59An Arrow Past India行錄

到翠峯，峯問：「甚處來？」師云：「黃蘗來。」峯云：「黃蘗有何言句指示於人？」師云：「黃蘗無言句。」峯云：「為什麼無？」師云：「設有，亦無舉處。」峯云：「但舉看。」師云：「一箭過西天。」

Linji came to Cuifeng. Cuifeng asked, "Where have you come from?"

"From Huangbo."

"What does Huangbo say to teach people?"

"Huangbo has nothing to say."

"Why nothing?"

"Even if he did, there'd be no way to bring it up."

"Just try. Let's hear it."

"One arrow, already past India."

Pointer

Cuifeng sizes up the traveling Linji the way several of these hosts do, by asking what his teacher actually taught, since a man is judged partly by his lineage. Linji says Huangbo had nothing to say, and there's no way to even point at the nothing. When Cuifeng presses him to try anyway, the answer doubles as a boast and a live demonstration: "India" is the West where the Buddha came from, standing for the far edge of the teaching, and an arrow already flown past it is gone, too fast to track, with no target left to strike. So the reply is "ask me to produce it and it's already over your head and gone." This isn't evasion dressed as wit; the speed is the content. It also rhymes with what Huangbo did to Linji in case 46, where the teaching arrived as a blow before the question was even finished, faster than the mind that came hunting for it.