What are you doing?

Hui-neng’s successor, Master Nan-yüeh, came upon young Ma-tsu who had been ardently spending all his days sitting in meditation at a temple.

The master asked Ma-tsu, “What are you doing?” “I’m practicing meditation.” “Why?” asked the master. Said Ma-tsu, “I want to attain enlightenment; I aim to become a Buddha.” Master Nan-yüeh thereupon picked up a rough tile lying nearby and began to vigorously rub it against a rock. “What are you doing?” asked Ma-tsu. Said the master, “I want to make this tile into a mirror.” “How is it possible to make a tile into a mirror?” asked Ma-tsu. Retorted
Nan-yüeh: “How is it possible to become a Buddha by doing meditation?… If you keep the Buddha seated, this is murdering the Buddha.”

Modern-era Zen master Shunryu Suzuki clarifies: “We practice zazen meditation to naturally express True Nature, not to ‘attain enlightenment.’” And one of Zen master Sengai’s  famous cartoonish Zen paintings shows a smiling frog sitting on a lily pad, with the caption: “If by seated meditation one becomes a Buddha… [implication: then all frogs are Buddhas!”)