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These are a collection of anecdotes, as explained by Master Nan Huaijin, on the story of Immortal Lu Dongbin, who was enlightened at the words of Ch'an master Huanglong Huinan [1002-1069 http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110810105111250] of the Linji school, at his monastery on Lushan in Jiangxi province, in the early period of the Song Dynasty. All names in the cited books are in Wade-Giles. To Realize Enlightenment: Practice of the Cultivation Path by Nan Huaijin, trans. by J.C. Cleary, pg. 155-160: "...What people who have awakened to the Path by illuminating mind and seeing true nature attain is fundamental wisdom. But they do not necessarily have differentiating wisdom. They can see inherent nature. But to be able to function from inherent nature, and to be able to perfect all merits and achievements -- that is really not easy. In cultivation, if your aspiration is not as high as the dharmakaya, but you still want to attain health and long life, you must see to it that you go and study Lu Ch'un-yang's Hundred Word Inscription. Lu Ch'un-yang was enlightened through Zen. Later he obeyed the command of Zen master Huang-lung Nan, and served forever lifetime after lifetime as an outside protector of Buddhism. Lu Ch'un-yang failed to win success and fame through the official examinations. Later on he dreamed of ripe grain, and after he woke up, he left home. He cultivated Taoism, and was very famous in the period of the end of the T'ang and the Five Dynasties. He refined his energy-work to a very high level, and he could fly through the air. He wrote a famous two-line verse: There's a jewel in the field of elixir: stop seeking the Path Face objects without mind: don't ask about Zen. If people in general could reach this level, they wouldn't be talking about health and long life; they would be able to banish sickness and extend their lives forever without getting old. Of course the methods of cultivating practice contained in these two lines are very significant. One time, Lu Ch'un-yang, flew off holding a jeweled sword in his mouth, and crossed over Mount Lu in Kiangsi. This was the site of a big temple, the Zen School's Huang-lung Temple. As Lu Ch'un-yang was flying past high above, he saw the energy pattern on this mountain was unusual, and he knew there must be a man of lofty attainment there. Lu Ch'un-yang descended and saw that it was Huang-lung Temple. There was a man there lecturing on the sutras: this was Zen master Huang-lung Nan, a great worthy of the Lin-chi School of Zen. Lu Ch'un-yang stood off to one side looking on for quite a while. He felt it was very strange: this Zen master did not emit light or move the earth or show any other ability like that. He was an ordinary monk. How was it that so many people were listening to him then? The more he looked, the stranger it seemed, so he just stood there. Zen master Huang-lung Nan stopped expounding the Dharma and said: "In the audience there is someone spying on the Dharma." He knew there was someone there listening surreptitiously. Lu Ch'un-yang did not put up with this kind of talk, so he stood up. Huang-lung Nan asked him, who he was, and he told him his name. Huang-lung Nan said: "Oh! After all, it's you. I thought you were something special, but actually you are only a ghost guarding a corpse." (You can make this body live forever without getting old: you are holding onto it tightly.) As soon as Lu Ch'un-yang heard this, he got angry and said: " A real man can possess the medicine of ageless eternal life. What is this ordinary man's fleshly body of yours worth?" Huang-lung Nan replied: "Even if you can survive for eighty thousand eons, in the end you fall into empty annihilation." Lu Ch'un-yang was annoyed at this response, so he lifted his sleeves, and sent forth his flying sword, deliberately trying to frighten the old monk. He didn't know that the flying sword would stop in front of the old monk's face, then turn around, and fly back to threaten him. Lu was surprised and thought: "This monk is an ordinary man, isn't he? If he has no meditative attainments, why is it that my sword does not obey my command?" Later people studied this as a meditation case. Was it the spirits who protect the Dharma who deflected the flying sword? Or was it the power of Huang-lung Nan's transcendental wisdom? Or was there some other basic cause? Ultimately, what was the reason for this? Huang-lung Nan laughed and said to Lu: "You don't have to resort to these methods. A minute ago you said you have real ability, I ask you, what truth have you seen?" Lu Ch'un-yang said: "A single grain of millet contains the world. The mountains and rivers are cooking in a pan." This is a statement about the Path: he is talking about the truth he saw when he saw the Path. Huang-lung Nan said: "I'll not ask you how to cook the mountains and rivers. But how can a single grain of millet contain the world?" The two went on this way, bandying back and forth. Through the conversation, Lu Ch'un-yang finally became enlightened, and made a verse: I throw away the gourd and container and drop the shattered zither Right now I don't long for the gold in the mercury After once I saw Huang-lung I finally realized that I had always been using mind wrongly. At that time, for the Taoists to