Holding up with one hand, pressing down with the other

Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching #161: 608

When Yantou went to Deshan, as soon as he straddled the threshold he immediately asked, "Is this ordinary or holy?" Deshan immediately shouted. Yantou thereupon bowed. Later a monk cited this to Dongshan. Dongshan said, "If it hadn’t been Yantou, it would be very hard to get." When Yantou heard of this, he said, "The old fellow Dongshan doesn’t recognize good and bad; he misapplies labels. At that time I was holding up with one hand and pressing down with one hand."

Book of Serenity #22: Yantou's "Bow and Shout"

When Yantou came to Deshan, he straddled the threshold and asked, "Is this ordinary or is it holy?" Deshan immediately shouted. Yantou bowed. Dongshan heard of this and said, "Anyone but Yantou would hardly get it." Yantou said, "Old Dongshan doesn't know good and bad; at that time I was holding up with one hand and putting down with one hand."

The Measuring Tap Case 26, comments by Xuedou

Jingqing questions a monk Jingqing asked a monk, “How do you understand Zhaozhou’s ‘Go drink tea’?” (A bright pearl is not to be shot at a sparrow chick.) The monk immediately left. (He seems right, alright, but isn’t.) Jingqing said, “He imitates a useless walk in Handan.” (He upholds with one hand and pushes down with one hand.) Xuedou cited this and said, “This monk is not a man of Handan—why does he imitate a useless walk? (He helps the strong, not the weak.) If you can discern, I’ll drink tea with you.” (Happily there’s no connection.)

Recently I had done some digging on lacquer bucket, and someone was gracious enough to wiki the references. Here are 3 for holding up with one hand and pressing down with the other if anyone would care to add it, I'm mobile at the time.

Can anyone shine some light on what that expression means? Even with the references I'm not really understanding it.

Submitted May 23, 2020 at 11:04AM by NorthStarIV https://ift.tt/2ZuObbF