The 10 Very Best Zen Stories: "My favorite Zen story is the one about the two monks. Younger is sitting in zazen. Elder inquires, “Why are you sitting in zazen?” Younger replies, “By sitting in zazen, I hope eventually to become a buddha.” Elder picks up a brick and begins rubbing it on a rock (I tend to imagine that he has tracked through a lot of carefully raked Zen sand and it rubbing the brick on one of those ancient black “growing” stones). Younger laughs, “And what are you doing?” Elder replies, “I am polishing this brick in hopes that eventually it will become a mirror.” The advanced story ends here, but for the rest of us it continues. Younger asks, “How can polishing a brick make a mirror?” Elder retorts, “How can sitting in zazen make a buddha!” And, true to the ancient formula, the younger monk instantly became a mirror."
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