From: The Roaring Stream

Edited by Foster and Shoemaker

One day the Prince Governor of [the] Prefecture came with
the royal princes and scholars to visit the temple. Remaining
seated, the Master inquired, “Great Prince, have you
understanding of this? The Prince replied, “No, I cannot
grasp it.”

The Master said, “Since my youth I have kept a vegetarian
diet and my body is already aged. Even if I see people, I have
no strength to descend from the Ch’an seat.”

The Prince felt great admiration for the Master. The next
day he sent a general to the Master with a message, and the
Master came down from the seat in order to receive him.

Afterwards the Master’s attendant said, “Master, you did
not come down from the Ch’an seat even when you saw the
great Prince coming to visit you. Why did you descend from
it for the general who came to see you today?” The Master
replied, “My etiquette is not your etiquette. When a
superior class of man comes, I deal with him from the Ch’an
seat; when a middle grade of man comes, I get down to deal
with him; and for the dealings with men of low grade, I step
outside the temple gate….”

Someone asked, “Master, will you enter into Hell?”
The Master said, “[I’ll be] the first to enter it.”
The man said, “Why should a great and good Ch’an master
enter Hell? The Master said, “Who would transform you
through the teaching if I had not entered it?”

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