Hermit of Lotus Peak (BCR25)

KOAN:

The hermit of Lotus Peak held up their staff, saying to the group gathered around,
“When the ancestors reached here, why didn’t they decide to stay here?”
Everyone was silent, so the hermit answered herself,
“Because it has no power for the Path.”
Then she asked, “In the end, how is it?”
She answered her own question again, “I put my staff across my shoulders and set off
without a backward glance, going straight into the endless mountains.”

—Blue Cliff Record Case 25 (transl. by John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland)