39Where Do You Shit示眾

示眾云：「我此間有出窟師子，亦有在窟師子，只是難得師子兒。」時有僧彈指對之。師云：「是什麼？」云：「師子兒。」師云：「我喚作師子兒，早是罪過，你更行趯踏。」師問新到：「離什麼處？」云：「離雪峯。」師云：「雪峯有什麼言句示人？」云：「和尚尋常道：『盡十方世界是沙門一隻眼，你等諸人向什麼處屙？』」師云：「闍黎若迴，寄箇鍬子去。」師因捨衣俵大眾次。僧便問：「和尚總捨却了，用箇什麼去？」師召云：「湖州子。」僧應諾。師云：「用箇什麼？」

Addressing the assembly, Zhaozhou said, "Around here I've got lions that leave the den and lions that stay in it. What's hard to come by is a lion cub."

A monk snapped his fingers at him.

Zhaozhou said, "What's that?"

The monk said, "A lion cub."

Zhaozhou said, "Calling it a lion cub already gets you in trouble. Now you stomp all over it too."

Zhaozhou asked a newly arrived monk, "Where've you come from?"

"From Xuefeng."

"What does Xuefeng say to teach people these days?"

The monk said, "He always says, 'The whole universe in every direction is the single eye of a monk. So where do all of you go to shit?'"

Zhaozhou said, "If you head back, take him a shovel."

Once, while Zhaozhou was handing out his robes to the assembly, a monk asked, "Master, you're giving it all away. What will you have left to use?"

Zhaozhou called out, "Hey, Huzhou boy!"

The monk answered, "Yes?"

Zhaozhou said, "And what are you using right now?"

Pointer

Three quick scenes. First, the "lion cub": a lion is a master, the cub the rare student who genuinely gets it. The monk shows off by snapping his fingers, a gesture that signals "I'm awake," and Zhaozhou shuts it down; labeling yourself the real thing already misses, and performing the label is worse. Second, a monk arrives from Xuefeng, a big-name teacher whose name means Snow Peak. Xuefeng's saying, the whole universe is one eye, so where do you go to shit, is a cosmic boast, the idea that if everything is awakening there is no leftover corner for an ordinary body; Zhaozhou's deadpan "take him a shovel" sends the great cosmic eye off to do its business like everyone else. Third, Zhaozhou gives all his robes away and a monk frets that he will have nothing left to use. Zhaozhou yells "Huzhou boy" (just where the monk is from), the monk reflexively answers "Yes," and Zhaozhou points at exactly that, the thing that answered. Give away everything you own and you are still using it.