A monk once asked his master: “With what man of realization should one be intimate to obtain everlasting hearing even before hearing a thing?” The master replied: “Both are under the same quilt.” The monk asked: “This is what the Venerable Master can hear, but what is everlasting hearing even before a thing is heard?” The master replied: “It is different from a sound of a piece of wood blow and a mass of fallen rock crash.” The monk asked: “Which one is before or after the other?” The master asked back: “Have you not read the saying about hearing before a thing is heard?”