Emanation of Amitabha

During the Tang Dynasty, there was a Chan Master Fenggan. No one knew where he came from originally. He lived at Guoqing Temple on Mount Tiantai, his hair cropped to his eyebrows, always dressed in a plain cloth robe.

Whenever someone asked him about the Dharma, he had only two words in reply: "As you are." Once, singing a Daoist song, he rode a tiger right through the pine gate at the temple entrance. The monks who'd been lax in their practice were terrified at the sight.

In the Guoqing Temple kitchen, there were two men doing hard labor — Hanshan and Shide. Their job was to cook, but they spent the whole day chatting. Anyone who tried to eavesdrop couldn't make heads or tails of what they were saying, so people mockingly called them "the madmen." The two of them were close only to Master Fenggan and paid no mind to anyone else.

One day, Hanshan asked:

"If an ancient mirror is never polished, how can it reflect?"

Master Fenggan replied:

"An ice jug casts no image; a monkey reaches for the moon in the water."

"That's not reflecting. Please, Master, point the way further."

"If you bring not a single virtue, what is there for me to say?" On another day, Master Fenggan said to Hanshan and Shide:

"If you go with me to Mount Wutai, then you are of the same stream as I. If you do not go, then you are not of my stream."

They replied: "We're not going."

The Master said: "Then you're not of my stream."

Hanshan asked: "What are you going to Mount Wutai for?"

The Master said: "I'm going to pay homage to Manjusri Bodhisattva."

Hanshan said: "Then you're not of our stream."

Not long after, the Master set off alone on pilgrimage to Mount Wutai and encountered an old man. He asked:

"Could you be Manjusri Bodhisattva?"

The old man replied: "Could there possibly be two Manjusri Bodhisattvas?"

The Master immediately prostrated himself with the utmost devotion. Before he could rise, the old man had vanished. He then traveled extensively across the five peaks, and it was nearly two years before he returned south.

Around that time, an official named Luqiu Yin was about to take up his post in Taizhou. Just before departing, he was suddenly stricken with a headache that no medicine could cure. The Master went to visit him and said: "This poor monk has come specifically to call on you."

Luqiu described his affliction, whereupon the Master asked for a clean vase. He filled it with water, recited an incantation, and sprayed the water on Luqiu's head. The headache vanished instantly.

Deeply impressed and grateful, Luqiu begged the Master for a few words of guidance — something to shed light on the fortunes and dangers that might lie ahead.

"After you take office, be sure to visit Mount Tiantai and pay your respects to Manjusri and Samantabhadra Bodhisattvas."

"And where might these two bodhisattvas be found?"

"Hanshan and Shide, the two men in the kitchen of Guoqing Temple — they are the ones."

Luqiu eventually found his way to Guoqing Temple. He first asked the abbot about Master Fenggan's quarters. The abbot, Daoqiao, told him: "Master Fenggan's former rooms were behind the sutra library, but he has long since vanished without a trace."

"Then might I ask — are Hanshan and Shide still here?"

"They're working in the kitchen."

Luqiu went to Fenggan's room and found only tiger tracks. He asked the abbot: "What did Master Fenggan do when he was here?" Daoqiao replied: "He just pounded grain for the monks. In his free time, he'd sing and chant verses."

Finally, Luqiu entered the kitchen and found Hanshan and Shide gathered around the stove, laughing and talking. He prostrated himself before the two of them, but they immediately started shouting and scolding him.

The temple monks said in astonishment:

"My lord! Why bow to these two madmen?"

At that moment, Hanshan suddenly stepped forward, grabbed Luqiu's hand, and said with a laugh:

"You don't even recognize Amitabha standing right in front of you — so why bow to us? Fenggan really talks too much. Far too much."

From then on, Hanshan and Shide walked out the pine gate hand in hand and never returned to the temple.

Master Fenggan later passed away at Mount Tiantai. On the wall of his quarters, he left this verse:

"I have come to Tiantai — who knows how many thousands of times? This body, like cloud and water, wandering freely, going and coming at will. Roaming carefree, far from the noise; dropping all cunning, honoring the Buddha Way. The world's roads divide the heart; sentient beings are heavy with cares. Blankly sinking in the sea of suffering, drifting through the three realms. What a pity — this one spiritual essence, buried by circumstance since beginningless time. A flash of lightning — birth and death churn in the dust. Hanshan came especially to visit; Shide is rarely seen. Talking of the mind under the bright moon — the great void, vast and unobstructed. The Dharma Realm has no bounds; a single Dharma pervades all. Fundamentally not one thing exists, nor any dust to brush away. If you can truly understand this, there's no need to sit so blankly."