52Caoshan's Dharma Body曹山法身
Introduction 示眾
諸有智者，以譬喻得解。若到比不得、類難齊處，如何說向他？
The clever grasp things by analogy. But where nothing compares, where there's no match to set beside it, how do you point a man there?
曹山問德尚座：「『佛真法身，猶若虛空；應物現形，如水中月。』作麼生說箇應底道理？」德云：「如驢覻井。」山云：「道即大曬，道只道得八成。」德云：「和尚又如何？」山云：「如井覻驢。」
Caoshan asked Elder Deshang, "'The Buddha's true Dharma body is like empty space. It takes shape in response to things, the way the moon appears in water.' How would you explain that responsiveness?"
Deshang said, "Like a donkey staring into a well."
Caoshan said, "You said a lot, all right. But you only got eighty percent of it."
Deshang said, "And you, Master?"
Caoshan said, "Like the well staring back at the donkey."
Verse 頌
驢覻井，
井覻驢。
智容無外，
淨涵有餘。
肘後誰分印？
家中不蓄書。
機絲不掛梭頭事，
文彩縱橫意自殊。
The donkey stares into the well,
the well stares into the donkey.
Wisdom so wide it has no outside,
clear and brimming, more than enough.
Who keeps a seal tucked in his sleeve?
This house stores no books.
No thread on the loom, the shuttle flies empty,
yet the pattern runs every way, the meaning all its own.