Layman Pang stayed with Master Ma Zu until he discovered one day that he had no
more to learn from him, either. On that particular occasion, Pang approached Ma Zu and,
standing over him, said, "An enlightened fellow asks you to look up:' Ma Zu deliberately
looked straight down. Layman Pang sighed, "How beautifully you play the stringless
lute!"
At this point, Ma Zu had confirmed that there was no difference between human
beings, that they were truly one and the same individual. As Pang had looked down, Ma
Zu would look down. There was no one else to look up. But then, unaccountably, Ma Zu
looked straight up and broke the spell, so to speak. So Layman Pang bowed low and
remained in that obeisance of finality as Ma Zu rose and began to walk away. As the Master brushed past him, the Layman whispered, "Bungled it, didn't you... trying to be clever."
Layman Pang had attained mastery and every master he encountered acknowledged
this. But what is evident to a master is not always evident to an ordinary monk. One winter
day, while Pang was leaving the monastery of Master Yao Shan, some young monks, who
were disdainful of his status as a mere layman, accompanied him to the front door. When
Pang looked outside, he saw that it was snowing. "Good snow!" he said. "The flakes do
not fall elsewhere " A monk named Quan, who was as impudent as he was stupid, completely missed the wit in Pang's remark. He mocked the Layman, asking sarcastically,
"Where did you expect the flakes to fall?"
Now, Pang was good naturedly complimenting the snow for not falling in the kitchen
or the meditation hall, that is to say, for falling where snow was supposed to fall- in the
courtyard and fields, on the trees and roads. Pang knew that he would have to walk a long
distance in that bitterly cold snow, and he had accepted that fact without distress.
But Pang not only had the wisdom of a master, he had the temper, too. When he saw
the sneer on the young monk's face, he struck him.
"How dare you!" said the monk "And you're an ordained monk?" asked Pang incredulously. "Why, you'd be rejected
at Hell's gates!"
"Just what do you mean by that?" demanded the monk.
Pang struck him again. "I mean that though you have eyes, ears and tongue, you're
absolutely blind, deaf, and dumb." Then he calmly went out into the snow as if it were just
so much sunshine. He had given the monk quite a lesson.
But usually he was extremely kind and patient with those he instructed.
