When Zen Master Xiujing of Huayan Monastery was studying with Master Dongshan, he said, "I still cannot see the essential path; I still can't become free of discriminating consciousness."

Dongshan said, "Do you think there is such a path?"

Huayan said, "No, I do not think there is such a path."

Dongshan said, "Where did you acquire your discriminating thinking?"

Huayan said, "I am asking in all seriousness."

Dongshan said, "Go to a place where there is no blade of grass for a myriad li."

Huayan said, "How can I go to a place where there is no blade of grass for a myriad li?"

Dongshan said, "Go directly, right now."

(Case 199 from The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Three Hundred Koans by John Daido Loori and Kazuaki Tanahashi)

Zen Master Shishuang hid from the world. He lived in obscurity in Liuyang as a potter's assistant. In the morning, he would go to work, and in the evening, he world return home. No one knew him to be an adept. Master Dongshan sent a monk to find him.

Shishuang asked him, "What does Dongshan say to provide instruction to his disciples?"

The monk said, "At the end of the summer ango, he said to the monks, 'The fall has begun and the summer has ended. If you brethren go traveling, you must go to a place where there is no blade of grass for a myriad li.' After a long pause, Dongshan said, 'How can one go to a place where is no blade of grass for a myriad li?' "

Shishuang said, "Did anyone respond or not?"

The monk said, "No."

Shishuang said, "Why didn't someone say, 'Going out the door, there's nothing but grass?' "

The monk went back and relayed what Shishuang said to Dongshan.

Dongshan said, "This is the talk of wonderful knowledge appropriate for an abbot of fifteen hundred people."

(adapted from Zen's Chinese Heritage, by Andy Ferguson)