Fuyan Zen Temple--China

When Nanyue first saw Mazu, he recognized him by
intuition as a vessel of the dharma.
He visited Mazu in his cell where he was meditating,
and asked him: "In practicing sitting meditation, what
does your reverence aspire to attain?"
"To attain buddhahood" was Mazu's reply.
Nanyue then took up a piece of brick and began to
grind it against a rock in front of Mazu's cell. Mazu
asked, "What are you grinding it for?"
"I want to grind it into a mirror," responded Nanyue.
Amused, Mazu said, "How can you hope to grind a
piece of brick into a mirror?"
Nanyue retorted, "Since a piece of brick cannot be
ground into a mirror, how then can you sit yourself
into a buddha?"
"What must I do then?" Mazu asked.
Nanyue replied, "Take the case of an ox-cart: if the
cart does not move, do you whip the cart or do you
whip the ox?"
Mazu remained silent.
"In learning sitting meditation," resumed Nanyue, "do
you aspire to imitate the sitting Buddha or do you
aspire to learn the sitting Zen? If the former, the
Buddha has no fixed postures. If the latter, Zen does
not consist in sitting or lying down.
"The dharma goes on forever and never abides in
anything. You must not, therefore, be attached to, nor
abandon, any particular phase of it. To sit yourself
into Buddha is to kill the Buddha. To be attached to
the sitting posture is to fail to comprehend the
essential principle."

Fuyan Temple

Hengshan, Hunan Province, China.

This is one of the Zen temples on the
famous Hengshan mountains,
sometimes called Nanyue mountain.
Fuyan means "Happy Cliff". Zen
master Nanyue Huairong and his
disciple Mazu lived here.