44Heshan's "I Know How to Beat the Drum"

禾山垂語云：「習學謂之聞，絕學謂之隣，過此二者，是為真過。」僧出問：「如何是真過？」山云：「解打鼓。」又問：「如何是真諦？」山云：「解打鼓。」又問：「即心即佛即不問，如何是非心非佛？」山云：「解打鼓。」又問：「向上人來時如何接？」山云：「解打鼓。」

Heshan gave this teaching: "To study is called hearing. To stop studying is called nearness. To go beyond both is the real passing through."

A monk stepped out and asked, "What is the real passing through?"

Heshan said, "I know how to beat the drum."

The monk asked, "What is the ultimate truth?"

Heshan said, "I know how to beat the drum."

The monk asked, "I won't ask about 'mind is Buddha.' What about 'not mind, not Buddha'?"

Heshan said, "I know how to beat the drum."

The monk asked, "When one who has gone past the top arrives, how do you receive him?"

Heshan said, "I know how to beat the drum."

Verse 頌

一拽石，
二般土，
發機須是千鈞弩。
象骨老師曾輥毬，
爭似禾山解打鼓。
報君知，
莫莽鹵，
甜者甜兮苦者苦。

One drags the stone,
the next hauls the dirt.
To spring the trigger takes a thousand-pound crossbow.
Old Master Xuefeng once rolled a ball around,
but how does that match Heshan's "I know how to beat the drum"?
Take it from me:
don't be careless.
Sweet is sweet, and bitter is bitter.

Pointer

Heshan was a late-Tang and Five Dynasties teacher, and the bit here is that he meets four wildly different questions, about passing beyond, ultimate truth, the nature of Buddha, and how you would receive a fully realized master, with one flat phrase each time: "I know how to beat the drum." The monk keeps reaching higher, and Heshan keeps thumping the same note. The questions are loaded with the era's hot slogans, "mind is Buddha" and "not mind, not Buddha," the phrases students gnawed on for years, and "one who has gone past the top" means someone with no spiritual stage left to climb, nothing left to teach. The live question is whether you read Heshan as ducking, or whether four identical answers are the most honest reply available. The verse sets it beside Xuefeng, who rolled a wooden ball at students as his own one-note move, and ranks the drum higher.