Polishing a Brick to Make a Mirror

One day, seeing Mazu Daoyi (later a renowned Chan master) sitting rigidly in meditation for hours, his teacher Huairang decided to challenge him.

Huairang:”You sit here all day—what are you striving for?”
Mazu:”To attain Buddhahood.”

Huairang picked up a brick and began grinding it against a stone near Mazu.
Mazu:”Master, why are you polishing that brick?”
Huairang:”To make a mirror.”
Mazu:”How can a brick become a mirror?”
Huairang:”If grinding a brick cannot make a mirror, how can sitting in meditation make you a Buddha?”
Mazu:”Then how does one attain Buddhahood?”
Huairang:”It’s like driving a cart. If the cart stops, do you whip the cart or the ox?”

Mazu fell silent.
Huairang continued:”Are you learning to sit in meditation or to sit as a Buddha? If the former, Chan is not confined to sitting. If the latter, Buddha has no fixed form. Clinging to impermanent forms is delusion. To ‘sit as a Buddha’ is to kill Buddha; to cling to posture is to betray the Dao.”

Awakened by Huairang’s teaching, Mazu followed him for ten years. After parting, Mazu became abbot of a monastery in Jiangxi Province. Among Huairang’s six closest disciples, only Mazu received the true “transmission of the mind.”

Cultural & Philosophical Notes:

• Metaphor of the Brick: Symbolizes the futility of rigid ritual without inner awakening—a core Chan critique of superficial practice.
• Cart and Ox Analogy: Highlights the need to address the root cause (the “ox” of the mind) rather than external forms (the “cart” of ritual).
• Formless Buddha: Reflects the Chan emphasis on realizing one’s inherent Buddha-nature beyond physical or doctrinal constraints.
• Transmission of the Mind: The direct, wordless passing of enlightenment from master to disciple, central to Chan lineage.