96Zhaozhou's Three Turning Words

趙州示眾三轉語。

Zhaozhou gave his assembly three turning words.

Verse 頌

泥佛不渡水，
神光照天地。
立雪如未休，
何人不雕偽。
金佛不渡罏，
人來訪紫胡。
牌中數箇字，
清風何處無。
木佛不渡火，
常思破竈墮。
杖子忽擊著，
方知辜負我。

A clay Buddha can't cross water,
yet Huike's light blazed through heaven and earth.
Had he not quit standing in the snow when he did,
who wouldn't end up faking it?
A gold Buddha can't cross the furnace,
still they come seeking out Zihu.
A few words scratched on a warning board,
and where does the clean wind not blow?
A wood Buddha can't cross fire,
I keep thinking of Stove-Smasher Duo.
The staff comes down, a sudden crack,
and only then you see how you'd failed me.

Pointer

Zhaozhou is the old master behind the most famous koan of all (the dog, Gateless Gate 1), and "turning words" are short phrases built to flip your head around and snap you out of stuck thinking. He hands his students three, terse to the point of riddle: a clay Buddha cannot cross water, a gold Buddha cannot cross a furnace, a wood Buddha cannot cross fire. The hook is that each image of "Buddha" is made of exactly the stuff that undoes it: the clay dissolves in the river, the gold melts in the smelter, the wood burns in the fire, so any Buddha you can point to is already on its way to ruin in its own element. Xuedou's verse hangs each line on an old story: Huike standing in the snow and cutting off his own arm to prove he meant it, a teacher named Zihu who posted a blunt warning at his gate, and "Stove-Smasher" Duo, who broke a stove the villagers worshipped and freed the "spirit" in the act. Three times the same setup, three idols knocked over. So if every Buddha you can name is the kind that won't survive the crossing, what is it that does?