Zen Master Daoshu built a Buddhist monastery next to a Taoist temple. The Taoists could not tolerate its existence and conjured evil spirits to frighten away the Buddhist monks. The strong wind, heavy rain and scaring lightening did frighten lots of young Buddhist novices away, but none of them worked on Zen Master Daoshu, who remained in the monastery for over ten years. In the end, the magic of the Taoists was exhausted but Zen Master Daoshu was still there. The Taoists had no choice but to move.
Someone asked Zen Master Daoshu afterwards: “Those Taoists had strong magic, so how could you beat them?
The Zen master answered: “I had no advantage over them. I think for my victory, the only answer is ‘no’. ”
“How could “no” beat them?”
Zen Master Daoshu said: “Magic, that’s what they were having. ‘Having’ means having limits, having ends, having volumes and having boundaries. I had no magic. “No” means no limit, no end, no volume and no boundary. The relation between “having” and “no” implies that no change is the best way for changes. In that case, no change could definitely beat the changes.
Xing’en concluded that the Taoists had magic, so they would have annoyance and would want to use what they had to realize their goals by all means. But they didn’t know that “having” was the source of annoyance. They made use of what they had, but gained nothing in return. This was why they had annoyance, anger, as well as feelings of frustration and failure. As a result, they failed. While the Zen master had no distractions in his mind. No matter how the world was changed by crashes or earthquakes, he did not change anything. This was the real Buddha’s warrior. So living in the world, you should have a broad mind but no conspiracy so that you can put down all the matters as you like. No pleasure when making progress, no sorrow when stepping back, no worries, then prajna, the highest wisdom, will appear.
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