Get Out

One day, Chan master Huanglong Huinan asked a student monk standing beside him:

If I were to condense hundreds of samadhis and countless Dharma gates into a single sentence and speak it to you, would you still believe it?

How could I dare not believe the Master's sincere words!

Huanglong pointed to the left and said:

Come over here!

Just as the student was about to go over, Huanglong suddenly snapped:

Chasing after sounds and colors—when will it ever end? Get out!

Another student monk heard of this and immediately went in. Huanglong asked him the same question, and he too answered:

How could I dare not believe!

Master Huanglong then pointed to the right and said:

Come over here!

This student monk held his ground and would not go to the right. Huanglong rebuked him once more:

You come to me seeking closeness, yet you refuse to listen to my words. Get out!

When a Chan practitioner has not realized the Way, neither this nor that will do. When the Way is realized, the great earth and mountains, everything is the Dharma. In Chan, when you have a staff, I give you a staff; when you have no staff, I take your staff away. When told to go this way, this way is wrong; when told to go that way, that way is also wrong. Not this side, not that side—still one must "get out," only because the student hasn't reached his heart. If the student had gone to the left, then to the right, and then stood his ground, I wonder what further move Master Huanglong would have made.