During the Leung Dynasty (464-549 A.D.), Buddhism was the most popular religion in China as Emperor Wu highly believed in Buddhism. Many temples were being built around the country and a lot of the people became monk and practiced Buddhism.
At that moment, Bodhidharma – the Patriarch of Zen – came to the country from India. When Emperor Wu knew Bodhidharma was coming, he informed Tung Lam Temple, one of the biggest temples, to entertain him. The day that Bodhidharma came to the Temple, all the monks living in the Temple were gathered and waited for this special guest in the front door.
When Bodhidharma arrived, all the monks were shock as they look at Bodhidharma’s dirty clothes and realized he had no shoes. Bodhidharma’s poor appearance was not respected by the monks.
When The Master of the Temple invited Bodhidharma to give a lesson, Bodhidharma took a look at the Buddhist Bibles that the Master prepared and then closed all of them. He smiled, meditated for a little while and stepped down from the lecture stage. None of the monks understood what Bodhidharma did.
Since then, every monk in Tung Lam Temple looked down on Bodhidharma while no one would talk to him.
Days passed and examination period began for the senior monks. This examination consisted of meditating for 3 days and 3 nights while no one could say a word.
Four senior monks got into the meditation room to do this examination, and Bodhidharma followed them into the room and observed the examination. In the last night of the examination, the wind was blowing very strong outside which blew one of the windows open and blew off the candle lights.
Monk A shouted, “The candle lights are blew off.”
Monk B tried to stop A by saying, “Why are you shouting?”
Monk C tried to stop B and said, “No one is allowed to talk during meditation.”
Monk D was very happy and said, “Luckily, I did not talk.”
These four monks covered their mouths when they found they failed the examination.
At this moment, Bodhidharma opened his eyes and took out a ceramic dish and polishing it on the table.
Monk A asked Bodhidharma, “What are you doing?”
Bodhidharma answered, “I am polishing the dish until it turns into a mirror.”
Monk B said, “Dish never can turn into mirror like this!”
Bodhidharma replied, “True. Same idea, meditation will never make you enlightened.”
Monk C thought about his analogy and asked, “So, how can we can get enlightened?”
Bidhidharma said, “Enlightenment requires you to go back to your foundation. You need to start from your heart. It is the first place for your thoughts and activities. If you don’t understand this basic step, you are wasting your time in practicing Buddhism.”
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