Chan Master Nanquan Puyuan (748–834 CE) was a respected disciple of Mazu Daoyi, one of the great figures in Tang Dynasty Chan Buddhism.
Minister Lu Geng asked Chan Master Nanquan: “At home I have a stone slab — sometimes I sit on it, sometimes lie on it. Can I carve it into a Buddha statue?”
Nanquan replied: “You can.”
Lu Geng pressed: “Or perhaps I cannot?”
Nanquan answered: “You cannot.”
Master Yunyan once said: “When sitting, it’s Buddha; not sitting, not Buddha.”
Master Dongshan countered: “When not sitting, it’s Buddha; sitting, not Buddha.”
Here you are right whether you believe you can or cann’t. When people say the Buddha is sitting or not sitting — both are true.
A stone is a stone; a Buddha is a Buddha.
Yet a stone is also Buddha; Buddha is also stone.
Ultimately, it’s all one mind.
Philosophical Notes:
Shattering Conceptual Fixations:
Nanquan’s contradictory answers (“can” / “cannot”) expose the futility of intellectualizing enlightenment. Like Yunyan’s and Dongshan’s opposing views, all dualities collapse in true Zen.
Stone as Buddha, Buddha as Stone:
The stone slab symbolizes:
Ordinary object >> Suchness before labeling.
Potential Buddha statue >> Mind’s power to transform perception.
Reality is neither “stone” nor “Buddha” — it’s the mind’s luminous emptiness.
“One Mind” as Ground of Reality:
The final line resolves all paradoxes: Phenomena are empty projections of mind. Sitting/not sitting, carving/not carving — all dissolve in one mind.
Chan Essence:
Nanquan’s dialogue embodies the Heart Sutra’s core:
“Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.”
Stone = form
Buddha = emptiness
Carve it or sit on it — the choice never touches its true nature.
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