Song Jiang Receives Zen Instruction at Mount Wutai; Yan Qing Meets an Old Friend at Shuanglin Town

There is a poem: Han Yu once went to visit the eminent monk Dadian, And Su Dongpo visited the Zen master of Yuquan. Monks set out from White Horse Temple, And Buddhist scriptures reached the Central Plains in the Chiwu era of the Three Kingdoms. Leaves swayed lightly in the wind, Like lotuses born amid fierce fire. When the mind holds no distracting thoughts, the original heart is clean as a bright mirror— This is the Buddha who has attained the right fruit. Now to tell the story: Elder Zhizhen of Mount Wutai was a living Buddha of the Song dynasty, able to know the past and the future. Several years earlier he had known that Lu Zhishen was a man who would in the end see through life and death and attain the right fruit, but that his worldly bonds were not yet finished and that he still had to settle his debts of killing. That was why he had been sent out into the world for this journey. Lu Zhishen himself had a good foundation, and in his heart there still remained the thought of seeking the Way, and so now he wished to come and see his master. Song Jiang was by......