開脫空口。東語西話。以慈悲法。盲拳瞎罵。冷面熱腸。蓮花一社。冷債熱還。竹篦廿下。鳥去遺音。香飛落灺。真箇達師。僧繇難畫。
Empty words, open mouths. East talk, west talk. With compassion's method, blind fists, sightless blows. Cold face, warm heart— Lotus Flower Society. Cold debt, hot repayment, twenty strikes of the bamboo cane. The bird has flown, its song remains; incense ash falls, fragrance fades. A true master of the Way— even Seng You could not paint him.
余久向紫栢師。辛丑入都。而師住西山。忻然欲以瓣香見之。會同學數友。皆短師。心疑而止。後讀其遺言。審其生平真證密行。深慈高節。一時叢林踞師席者。誠罕其比。然猶惜師不早去。終以及禍。非明明喆之道。及見吳咸熙氏所寄示遺像。味其自贊語。類讖者。豈師固夙知若二祖。師子尊者耶。常不輕菩薩見人禮拜。稱汝等皆當作佛。人乃相趂打擲呵詈之。袁景倩言。一國中有狂泉。人飲皆狂。獨國王汲井以免。而通國狂者。覆以王為狂也。相與捽縛燒灼。不勝苦。趍飲其泉。狂作。國人喜。謂王病已也。始捨之。紫栢視眾人為佛。不得不度。眾人視紫栢為狂。不得不死。於乎。何足恨哉。
I had long admired Master Zibo. In the year Xinchou, I entered the capital, and the master was residing at Xishan. I joyfully wished to pay my respects with a stick of incense. However, several fellow students all spoke ill of the master, so I hesitated and refrained. Later, I read his final words and examined his life of true realization and profound practice, his deep compassion and noble integrity. Among those who occupied the seat of a master in the monastic community at that time, few could compare to him. Yet I still regretted that he did not leave earlier, ultimately meeting with misfortune—this was not the way of the wise and enlightened.
When I later saw the portrait sent by Wu Xianxi, I pondered the master’s own inscription, which seemed like a prophecy. Could it be that the master, like the Second Patriarch and the Lion-Roarer, knew his fate in advance? The Bodhisattva Never Disparaging would bow to everyone he met, saying, “You shall all become Buddhas.” Yet people chased him, beat him, and reviled him. Yuan Jingqian once said: In a certain country, there was a spring of madness. All who drank from it went mad. Only the king drew water from a well and remained sane. But the entire maddened nation, believing the king to be mad, seized him, bound him, burned and tortured him. Unable to endure the suffering, he finally drank from the spring and went mad. The people rejoiced, saying the king’s illness was cured, and only then did they release him.
Zibo regarded all people as Buddhas and felt compelled to liberate them. The people regarded Zibo as mad and felt compelled to destroy him. Alas, what is there to regret?
丁未正月上澣日會稽陶望齡敬題
Respectfully inscribed by Tao Wangling of Kuaiji on the first decade of the first month in the year of Dingwei.