.''
A monk asked: ``What kind of companions in the Path should one associate with so that one may always learn from what one has not learned?''
The Master said: ``Sleep in the same bed.''
The monk said: ``This is still what the monks have learned. How can one always learn from what one has not learned?''
The Master said: ``Different from trees and rocks.''
The monk asked: ``Which is first and which is afterward?''
The Master said: ``Not seeing the Path, one can always learn from what one has not learned.''
A monk asked: ``Who is the one who holds the sword in the state?''
The Master said: ``Ts'ao-shan.''
The monk said: ``Whom do you intend to kill?''
The Master said: ``I shall kill all.''
The monk said: ``Suppose you suddenly met your parents. What will you do?''
The Master said: ``Why discriminate?''
The monk said: ``But there is yourself!''
The Master said: ``Who can do anything about me?''
The monk said: ``Why not kill yourself?''
The Master said: ``No place to start.''
A monk asked: ``What kind of people are always sinking into the sea of life and death?''
The Master answered: ``The second month.''
The monk said: ``Don't they try to free themselves?''
The Master said: ``Yes, they do but there is no way out.''
The monk said: ``If they are free, what kind of people will accept them?''
The Master said: ``Prisoners.''
A monk raised a case [koan], saying: ``Yo-shan asked me how old I was. I said seventy-two. Yo-shan asked, `Is it seventy-two?' When I said, `yes,' he struck me. What is the meaning of that?''
The Master said: ``The first arrow is bad enough. The second one will penetrate even deeper.''
The monk asked: ``How can the beating be avoided?''
The Master said: ``When the imperial edict is in force, all the feudal lords yield the way.''
A monk asked Hsiang-yen: ``What is the Path?''
Hsiang-yen answered: ``There is music from [the wind blowing at] the dried wood.''
The monk asked: ``Who are those in the path?''
Hsiang-yen answered: ``There is an eye-pupil in the skull.''
The monk did not understand and went to ask Shih-shuang what is meant by music from the dried wood. Shih-shuang said: ``There is still joy there.''
The monk said: ``What about the eye-pupil in the skull?''
Shih-shuang said: ``There is still consciousness there.''
The monk did not understand either. He presented the case to the Master, who said: ``Shih-shuang is a Shravaka [who attains enlightenment on hearing the teachings of the Buddha] and therefore takes such a view.'' Thereupon he showed the monk the following verse:
When there is music from dried wood, the Path is truly seen.Thereupon the monk again asked the Master: ``What does it mean by music from the dried wood?''
The skull has no consciousness; the eye begins to clear.
When joy and consciousness [seem to be] at an end, they are not so.
Who discriminates what is clear amidst what is turbid?
Question: ``What is the basic meaning of the Law of the Buddha?''
The Master said: ``Filling all streams and valleys.''
Question: ``Whenever there is any question, one's mind is confused. What is the matter?''
The Master said: ``Kill, kill!''
Typed 31 March 1995
CRS