43Shoushan's Bamboo Staff首山竹篦
首山和尚。拈竹篦示眾云。汝等諸人若喚作竹篦則觸。不喚作竹篦則背。汝諸人且道。喚作甚麼。
Master Shoushan held up his bamboo staff and said to the assembly: "Call this a bamboo staff and you collide with it. Don't call it a bamboo staff and you turn your back on it. So tell me, what do you call it?"
Verse 頌曰
拈起竹篦
行殺活令
背觸交馳
佛祖乞命
He lifts the bamboo staff
and gives the order: kill or let live.
Name it, deny it, both come charging,
and the buddhas and patriarchs beg for their lives.
Wumen's Comment 無門曰
喚作竹篦則觸。不喚作竹篦則背。不得有語。不得無語。速道速道。
Call it a bamboo staff and you collide with it. Don't call it a bamboo staff and you turn your back on it. No words. No silence. Speak. Speak.