10The Old Woman of Mount Tai臺山婆子
Introduction 示眾
有收有放，干木隨身；能殺能活，權衝在手。塵勞魔外盡付指呼，大地山河皆成戲具。且道：是甚麼境界？
Sometimes you reel them in, sometimes you let them run. A dry stick goes wherever you go. You can kill, you can bring back to life: the scale that weighs them sits in your own hand. Every demon and distraction answers the snap of your fingers. The whole earth, its rivers and mountains, becomes a set of toys. So tell me, what kind of country is this?
臺山路上有一婆子，凡有僧問：「臺山路向什麼處去？」婆云：「驀直去。」僧纔行，婆云：「好箇阿師，又恁麼去也。」僧舉似趙州，州云：「待，與勘過。」州亦如前問，至來日上堂云：「我為汝勘破婆子了也。」
On the road to Mount Tai there was an old woman. Whenever a monk asked her, "Which way to Mount Tai?" she'd say, "Straight ahead." The monk would take a few steps, and she'd say, "There he goes, another fine priest off the same way as the rest."
A monk told Zhaozhou about her. Zhaozhou said, "Wait. Let me go size her up." He went, asked the same question, got the same answer.
Next day he took the high seat and said, "I've seen through the old woman for you."