父命修習外道

咸豐三年公父測其報出世意。遂請外道術師教其在家煉吐納術。免其日後出家。但公生具擇法眼。不樂於此。蓋外道與佛教大有背道而馳。隔靴搔癢。公天生純孝。父命不違。姑權遷就而已。
　

宣化偈曰：
三千旁門逞絕技。九六外道顯玄妙。
誰知公具擇法眼。是非邪正立劃焉。

Being ordered by his father to practice other religions

In the third year of the Hsien Feng reign period (1854), when the Master was fourteen, his father, hoping to prevent him from leaving the home-life, engaged a Taoist sorcerer to tutor him at home in the devices of alchemy, exhalation and inhalation. From that time on, he was prevented from leaving the home-life. However, the Master's innate Selective Dharma Eye would not let him be content with this situation. He saw that the externalist teaching was inferior to Buddhism's great renunciation and wished no part of it. He thought the externalist teaching was about as effective as scratching an itch through one's boot. But the Master was sincerely filial and didn't disobey his father's commands. He remained tolerant and compromising.

The verse says:
Three thousand extraneous doors reveal their special skills.
Ninety-six other religions display their wonderful metaphysics.
Who would have guessed that the Master had the Selective Dharma Eye,
And so could distinguish clearly right from wrong, improper from correct.