61Worn-Out Sandals行錄

到明化，化問：「來來去去作什麼？」師云：「秖徒踏破草鞋。」化云：「畢竟作麼生？」師云：「老漢話頭也不識。」

Linji came to see Minghua. Minghua said, "Coming and going, coming and going. What for?"

Linji said, "Just wearing out sandals."

Minghua said, "And in the end, what have you got?"

Linji said, "Old man, you can't even follow your own question."

Pointer

By now Linji has visited a string of teachers, and Minghua needles him about exactly that: all this trekking temple to temple, what's it actually for? Linji's deadpan, "just wearing out sandals," flatly refuses to gild the journey as a noble spiritual quest; it's walking, and shoes die. Minghua pushes for the real haul, what have you got to show, and Linji turns the question inside out: the trouble isn't his empty hands, it's that Minghua is still convinced there's a "point" to be carried home and can't even hear his own question straight. This sits right beside Linji's deeper teaching that there is nothing to attain and nowhere to arrive, which makes the pilgrimage itself a little absurd. The wandering wears out sandals and produces no trophy, and for Linji that's not the joke's failure, it's the joke.