38Fengxue's Iron Ox
Introduction 垂示
若論漸也，返常合道，閙市裏七縱八橫；若論頓也，不留朕迹，千聖亦摸索不著。儻或不立頓漸，又作麼生？快人一言，快馬一鞭，正恁麼時，誰是作者？試舉看。
Take the slow road, and you circle back to the everyday and merge with the way; you can swagger through a crowded market any direction you please. Take the sudden road, and you leave no trace, and a thousand sages couldn't track you down. But set up neither sudden nor slow, and then what? A sharp man needs one word, a fast horse one flick of the whip. Right at that moment, who's the real master? Here's a case to test it.
風穴在郢州衙內，上堂云：「祖師心印，狀似鐵牛之機，去即印住，住即印破。只如不去不住，印即是，不印即是？」時有盧陂長老出問：「某甲有鐵牛之機，請師不搭印。」穴云：「慣釣鯨鯢澄巨浸，却嗟蛙步輾泥沙。」陂佇思。穴喝云：「長老何不進語？」陂擬議，穴打一拂子。穴云：「還記得話頭麼？試舉看。」陂擬開口，穴又打一拂子。牧主云：「佛法與王法一般。」穴云：「見箇什麼道理？」牧主云：「當斷不斷，返招其亂。」穴便下座。
Fengxue was at the government headquarters in Yingzhou. He took the high seat and said: "The mind-seal of the ancestors works like an iron ox. Lift it away and the seal stays; press it down and the seal breaks. But neither lift it away nor press it down: is stamping right, or not stamping?"
An elder named Lupi stepped out and said: "I've got the working of an iron ox. Don't stamp me with your seal, teacher."
Fengxue said: "I'm used to fishing for whales, trawling the great deeps. Here I find a frog kicking around in the mud."
Lupi stood there turning it over.
Fengxue shouted: "Elder, why don't you say something?"
Lupi started to answer, and Fengxue gave him one stroke of the whisk.
Fengxue said: "Do you even remember where we were? Let's see you bring it up again."
Lupi went to open his mouth, and again Fengxue struck him with the whisk.
The governor said: "Buddha's law and the king's law are one and the same."
Fengxue said: "What do you see in that?"
The governor said: "When it's time to cut and you don't cut, you bring the chaos down on yourself."
Fengxue stepped down from his seat.