12Just Ask Him Yourself示眾
師示眾云：「此間佛法，道難即易，道易即難。別處難見易識，老僧者裏即易見難識。若能會得，天下橫行。忽有人問什麼處來，若向伊道從趙州來，又謗趙州；若道不從趙州來，又埋沒自己。諸人且作麼生對他？」僧問：「觸目是謗，和尚如何得不謗去？」師云：「若道不謗，早是謗了也。」問：「如何是正修行路？」師云：「解修行即得，若不解修行，即參差落他因果裏。」又云：「我教你道，若有問時，但向伊道趙州來。忽問趙州說什麼法，但向伊道，寒即言寒，熱即言熱。若更問道：『不問者箇事。』但云：『問什麼事？』若再問趙州說什麼法，便向伊道：『和尚來時不交傳語。上座若要知趙州事，但自去問取。』」問：「不顧前後時如何？」師云：「不顧前後且置，你問阿誰？」
Zhaozhou addressed the assembly: "The Dharma here — call it hard and it's easy, call it easy and it's hard. Everywhere else it's hard to see but easy to grasp. Here with me it's easy to see but hard to grasp. Get that, and you can walk anywhere in the world.
"Say someone asks where you've come from. Tell him you came from Zhaozhou, and you slander Zhaozhou. Tell him you didn't, and you bury yourself. So how do you answer him?"
A monk asked, "If everything in sight is slander, how does anyone manage to stop slandering?"
Zhaozhou said, "The moment you say 'no slander,' you've already slandered."
Someone asked, "What's the right road for practice?"
Zhaozhou said, "Understand practice and you've got it. Fail to understand it, and you stumble out of step and fall into cause and effect."
He went on: "Let me tell you what to say. If someone asks, just tell him, 'I came from Zhaozhou.' If he asks what Dharma Zhaozhou teaches, tell him, 'When it's cold he says cold, when it's hot he says hot.' If he presses — 'That's not what I'm asking' — just say, 'Then what are you asking?' And if he asks yet again what Dharma Zhaozhou teaches, tell him, 'When the master sent me off, he gave me no message to carry. If you want to know about Zhaozhou, go ask him yourself.'"
Someone asked, "What about when you don't look ahead or behind?"
Zhaozhou said, "Never mind ahead and behind. Who is it you're asking?"