32Addressing the Assembly示眾

師示眾云：「老僧三十年前在南方火爐頭，有箇無賓主話，直至如今無人舉著。」問：「和尚受大王如是供養，將什麼報答？」師云：「念佛。」云：「貧子也解念佛。」師云：「喚侍者將一錢與伊。」問：「如何是和尚家風？」師云：「屏風雖破，骨格猶存。」問：「如何是不遷之義？」師云：「你道這野鴨子飛從東去西去？」問：「如何是西來意？」師云：「什麼處得者消息來？」問：「如何是塵中人？」師云：「布施茶鹽錢來。」問：「大耳三藏第三度覓國師不見，未審國師在什麼處？」師云：「在三藏鼻孔裏。」問：「盲龜值浮木孔時如何？」師云：「不是偶然事。」問：「久居巖谷時如何？」師云：「何不隱去？」問：「如何是佛法大意？」師云：「禮拜著。」僧擬進話次。師喚沙彌文遠。文遠到。師叱云：「適來去什麼處來？」問：「如何是自家本意？」師云：「老僧不用牛刀。」問：「久嚮趙州石橋，到來只見掠彴子。」師云：「闍黎只見掠彴子，不見趙州石橋。」云：「如何是石橋？」師云：「過來，過來。」又云：「度驢度馬。」問：「和尚姓什麼？」師云：「常州有。」云：「甲子多少？」師云：「蘇州有。」

Zhaozhou addressed the assembly: "Thirty years ago, down south, sitting by the stove, I had a piece on 'no host, no guest.' To this day no one has brought it up."

A monk asked, "The king showers all this support on you. How will you repay him?"
Zhaozhou said, "I chant the Buddha's name."
"A pauper can do that much."
Zhaozhou said, "Attendant, give this man a penny."

A monk asked, "What is your house style?"
Zhaozhou said, "The screen is torn, but the frame still stands."

A monk asked, "What does 'nothing shifts' mean?"
Zhaozhou said, "You tell me. That wild duck, is it flying east or west?"

A monk asked, "Why did Bodhidharma come from the west?"
Zhaozhou said, "Where did you pick up that bit of news?"

A monk asked, "Who is the person in the dust?"
Zhaozhou said, "Hand over some money for tea and salt."

A monk asked, "The third time Big-Ears the Tripitaka master went looking, he couldn't find the National Teacher. Where had the National Teacher gone?"
Zhaozhou said, "Up Big-Ears' own nose."

A monk asked, "What about when the blind turtle finds the hole in the floating log?"
Zhaozhou said, "No accident, that."

A monk asked, "What about living long in the cliffs and valleys?"
Zhaozhou said, "Why not vanish for good?"

A monk asked, "What is the great meaning of the Buddha's teaching?"
Zhaozhou said, "Bow."
The monk started to speak. Zhaozhou called out, "Wenyuan!" The novice Wenyuan came over. Zhaozhou snapped, "Just now, where did you go?"

A monk asked, "What is your own basic intent?"
Zhaozhou said, "I don't reach for the butcher's cleaver."

A monk said, "I've heard of Zhaozhou's stone bridge for ages. I get here and all I see is a plank over a ditch."
Zhaozhou said, "You see the plank. You don't see Zhaozhou's stone bridge."
"What is the stone bridge?"
Zhaozhou said, "Come across. Come across." Then he added, "It carries donkeys, it carries horses."

A monk asked, "What is your surname?"
Zhaozhou said, "There's one in Changzhou."
"And how old are you?"
Zhaozhou said, "There's one in Suzhou."

Pointer

Quick run-ins with visiting monks, four of which need a key. "No host, no guest" points past the split between self and other, the line Zhaozhou says nobody ever asked him about. The "person in the dust" means someone living in the ordinary grimy world. "Big-Ears the Tripitaka master" was a celebrated mind-reader who could see anyone's thoughts, and he nailed the National Teacher's thoughts twice, but on the third round the Teacher emptied his own mind and the reader came up blank; "up his own nose" is Zhaozhou saying the so-called master couldn't find what was right under him. The blind turtle and the floating log is the classic image for how absurdly rare a human birth that meets the teaching is: a blind sea turtle surfaces once a century, one log with a single hole drifts the whole ocean, and the turtle's head comes up through that hole. The last bit is pure clowning, his name and his age both answered with the names of towns, the old man refusing to be pinned to any label and enjoying it.