The Story
There was a Zen master named Mazu who used to sit in meditation all day long. One day his teacher Nanyue approached him and asked, "Great monk, what do you intend by doing meditation?" He meant to check up on his real motivations, since Mazu seemed the perfect Zen student - too perfect, in fact.
Mazu replied, "I am intending to be a Buddha."
At this, Nanyue picked up a brick lying on the ground and began to polish it.
Mazu stared at him and said, "What are you doing?"
Nanyue said calmly, "I am trying to make a mirror."
Mazu said, "How can you make a mirror by polishing a brick?"
Nanyue looked at him and replied, "How can you become a Buddha by doing meditation?"
The story ends with the student Mazu hearing the admonition and feeling as if he had tasted sweet nectar.
Zen Sickness
This is a classic Zen story, and one which epitomizes the attitude Zen has to its own practices and beliefs. Zen masters frequently turn the focus on Zen itself and how it can be taken the wrong way, which ends up making the student more bound and suffering: it is called Zen sickness.
The sickness is when the means for becoming more liberated in life become the end in themselves, and doing them thus makes one holier-than-thou.
In response to this, one of the pillars of Zen practice is doubt, the constant questioning of whether we are pursuing our path in a balanced way.
A famous Thai master of the last century, Ajahn Chaa, was known to say, in a similar chastisement to his students, that if sitting meditation made one enlightened, then there would be many enlightened chickens, who sit all day on their eggs. But, alas, there aren't (unless I just haven't encountered any.)
Teachings As Tools
The Buddha himself used the metaphor of the raft to refer to his teachings. He asked his disciples whether they would carry a raft on their heads once they got to the other side of a river. Of course not, they replied. So too with the teachings, he reminded them, they are just a skilful means to letting go of our excess baggage of difficulties and ego.
They are tools we use to unpack our mistaken preconceptions and ideas which cause us and others grief. But if we hold on to them as another set of beliefs, then they can separate ourselves from life rather than bring us closer.
That's what Nanyue was checking up on with Mazu: did he take the teachings and make another set of belief out of them, using them to escape life rather than become more engaged? Nanyue says later to Mazu, "If you understand Zen meditation, you will know that Zen is not about sitting meditation….If you practice sitting as a Buddha, you must kill Buddha."
This killing of the Buddha has gotten a lot of attention, but it can be boiled down to something very simple: get rid of all the ideas you have about what it means to be a Buddha, to be enlightened, to be a spiritual person. When you see those ideas coming up, kill them.
If we don't, we risk becoming like Mazu, which means venerating a certain practice or belief as the only true way and that is Zen sickness. There are as many ways as there are people, and even two people practicing the same path will experience and express their ways in life very differently.
Sometimes we think we must behave a certain way or appear special if we are practicing a spiritual path but this is simply wearing the teachings on our sleeves and not in our heart.
What Makes You Buddha
Nanyue is telling Mazu to trust himself more. That's why he picked up the brick and started polishing it. He was saying to him that he needed to rely on his own nature and ability to be a Buddha, than put all his belief in the practice of meditation. Meditation is necessary, sure, but if we think meditation will make us enlightened, then we need to listen to Nanyue more carefully. He points out that doing meditation to get enlightened is about as useful as polishing a brick to get a mirror.
Then why do we meditate, and why has meditation been taught throughout Buddhist history as an invaluable spiritual practice?
Meditation To Realise Our True Nature
Zen teaches that every sentient being is naturally enlightened, but we remain ignorant of this fact by so much of our conditioning and beliefs. Meditation, and other spiritual practices, then, are not so much about making us enlightened, as of realizing our true nature of being enlightened.
The Zen approach is that of deep trust in our own inherent enlightened nature, which will shine forth when given the opportunity. The practice of meditation is one of those opportunities we can offer ourselves.
The Indian sage Krishnamurti said that enlightenment happens by accident, but meditation makes us more accident prone.
The beauty of this teaching is not only are we naturally enlightened, and on a path to bloom from ignorance awakening to that fact, but so are all others. Such an awareness allows compassion to flower when we recognize that the reason others act selfishly and do harm is because they are not aware of their true natures, and pursue harmful notions about what will give them happiness and pleasure.
Even sitting meditation with a selfish intention can cause harm, if we use it as an escape, like Mazu may have done. But in the end Mazu teaches us the right approach to having our mistakes pointed out: the criticism Nanyue gave him tasted like sweet nectar. What an enlightened attitude to criticism!