Ts'ui-Yen, thinking that he had already achieved something in Zen, left the Ts'u-Ming monastery as a very young monk and went to wander around China. When he visited the monastery many years later, his old teacher asked:
- Tell me, what is the essence of Buddhism?
Tsui-Yen replied:
— If the cloud does not hang over the mountain, the light of the moon plows the waves of the lake.
Zu-Ming looked angrily at his former student:
- You've aged. Your hair has turned grey, your teeth have thinned, and you still have this idea of Zen. How can you avoid birth and death?
Tears streamed down Tsui-Yen's face and he bowed his head low. A few minutes later he asked:
— Tell me, please, what is the essence of Buddhism?
— If the cloud does not hang over the mountain, the light of the moon plows the waves of the lake.
Before the teacher finished speaking, Tsui-Yen became enlightened.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru