know, I only said that the stove was made of tiles. What else could I add to this, brothers?"
The crowd had nothing to say to that. Then the hermit asked again, "Do you not realize?"
"No, we don't."
"That was its own primal nature," he said, "was it so difficult to see that?"
All the monks became Enlightened upon hearing this. One after another they started to express their thanks to the hermit, while he was exclaiming, "Just fall and break! Just simply fall and break!"
Commentary: The stove's spirit had depended on and enjoyed the sacrifices it accepted over the many years through the stove as its "body." At last, thanks to the hermit, it was given a chance to realize on its own the common nature of spirit and stove body. The stove was made of tiles, after all. Bones and flesh also consist of numerous elements. In Buddhism, they consist of the four main elements: earth, water, wind, and fire. At this point, the stove's form is the same as any creature's, materially. The spirit of all creatures bases itself on bones, flesh, and spine. In this way, one can see the strict connection between the stove and its spirit; they are the same.
The hermit led the monks through their contemplation of this. His task was to destroy the relative boundaries of "body" and "spirit," "I" and "other things" in their minds. Through the crumbling stove, the master made them rise to the realm of Emptiness and see the empty nature of being. He was happy to see the monks had attained realization at last, so his exclaimation "Just fall and break!" meant "No shape, no spirit!" There was absolutely nothing, in full accordance with the Ch'an principle, which said, "The Four Great Realms consist of nothing; the Five Boundless Spheres contain only Emptiness."
How a Mosquito Bit the Iron Buffalo
"The positive is not correct, and the negative is not correct. The unity of the positive and the negative is not correct, either. What is to be done?" asked the master, instead of replying.
Yao Shan could not find an answer for a long time. Then Shi T'ou said, "Your cause is not here. You'd better go to Master Ma Tsu and look for it there."
Following this advice, Yao Shan paid a visit to Ma Tsu. When asked the same question, Ma Tsu replied, "Sometimes, I ask this to raise its eyebrows and blink its eyes; sometimes, I don't ask this to raise its eyebrows and blink its eyes. From time to time, it is this itself that raises its eyebrows and blinks its eyes; but sometimes it is not this that does it. So, how are you going to realize what this is?"
After hearing this, Yao Shan became Enlightened. He knelt respectfully before the master, expressing his thanks to him.
"Why do you pay me so much respect?" wondered Ma Tsu.
"Because I can see, now," said Yao Shan, "that when I was asking Master Shi T'ou, it looked as if a mosquito had bitten the iron buffalo."
Commentary: Yao Shan's question was no more than a pet phrase, because he himself did not know the meaning of what he asked about. Who could answer such a question? This is why Shih T'ou replied with a contrary question that was too inexplicable for Yao Shan to understand. Actually, the answers of both Ch'an masters were different in form but identical in meaning. The "sometimes,
I ask this to raise its eyebrows and blink its eyes" was equivalent to the "positive"; the "... I don't ask this..." was equivalent to the "negative"; and ". . . it is this itself that ... it is not this" is representative of the unity of the positive and the negative. "This" means self-nature. "A mosquito biting the iron buffalo" referred to the poor kung-fu of Yao Shan during his conversation with Master Shih T'ou. It was Ma Tsu who opened Yao Shan's eyes, making him realize the fact that before, he'd merely tried to enter the doors that were "painted on the wall."
Male and Female
"How long is it since you became a nun?" the master asked her.
"Enough of this jeering," she cried. "How stupid this is! My only question is: Will the day ever come when I am a monk, Master?"
"Who are you now?"
"I'm a nun. Who doesn't know that?" she scoffed.
"But who knows that?" retorted the master.
