Scholars plow with the pen, orators plow with the tongue. We patch robed mendicants lazily watch a white ox on open ground, not paying attention to the rootless auspicious grass. How to pass the days?
Case
Dizang asked Xiushan, ‘Where do you come from?’
Xiushan said, 'From the South.’
Dizang said, 'How is Buddhism in the South these days?’
Xiushan said, 'There’s extensive discussion.’
Dizang said, 'How can that compare to me here planting the fields and making rice to eat?’
Xiushan said, 'What can you do about the world?’
Dizang said, 'What do you call the world?’
Verse
Source and explanation variously are all made up;
Passing to ear from mouth, it comes apart.
Planting fields, making rice — ordinary household matters;
Only those who have investigated to the full would know —
Having investigated to the full, you clearly know there’s nothing to seek:
Zifang after all didn’t care to be enfeoffed as a marquis;
Forgetting his state he returned, same as fish and birds,
Washing his feet in the Canglang, the hazy waters of autumn.
- from Book of Serenity: One Hundred Zen Dialogues, translated by Thomas Cleary, 1988.
“We can view Jesus’ whole ministry as a life lived in deliberate opposition to the domination of his time. It was not enough to show compassion for the poor and dispossessed, the whole system of oppression which left people in poverty and despair had to be challenged.”
