示本空禪人
Instructions for Benkong
適有僧問杖人：「某甲欲住山去時如何？」杖人以拄杖於地上畫一畫云：「會麼？」僧云：「不會。」杖人曰：「諸方火葬，我者裏活埋。」僧禮拜，杖人便打。僧云：「某甲話在。」杖人云：「你道看。」僧擬議，杖人復打云：「鈍漢！者一柄鋤頭也不解弄，住甚麼山？」即連棒打出。復有本空禪人持紙一幅求開示住山，杖人熟視久之，乃書此現成公案，示之曰：「你若向者一座山子裏會得，許你者裏作、者裏息、者裏喫、者裏屙；你若不會，不如向十字街頭討冷飯喫去，撞著一個半個也不見得；不然且向諸方叢林裏東拶西拶，或觸著磕著也不見得。會麼？咄！」
A monk once asked the Old Master, "I wish to go and live in the mountains. What do you think?" The Old Master drew a line on the ground with his staff and asked, "Do you understand?" The monk replied, "I don't understand." The Old Master said, "Elsewhere, people are cremated after death. Here, I bury people alive." The monk bowed, and the Old Master hit him. The monk said, "I still have something to say." The Old Master said, "Go ahead, say it." The monk hesitated. The Old Master hit him again and said, "You dullard! You can't even handle this hoe—what mountain do you think you can live on?" Then he drove him out with repeated strikes.
Later, a meditator named Benkong came with a sheet of paper and asked for instructions on living in the mountains. The Old Master looked at him for a long time, then wrote down this ready-made kōan and showed it to him, saying: "If you can understand it inside these very mountains, then you may stay here and act, rest here, eat here, and relieve yourself here. If you don't understand, you'd be better off going to a busy crossroads and begging for scraps of cold rice. You might just bump into someone or other. If not, then go to various monasteries and push and shove here and there—maybe you'll stumble into something. Do you understand? Hah!"