18Dongshan's Three Pounds of Flax洞山三斤
洞山和尚。因僧問。如何是佛。山云。麻三斤。
A monk asked Dongshan, "What is Buddha?"
Dongshan said, "Three pounds of flax."
Verse 頌曰
突出麻三斤
言親意更親
來說是非者
便是是非人
Three pounds of flax, blurted out.
The words land close, the meaning closer.
Whoever comes to argue right and wrong
is the one right and wrong have caught.
Wumen's Comment 無門曰
洞山老人參得些蚌蛤禪。纔開兩片。露出肝腸。然雖如是且道。向甚處見洞山。
Old Dongshan studied his way into a clam's notion of Zen: crack the shell a hair and out spill the guts. Fine. But tell me, where do you actually catch sight of Dongshan?