Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron and Tin

　　金銀銅鐵錫

　　Doing the alternate sits and walks in the Chan Hall is the best training for your body and your mind. The Chan Hall is also called the Great Furnace. No matter what you are, be it gold, silver, bronze, iron or tin, once you are in the furnace, you will be smelted. It is also like a chemical laboratory where no matter which grade or type of metal you may be, you will be put to test and the true and false will be determined.

　　That is why when people who put up a false front or appearance are in the Chan Hall, they can last only five minutes before they cannot stand it anymore and want to leave. They cannot pass the test. Thus the Chan Hall is a testing place for our earnestness and sincerity. If one is earnest and sincere, one will bear the hardships; but if one is not sincere, one will not be able to forebear. We always have seven-day Chan sessions and it is here that we are panning for gold. Meditation is analogous to sieving the gold from the sand; the gold will remain, and the water will wash the sand away.

　　在禅堂裏跑跑坐坐，坐坐跑跑，這是鍛煉身心最好的方法。禅堂也叫大冶洪爐，你是金銀銅鐵錫，到這兒都要被化了；這也是一個化學的試驗所，無論你是金銀銅鐵錫，都要經過一番化驗，真假就能判斷出來，所以裝模做樣的修行人到禅堂，就只坐五分鍾，他也受不了想要跑，這就是經不起化驗。禅堂是試驗我們每一個人的真心，你要有真心，就是再苦也不會跑的；你要沒有真心，就覺得受不了了想要跑了。我們常常打禅七，也就是在這兒淘金，所謂沙裏澄金，是金子就會留下來，沙子就會被水沖走了。