The practice of mind-sitting

One day, a student visited Zen Master Nam-Ak Huai-Yang. He was tall, had bright eyes and asked for permission to practice under the Zen Master’s guidance. As Huai-Yang granted it, the young monk retreated into a hut, where he practiced ceaselessly, day and night.

As Zen Master Huai-Yang heard of this, he wanted to check of which kind the disciple’s practice was. So, one afternoon, he went to the monk’s hut, where he found him sitting. He shouted: "Disciple! What for do you sit day and night?" The student replied: "To become Buddha". Thereupon, the Zen Master fetched a stone and a roof tile, settled down next to the monk’s cell and started to grind the roof tile with the stone. When the noise had become unbearable, the disciple called: "Zen Master! What for do you incessantly rub the stone against the roof tile?", and Huai-Yang answered: "I want to make a bright mirror."

There, the student laughed: "That’s utterly impossible! How can you make a mirror that way?" Abruptly, Nam-Ak Huai-Yang scolded the disciple: "And how can you become a Buddha only by sitting?" The student, who was highly spiritually gifted, immediately perceived that the Master’s gesture was only an expedient in order to enlighten him. So he stood up, bowed in front of Huai-Yang and said: "Please, teach me on the mistake of my practice!"

Nam-Ak Huai-Yang said: "When the horse doesn’s want to pull the cart, do you whip the horse or the cart?" The student replied: "Who would be so foolish to whip the cart then?". Thereon, the Master expounded: "So it is. The cart stands for your body, the horse is the symbol of your mind. If you want to become a Buddha, you should strive to cultivate your mind." The disciple vowed to practice like this from now on. Later, he attained great enlightenment and became well known all over as the eighth Patriarch Ma-Jo Do-Il.

The Ven. Zen Master Seong Do commented:
Long sitting is a good thing. Yet you should not separately make an effort to sit very comfortably or silently with your body. Instead, you should try to attain an unmoving mind. Holding your Koan, you should constantly try to see your mind and thus control it. This is true practice.
This is the practice of mind-sitting.