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When Su Dongpo learned that Chan Master Foyin would ascend the high seat to deliver a discourse on the Dharma, he hurried there only to find all the seats taken. “This place has no seat for you, scholar,” the master said playfully.
Su Dongpo replied, “Then I will use the Chan master’s body of the four great elements and five aggregates as a seat.”
Master Foyin said, “Scholar! If you can answer one question, you can take this old monk’s body as your seat. But if you cannot, you will leave your jade belt at this temple as a memento.” Su Dongpo had always thought highly of himself, so he agreed. Then the master said, “The four great elements are fundamentally empty and the five aggregates have no substantial existence. May I ask, scholar, where then do you wish to sit?” Su Dongpo was unable to utter a word.
Because our physical bodies are temporary arrangements of the four great elements -- earth, water, fire, and air -- they have no real existence. How, then, can one use the body as a seat? Su Dongpo lost his jade belt to Chan Master Foyin at Jinshan Temple, where it remains to this day.