Trying to ask about Chan (Zen) meditation, seeking endlessly, often ends up in vain old age. Grinding bricks to make a mirror, piling snow as food, many young people have been deluded for years. A hair swallowing the great sea, a mustard seed containing Sumeru Mountain—the golden-robed Arhat smiles gently. When enlightenment is attained, one transcends the ten stages and three vehicles; yet if deluded, one remains trapped in the four births and six paths. Who listens to it—the cry of the cuckoo at dawn beneath the tree without shade, on the precipice beyond thought? The road to Caoxi is perilous; the clouds over Zhuliu Peak are deep. Here, the voice of an old friend has long been lost. A thousand-foot icy cliff, five-petaled lotus blooming; in the ancient hall, the curtain hangs and incense curls. At that time, when one recognizes the source and stream, one will see the Three Treasures of the Dragon King. This piece of poetry is titled "Su Wu Man." The story now turns to the Buddha Sakyamuni, who having bid farewell to the Jade Emperor, returned to the Temple of Thunder Voice. But there, the Three Thousand Buddhas, Five Hundred Arhats, Eight Great Vajras, and countless Bodhisattvas were all holding parasols, banners, precious canopies, rare treasures, and immortal flowers, arranged one after another beneath the twin Sala trees of the spiritual realm of Mount Lingshan to welcome him. The Buddha rode on auspicious clouds and said to the assembly: "With my profound Prajna wisdom, I have surveyed all three realms thoroughly. Their fundamental nature is ultimately quiescent and extinguished. They are identical to the voidness of space, possessing nothing at all. To subdue and pacify this disobedient monkey is a matter beyond recognition. This is the beginning of birth and death, and thus are the Dharma characteristics." After saying this, he emitted the light of relics; filling the sky were forty-two white rainbows connecting north and south. The assembly saw this and bo
