16Jingqing's Man in the Weeds
Introduction 垂示
道無橫徑，立者孤危。法非見聞，言思逈絕。若能透過荊棘林，解開佛祖縛，得箇穩密田地，諸天捧花無路，外道潛窺無門。終日行而未甞行，終日說而未甞說，便可以自由自在，展啐啄之機，用殺活之劍。直饒恁麼，更須知有建化門中一手擡一手搦，猶較些子。若是本分事上，且得沒交涉。作麼生是本分事？試舉看。
The Way has no shortcut. Stand on it alone and you are exposed. The Dharma is nothing you can see or hear; words and thoughts never reach it. Cut through the thornbush, untie the knots the buddhas and ancestors tied, find the solid ground under your feet, and the gods can find no path to shower you with flowers, outsiders no crack to spy through. All day you act without ever acting, all day you speak without ever speaking. Then you are free. You can work the trigger where chick and hen peck at once, wield the sword that kills and the sword that gives life. Even so, you still must know there is a way of teaching where one hand lifts up and one hand holds down, and even that falls a little short. As for the real thing, none of this so much as touches it. So what is the real thing? Here is a case to test you.
僧問鏡清：「學人啐，請師啄。」清云：「還得活也無？」僧云：「若不活，遭人怪笑。」清云：「也是草裏漢。」
A monk said to Jingqing, "The student is pecking from inside. Master, peck from outside."
Jingqing said, "Will it come out alive or not?"
The monk said, "If it doesn't, people will laugh at me."
Jingqing said, "Still just a man down in the weeds."