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When Su Dongpo wrote to Chan Master Foyin to express his intention to visit, he noted that when Lord Zhao visited Chan Master Zhaozhou, Lord Zhao did not compel the master to come out to welcome him. Nevertheless, as Su Dongpo approached the monastery gate, there was Master Foyin coming to meet him. Seizing the chance to poke fun at the master, Su Dongpo said, “Your cultivation is not so carefree as Master Zhaozhou’s. I instructed you not to come out, but you just couldn’t forget the social conventions.”
The master responded with this verse: “It was not modesty that kept Master Zhaozhou in his room that day when Lord Zhao came. How can his case be likened to the boundless form of Mount Jin, the great universe, a Chan bed?”
Master Foyin meant it was Zhaozhou’s pride that kept him in bed when Lord Zhao arrived, not great cultivation. Though I, Foyin, came out to receive you, you must not think that I have really gotten out of bed. My Chan bed is the great universe. Hence, while I seemed to rise from my bed to receive you, I am, in fact, still lying asleep on the great Chan bed. You, Su Dongpo, know only the bed whose form can be seen with the eye. But my vaster bed pervades all space and the dharma realms.