60Looking for Bowls行錄

到象田，師問：「不凡、不聖，請師速道。」田云：「老僧秖與麼？」師便喝，云：「許多禿子在這裏覓什麼椀？」

Linji came to Xiangtian and pressed him: "Not ordinary, not holy. Say it, quick."
Xiangtian said, "I'm just like this."
Linji gave a shout. "All you bald-heads, what are you hunting for in here? Bowls?"

Pointer

Linji walks into Xiangtian's hall and immediately springs a trap: "not ordinary, not holy, say it, fast." He's demanding the man show what he is when he's neither a regular person nor an enlightened saint, with no gap for thinking to sneak in. Xiangtian answers as plainly as it can be answered, "I'm just like this," pointing at the bare fact of himself sitting right there. Then Linji shouts and turns on the room: the "bald-heads" are the shaved-headed monks, and "hunting for bowls in here" paints them as beggars rooting around for a handout, chasing some prize from outside when the thing they want is already the one doing the chasing. The case keeps it deliberately unsettled. The shout could be Linji crowning Xiangtian's answer, or scorning the whole crowd that still can't see what Xiangtian just pointed at, and the live question is which.