23Luzu Faces the Wall魯祖面壁
Introduction 示眾
達磨九年，呼為壁觀；神光三拜，漏泄天機。如何得掃蹤滅跡去？
Bodhidharma sat nine years. They called it "wall-gazing." Huike bowed three times and gave the whole game away. So how do you wipe out every track and leave no trace at all?
魯祖凡見僧來便面壁。南泉聞云：「我尋常向他道，空劫以前承當，佛未出世時會取，尚不得一箇半箇。他恁麼，驢年去。」
Whenever Luzu saw a monk coming, he just turned and faced the wall. Nanquan heard of it and said, "I keep telling people: get yourself back before the empty eon, take up the time before any Buddha came into the world. Even then you won't turn up a single one, not even half a one. The way he's going, he'll be at it till the year of the donkey."
Verse 頌
淡中有味，
妙超情謂。
綿綿若存兮象先，
兀兀如愚兮道貴。
玉雕文以喪淳，
珠在淵而自媚。
十分爽氣兮清磨暑秋，
一片閑雲兮遠分天水。
Plain, and full of flavor.
Subtle, past anything you could think or say.
Faint as a thread, barely there, yet here before all forms.
Still as a fool, dull as a stump, yet here the Way runs deep.
Carve the jade with patterns and you ruin the plain stone.
The pearl rests in the deep, lovely on its own.
Bracing air, clear and cold, autumn scouring off the summer heat.
A single drift of idle cloud, far off, parting sky from water.