禅Nanyue Huairang

proverb

Polishing a Tile

Tang

Traditionally attributed

Text

I polished a tile in front of him until he asked what I was doing. I said: making a mirror. He laughed: a tile cannot be polished into a mirror. I said: nor can sitting be polished into a Buddha — if you are sitting in order to become one.

tr. Zen Lineage editorial

license: cc_by

Attribution

Lineage: Nanyue line

By Nanyue Huairang

Sources

  • contentOrdinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism

    Mario Poceski

No per-field confidence has been recorded for this teaching yet. Treat individual claims with the caution appropriate to the source list below.

Attribution status: traditional — see editorial policy for what this means.

1 supporting citation on record (see Sources above).

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