Ma Zu was rather displeased, and said:

Ma Zu laughed and said:

"I am grinding the brick to make a mirror."

Ma Zu was vexed by the noise. He opened his eyes to find that it was his own master grinding a brick. He asked:

"If a brick cannot be ground into a mirror,"replied Huai Rang, "then can you become a Buddha by sitting in deep meditation?"

In the Tang Dynasty, there was a Guanyin (Avalokitesvara) Temple on the Southern Mountain of Hengshan. The temple was stately and solemn, with incense smoke curling all around.

"Master, what are you doing?"

One day, the eminent Monk Huai Rang of the Chan sect strolled into the temple hall and saw Monk Ma Zu sitting calm and upright on a rush cushion, with his palms put together and his eyes closed in deep meditation.

"What do you mean?"

Huai Rang replied:

Huai Rang explained:

"Can a brick be ground into a mirror?"

Knowing that Ma Zu aspired to become a Buddha, Huai Rang smiled to himself. He picked up a brick at random, squatted on his heels and began to grind it noisily.

At this moment, Huai Rang said to him seriously:

Ma Zu hummed and hawed but couldn't answer.

"You learn to sit in meditation in order to become a Buddha. In fact, it relies on wisdom and comprehension of the mind to become one, not at all on sitting.

"For example, an ox pulls a cart, but the cart doesn't move. Now, you say, should you whip the ox or push the cart?"

"As for a Buddha, he has no fixed appearance, so the mind cannot fix on any single object. If you try to learn Buddhism by sitting in meditation, that would amount to throttling a Buddha. If you obstinately dwell on external appearance, you will never comprehend the real Buddhist doctrine."