Nanyue Huairang

Nanyue Huairang was a student of the Sixth Patriarch Dajian Huineng and the founding ancestor of the Nanyue branch of Chan, from which the Linji (Rinzai) school and its many sublineages descend. He settled on Mount Nanyue (South Peak), where he trained a small number of exceptional students. His most important student was Mazu Daoyi, who would become one of the most influential Chan masters in history.

The most celebrated episode in Nanyue's teaching career is his encounter with Mazu, who was practicing intensive sitting meditation. Nanyue picked up a tile and began polishing it outside Mazu's hut. When Mazu asked what he was doing, Nanyue said, "I am polishing this tile to make a mirror." Mazu asked, "How can polishing a tile make a mirror?" Nanyue replied, "How can sitting in meditation make a Buddha?" This exchange shattered Mazu's attachment to the form of practice and pointed him toward the living essence beneath all technique. It remains one of the most important teaching stories in the Chan tradition.