When Jōshu was sweeping the courtyard, a monk asked him, “How does a speck of dust come into this holy ground?” To this Jōshu answered, “Here comes another!” On another occasion, when the master was found again sweeping the ground, Liu, minister of state, paid a visit to the temple, and said to the master-gardener, “How is it that a great wise man like you has to sweep off the dust?” “It comes from the outside,”[f140][7.12] replied Jōshu. When Nansen was working out-doors with his monks,[7.13] Jōshu who was told to watch over a fire suddenly cried out, “Fire! Fire!” The alarm made all the monks rush back to the dormitory hall. Seeing this, Jōshu closed the gate and declared, “If you could say a word, the doors would be opened.” The monks did not know what to say. Nansen, the master, however, threw the key into the hall through a window. Thereupon, Jōshu flung open the gate. While working on the farm a monk happened to cut an earth-worm in twain with his spade whereupon he asked the master Chōsa (Chang-sha Ch‘ên), “The earth-worm is[7.14] cut in twain and both parts are still wriggling: in which of them is the Buddha-nature present?” The master said, “Have no illusion!” But the monk insisted, “I cannot help this wriggling, sir.” “Don’t you see that fire and air elements have not yet been dispersed?” When Shiko (Tzŭ-hu) and Shōkō (Shêng-kuang)[7.15] were out gardening, a similar thing happened, and Shōkō asked the master concerning the real life of the earthworm. Without answering him, the master took up the rake, first struck the one end of the worm, then the other, and finally the space between the two. He then threw down the rake and went away. One day Ōbaku was weeding with a hoe, and seeing Rinzai without one asked, “How is it that you do not carry any hoe?” Answered Rinzai, “Somebody has carried it away, sir.” Thereupon, Ōbaku told him to come forward as he wanted to discuss the matter with him. Rinzai stepped forward. Said Ōbaku, lifting his hoe, “Only this, but all the world’s unable to hold it up.” Rinzai took the hoe away from the master, and lifted it up, saying, “How is it that it is now in my own hands?” Ōbaku remarked, “Here is a man doing a great piece of work to-day!” He then returned to his own room.[7.16] Another day, observing Rinzai resting on a hoe, Ōbaku said to him, “Are you tired?” Rinzai replied, “I have not even lifted my hoe, and how should I be tired?” Ōbaku then struck him, who, however, snatching the stick away from the master, pushed him down. Ōbaku called out to the Yino (_karmadāna_) to help him up from the ground. The Yino responded to the call and helped up the master, saying, “Why do you permit this crazy fellow’s rudeness?” As soon as the master was again on his feet, he struck the Yino. Rinzai then began to dig the earth and made this announcement, “In other places they cremate, but here you will all be buried alive.”[7.17]