I am reminded of a story about Bodhidharma... :
Bodhidharma sat for nine years staring at a wall. This was his meditation. When disciples would come to him for guidance, he would simply tell them to sit and gaze at the wall. After a few hours, many would leave; what to do ...? Simply sitting and gazing at a wall?
But those who stayed on and trusted the Master attained to the highest peaks that have been available to humanity. And the whole of Zen stands on Bodhidharma's ideology.
There is a small Zen story:
A Zen Master was becoming old and announced he was looking for somebody to whom he could pass on the monastery, and who would take care of the mission. He said he would choose the disciple who would submit the best poem showing his understanding of Buddhism. Everybody thought for sure that the chief monk Shen-hsui would be chosen. So they did not even try to compete. But Shen-hsui was not so sure of his understanding. He wrote an anonymous poem on the walls of the Master's quarters. It went like this:
The Bodhi Tree is the body The mind is a shining mirror Make sure that you wipe it And let no dust stick to it
The next morning, when the Master read the poem he asked his disciples to burn incense before it and said that whoever practiced what was in the poem would realize their true nature. Shen-hsiu told him in private that it was he who had written the poem. The Master said, 'Your understanding is not yet perfect.'
The morning after that, another poem appeared beside Shen-hsiu's poem:
There never was a Bodhi tree. There is no bright mirror. Nothing exists. So where is the dust to stick to it?
- Becoming one -
The Master knew that only Hui-neng, one of the junior most monks could have written it. He rubbed out the poem with his shoe and secretly called Hui-neng to his room. The Master told him to take care of everything after his death and told him to run away to the mountains and stay there until the monks got over their hurt feelings and were ready to receive Hui-neng's teachings publicly.
Hui-neng did so and went on to become one of the greatest Zen Masters ever.
Understand: I am not there and you are not there. There is only a great emptiness that is. It is this emptiness you have forgotten and it is this emptiness you are here to remember.
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