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cannot become the mirror just by grinding your mind. What are you doing here? Just grinding your mind, and trying to make a mirror of it. The buddha is the mirror; the buddha simply reflects, he does not react. He is always empty like a mirror. Things come and go before the mirror, but they don't leave any trace on the mirror.
"WHAT MUST I DO THEN?" MA TZU ASKED.
NANGAKU 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?"
MA TZU REMAINED SILENT.
"IN LEARNING SITTING MEDITATION," RESUMED NANGAKU, "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" -- sometimes he stands up, sometimes he walks, and sometimes he sleeps also -- "IF THE LATTER, ZEN DOES NOT CONSIST IN SITTING OR LYING DOWN. THE DHARMA GOES ON FOREVER AND NEVER ABIDES IN ANYTHING."
It has no particular form, it has no particular place; it goes on moving into different forms. You will not be able to find it in any form, in any body, in any posture. You will have to look within. It is only found in the emptiness, because emptiness cannot sit, cannot stand up, cannot lie down. Emptiness is just emptiness; it is eternally empty. That is the only thing that is eternal -- your empty heart.
"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."
It is the majesty of Zen to say things directly, straightforwardly. No other religion has that courage.
Nangaku is saying to Ma Tzu, "TO SIT YOURSELF INTO BUDDHA" -- taking the buddha posture -- "IS TO KILL THE BUDDHA." Don't murder...
Before dying Gautam Buddha said to his disciples, "Don't make statues of me, because that will give a wrong impression to people. They will think that if you sit in this posture, you will become a buddha."
But who hears? Today there are more statues of Buddha than of anybody else. In fact, in languages like Arabic, Persian, Urdu -- because Mohammedans are against statues -- the word for statue
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