Ling Xingpo visited Master Fubei Heshang to pay her respects. They sat together and drank tea, and she asked him, “If a true word can’t be spoken no matter how hard you try, how will you teach?”
Fubei said, “Fubei has nothing to say.”
Ling
was not satisfied. She placed her hands inside the opposite sleeves of
her robe and cried out: “There is grievous suffering even within a blue
sky!”
Again Fubei had nothing to say.
Ling said, “To be a human being is to live in calamity.” -- Hidden Lamp, page 260
The assertion that true Dharma cannot be conveyed by words goes way back.
"After
old man Shakyamuni had attained the Path in the land of Magadha, he
spent three weeks contemplating this matter: "The nature of all things
being quiescent extinction cannot be conveyed by words; I would
rather not preach the Dharma, but quickly enter nirvana." When he got to
this point, even Shakyamuni couldn't find any way to open his mouth.
But by virtue of his power of skill in technique, after he had preached
to the five mendicants, he went to three hundred and sixty assemblies
and expounded the teachings for his age. All these were just expedients.
For this reason he had taken off his bejewelled regal garments and put
on rough dirty clothing. He could not but turn towards the shallows
within the gate of the secondary meaning in order to lead in his various
disciples. If we had him face upwards and bring it all up at once,
there would hardly be anyone in the whole world (who could
understand)." -- The Blue Cliff Record, tr. T. Cleary and J. C. Cleary
Changqing
once said, “I would rather say that arhats have three types of poison
than say that the Tathāgata [Śākyamuni Buddha] has two kinds of
expression. It’s not that the Tathāgata has no expression. It is just
that he does not have two kinds of expression.”
Baofu Congzhan asked, “What is the Tathāgata’s expression?” Changqing asked, “How can a deaf person hear it?”
Baofu
said, “I knew you were speaking on a secondary level.” Changqing said,
“Then what is the Tathāgata’s expression?” Baofu said, “Have a cup of
tea.” -- Shingi Shobogenzo
"Whenever Chao Chou saw a monk, right away he would say, "Have you ever been here?" Whether the monk said he had or he hadn't, Chou would always say, "Go drink some tea." The temple overseer asked, "The teacher always asks monks if they've been here or not, then always says, 'Go drink some tea.' What is the meaning?" Chou said, "Overseer!" When the over seer responded, Chou said, "Go drink some tea."" -- The Blue Cliff Record, tr. T. Cleary and J. C. Cleary
In
some depictions of Manjushri, such as here from the Dunhuang Caves, he
has 1000 arms and hands, each one holding a begging bowl, and he is said
to be offering Buddha/Dharma to us, the Sangha, from each bowl. Us is
everyone; we are all the Sangha either in the past, the present, or the
future. It is said that the offer is good until we accept it, though we
resist for kalpas.
Wu
Cho, a traveling monk, visits Diamond Cave on Five Peak Mountain and
meets an old man there who offers him tea. The old man drinks from a
crystal bowl. He shows the bowl to Wu Cho and asks, "Do they have these
where you came from?" "No." "What!? How do they drink tea then?" Later,
Wu Cho realizes he has been drinking tea with Manjusri. (Blue Cliff Record)
Yunyan was boiling some tea. Daowu asked who he was making it for. Yunyan answered, "nobody special."
-- Soto Zen Ancestors in China, Mitchell, 72.
Chongxin of Mount Longtan was making rice cakes for a living. When he met Tianhuang, he bowed and left his household.
Tianhuang said, “Be my attendant. From now on I will teach you the essential dharma gate.”
After
one year passed Longtan said, “When I arrived, you said that you would
teach me the essential dharma gate. I haven’t received any of your
instruction yet.”
Tianhuang said, “I have been teaching you for a long time.”
Longtan said, “What have you been teaching me?”
Tianhuang said, “When you greet me, I join my palms. When I sit, you stand beside
me. When you bring tea, I receive it from you.”
Longtan was silent for a while.
Tianhuang said, “When you see it, you just see it. When you think about it, you miss
it.” Longtan then had great enlightenment. -- Shingi Shobogenzo
There is no getting out of the calamity. But Fubei's tea is probably pretty good stuff.
-- shonin