路遇禅修苦修道

公以修寺。急于募化。乃下山行至和木树。遇一僧修路。礼不答。晚对坐。次晨作饭。公为烧火。饭熟。不招呼。取钵食毕。僧荷锄。公负箕。同修路。十余日未造一语。相安同处止兴皆如是。

宣化偈曰：

粗荦数百路难行。楚僧禅修愿地平。
苦行数十永不退。高矣休哉叹奇逢。

Meeting Dharma Master Ch'an Hsiu¹⁶ who cultivated austerities

The Master immediately went to raise the money required to repair the broken-down temple. As he descended the mountain, upon reaching Ho Mu tree, he met a monk who was repairing the road. The Master bowed, but the monk did not respond. In the evening, they sat facing each other, and the next morning, the monk cooked some rice while the Master stoked the fire. When it was ready, the monk did not tell him to eat, but the Master did so anyway. The monk then shouldered his hoe and the Master carried the basket. They worked together in that way for more than ten days without exchanging a single word. Thus, in mutual harmony, they toiled and rested together.

The gatha says:
Rough and craggy for several hundred miles, the road was hard to travel.
The monk Ch'an Hsiu vowed to make it passable,
So he bitterly toiled for several decades, and never once retreated.
Eminent indeed was Hsiu! The Master sighed at this strange encounter.

16. "Ch'an Cultivation"