The whole universe is an eye

A monk asked Master Xishan: “What is Bodhidharma’s purpose coming West?”
Xishan answered by raising his whisk. Dissatisfied, the monk sought Master Xuefeng.

Xuefeng: “Where do you come from?”
Monk: “Xishan (West Mountain) in Suzhou this summer.”
Xuefeng: “How is Master Xishan?”
Monk: “Well when I left.”
Xuefeng: “Why not stay with him?”
Monk: “He doesn’t understand Zen! When I asked about Bodhidharma, he just raised his whisk — no answer!”

Xuefeng probed:
“Have you seen Suzhou’s men and women?”
Monk: “Yes.”
“Roadside flowers and trees?”
Monk: “Yes.”
“Good! Seeing men/women, you know gender; seeing flora, you know names and uses. None ‘explained’ themselves — yet you understood. Right?”
Monk: “Right.”
Xuefeng thundered:
“Then when Xishan raised his whisk — why didn’t you understand?!”

The monk awakened, bowing hastily:
“I spoke rashly! I beg forgiveness — I’ll return to Xishan in repentance.”
Xuefeng declared:
“The whole universe is an eye! Where are you crouching?!”

Philosophical Notes

The Whisk as Thunderous Silence:

Xishan’s raised whisk was perfect teaching — rejected only because the monk craved words. Xuefeng exposed this by contrasting:

Flowers/genders >> Understood without explanation.

Whisk gesture >> Same principle: truth beyond language.

Chan Master Xishan crushed the monk’s hypocrisy: You decode the world daily without lectures — why demand them for Zen?

“The Universe is an Eye”:

Xuefeng’s final roar shattered the monk’s delusion:

“Eye” = All-pervading awareness; nothing escapes it.

“Crouching” = Hiding in conceptual shadows (“Why no verbal answer?”).