A Zen Koan for your rumination:
One day, Master Xiangyan was sweeping the ground. A pebble swept up by the broom struck a bamboo making a sound: tock! This sound caused him to become suddenly awakened. He hurriedly went home to bathe and burn incense. He traveled to pay obeisance to Guishan, who eulogized this, saying: “The great compassion of the monk has gone beyond mother and father. If I had explained this to you back then, how could this have happened now!”
There followed a gātha, which says:
One tock!—all knowledge forgotten.
What kind of sound was it?
In a twinkling, a broken tile
Transforms into gold.
Chinese text:
香巌禪師，一日芟除草木。偶拋瓦礫，擊竹作聲，忽然省悟。遽歸沐 浴焚香。
遙禮溈山贊云：
和尚大慈。恩逾父母。當時若為我說破。何有今日之事。
迺有頌曰：
一撃忘知
作什麼音
直以瓦礫
轉為黄金。
HyC