[Editor's note: The commentary below, for the second verse, was given by the Venerable Master.]

Another verse says:  
Three sentences, six sentences, not a single sentence:
He summoned, dismissed, and summoned the assembly again.
What is it? What is it? Break false attachments.
Good indeed! Good indeed! You're returned to the origin.
Why didn't you speak earlier? The time wasn't right.
When conditions ripened, he held nothing back.
Patriarchs past and present are truly busy,
Never shirking toil, suffering, or trouble.

Commentary:
Did I recite anything wrong? [Answer: No.] I didn't make any mistakes? In the past, I often "recited The Hundred Surnames [a children's text] at the door of sages," and now, I'm still "wielding an ax at the door of Lu Ban [a master carpenter]." [This phrase means to show off in front of experts]. All the people here are sages, so I'm always reciting The Hundred Surnames to them; today, Lu Ban has arrived, and so I'm showing off my ax before him, and I might chop someone up accidentally.

Three sentences, six sentences, not a single sentence. Master Bai-zhang had said, "Having heard three sentences, you must go and reflect." One explanation is that he was telling you to go and try to understand it. Another way to explain is that "Go and reflect" means being empty; sweeping everything away. "Within six sentences, you must seek insight"; you must understand it on your own. In other words, "The speaker of Dharma has no Dharma to speak; that is what is meant by speaking Dharma." So he spoke, but "What Dharma did he speak? There was nothing to say. He didn't say any-thing at all. Master Yao-shan had not truly recognized Dhyana Master Bai-zhang at that point, so he kept asking, "What else did he say? Did he say anything else?" Dhyana Master Yun-yan replied, "Sometimes Master Bai-zhang would ascend to his seat and beckon everyone to gather. Then he would take his cane and wave it, as if to say, "Go away! Leave!" After all the people had gone, following his instructions, he summoned them again, "Come back! Come back!" They all returned upon being called back What would you say was going on? He called everyone over, then dismissed them, then called them back. What was the point? There was no point at all.  

When Master Yao-shan heard that, he thought, "Ah! That crazy guy's Dharma is not bad! He's right on!" So he said, "So it is, so it is! Why didn't you tell me earlier? You should have said that from the start." He scolded Master Yun-yan roundly, and then said, "Because of what you said today, I now recognize my brother, (Bai-zhang) Huai-hai. He has truly attained the Way. He's a real lunatic."  

Do you understand that? A real lunatic has no attachments. If you have no attachments, you have nothing at all. Look at the Living Buddha of Gold Mountain. Today we heard my old fellow cultivator tell about how he often ate paramita. If you saw the Living Buddha, he would certainly give you some to eat. What is the paramita like? It was made of his phlegm and spit, and some trash, all mixed together. That's what he called paramita. If you wanted to bow to him as your teacher, you'd have to first eat some paramita. He would cough up some phlegm, spit some saliva, and get some snot and eye mucus, and mix it up to make paramita, which he then served to people. This was in Wuhan. Why don't you tell everyone about it? There are some great stories about the Living Buddha of Gold Mountain, whose picture is hanging on our wall.

Upasaka Zhi-can: The Master wants me to speak. There used to be a Living Buddha at Gold Mountain. His name was Miao-shan, meaning "wonderful and good." He left the home life at Gold Mountain in his early twenties. He went from Zhenjiang to Wuhan, where he lived for quite a few years. Many Buddhists and laypeople in Wuhan wanted to take refuge with him, but he would not accept disciples. Everyone held him in the highest esteem, and in actuality he was quite remarkable. In terms of appearance, however, he wore disheveled clothes and tattered shoes, just like Venerable Ji, who wore the same set of clothes all year round.

There were a dozen or so important and wealthy laypeople in Wuhan who wished to bow to the Living Buddha as their teacher, so they tried to find a way to do so. What method did they use? They invited him for a meal. Where did they go? There was a vegetarian restaurant in Wuhan called Cai Gen Xiang (Aromatic Vegetable Roots) in a three-story building. They reserved two adjoining tables on the second floor and ordered food for both tables. They took down the ornamental screen and seated Venerable Miao-shan in the middle. Then they locked the door so no one could go in or out. Halfway through the meal, everyone got on his knees and pleaded, "We have a request. We ask that the Teacher accept disciples. You must accept us."

In the past, people had tried to bow to him as their teacher, but he had adamantly refused to accept disciples. And so that day, the laypeople said, "Today you cannot refuse to accept us. You cannot leave this place, and we shall kneel here and not get up." He took a look at them. They refused to get up, and there was nothing he could do. Then he thought of a way. He said, "There is one condition for those who want to be my disciples." Being wealthy, these people immediately said, "Sure, sure, we can meet any condition." The Living Buddha said, "I just have one condition, and no more." "Fine, we will certainly do as you say," they promised.

The Living Buddha stood up and spat some phlegm and saliva onto his hands, which he rubbed, and then rolled the mixture into a ball on the floor. Of course the floor was not that dirty, but it wasn't a pretty sight. He rolled it into a ball and ate it, and then said, "You saw me eat it, right. This is paramita. It tastes better than all the food on the table. If you want to be my disciples, you have to open your mouth. And that's not all; I'm going to spit a mouthful of paramita into your mouth." He didn't pick up the mixture from the floor with his hands or with a pair of chopsticks. He put his own mouth next to yours and spat into yours, and then you still couldn't close your mouth, because he had to check to make sure you swallowed it. He said, "You can't close your eyes. You have to keep looking at me."

That was a real challenge. Some of the dozen or so people who had been kneeling voluntarily got up. Only one man named Xia, who was originally from Ci-xi in Zhe-jiang Province and was doing business in Wuhan, kept his eyes wide open and gazed at his Teacher. His Teacher put his mouth next to this man's and spat, and the man swallowed. Then his Teacher said, "Open your mouth and let me check" He wanted to see if the man had hidden the ball of spit under his tongue, but no, he hadn't. Then he told the man, "Ah! You are now my disciple." There were a few others who were unable to swallow the ball of spit once it was in their mouths, and spat it out again. So, in Wuhan, the Living Buddha accepted only one disciple named Xia, whom everyone later called Bodhisattva Xia. The disciple of the Living Buddha must be a Bodhisattva!  

~ To be continued