父命修习外道

咸丰三年公父测其报出世意。遂请外道术师教其在家炼吐纳术。免其日后出家。但公生具择法眼。不乐于此。盖外道与佛教大有背道而驰。隔靴搔痒。公天生纯孝。父命不违。姑权迁就而已。
　

宣化偈曰：
三千旁门逞绝技。九六外道显玄妙。
谁知公具择法眼。是非邪正立划焉。

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.