bring forth an enlightened person like Lu Ch'un-yang was like the Zen School producing a Sixth Patriarch. To find out how to cultivate health and long life, you should consult Lu Ch'un-yang's "The Hundred Word Inscription." This is one of the best products of the "Three Teachings," Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. It is also very good for studying Buddhism. The Hundred Word Inscription To nurture the vital energy, the ch'i, keep watch without words To subdue the mind, act without acting Recognize the patriarch in movement and stillness There is nothing to be concerned about: who else are you seeking? What's true and eternal must respond to beings To respond to beings you must not be deluded If you are not deluded, real nature remains by itself When real nature remains, vital energy returns by itself When vital energy returns, the elixir spontaneously forms In the vessel the fire [of prajna] and the water [of jnana] are matched Yin and yang are born in succession Universal transformation rolls like thunder Sweet dew sprinkles down on Sumeru Drink for yourself the wine of immortality As you roam free, no one will know, Sit and listen to the tune of the zither without strings Clearly comprehend the working of creation It's all in these twenty lines A true ladder straight to heaven. Nurturing the ch'i, the vital energy, the breath of life, is the true meditation work of cultivating the breath as it moves in and out that is part of the teaching of the ten forms of mindfulness. To say "subduing the mind" comes from The Diamond Sutra, which speaks of "subduing one's mind." As for "act without acting," if you deliberately subdue the mind you are attached to forms. But inherent nature is fundamentally empty, so it acts without acting. This tells us about seeing truth and meditation work. The two lines about movement and stillness put in the Bodhisattva Kuan-shih-yin's Dharma Gate of perfect penetration are: "The two forms, movement and stillness, are completely unborn." But if your not sunk in oblivion, or scattered in confusion, you yourself can be the master of movement and stillness and empty them out. Don't seek any other method. To deal with people and handle situations, you must be able not to go against your fundamental nature. Here in the fifth and sixth lines, the verse is talking about meditation work. You do not have to do any work: mind and energy are joined together, and mind and things have one single source. When thoughts have truly been emptied out, "vital energy returns by itself." You can spontaneously stop the energy channels, and reach the second and third dhyanas. Here in the verse, when he talks of elixir, it is not that there really is such a thing in the belly. The ancient Taoists described the elixir as like the moon, a round point within, to represent the point of perfect, inherently awake, spiritually illuminated, enlightened nature. The vessel represents the body, the transformative functioning of your own energy channels. You only have to manage to stop your energy channels, and they will spontaneously undergo a transformation. After this spontaneous samadhi has continued for a long time, "Universal transformation rolls like thunder." With a peel of thunder, all the energy channels in your body open. At this point, it is exactly as Chuang-tzu said: "You move back and forth with the spirit of heaven and earth." You are one body with the universe. A this point, the central channel is really open. "White clouds cover the peak in the morning." This at last is the true initiation, the true anointing, of the esoteric school. You are anointed with the light of the wisdom of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. In the verse Sumeru means your head. The great bliss chakra on the top of your head suddenly opens. At this point, you will certainly have eternal life without growing old. This is the supreme worldly dharma. "The tune of the zither without strings" stands for the Bodhisattva Kuan-shih-yin "entering samadhi by means of hearing, contemplating, and cultivating practice." Each of the twenty lines of the verse has five characteristics, making a hundred characters altogether, so the verse is called "The Hundred Word Inscription." These twenty lines recount the whole process of going from an ordinary person, through cultivating eternal ageless life, to the point of transcending the realm of ordinary people and entering the realm of the sages. Every line relates both to seeing truth and to meditation work. For example, at the beginning, everyone wants to attain samadhi. Why can't you do it? It is because you cannot accomplish what is indicated in the first line: "To nurture the vital energy, the ch'i, keep watch without words." Who can do the work of nurturing the vital energy to the point that there are no false thoughts at all? Thoughts are very numerous, and though you try to keep watch over them, you cannot hold them still. You are even less able to accomplish what is indicated in the second line: "To subdue the mind, act without acting." If you cannot do this, you can't even talk of what follows. When you sit meditating in stillness, you have a bit of a shadow of attainment, but as soon as you stop meditating, you have nothing at all. Fundamentally you have not been able to recognize the patriarch. It is very important to recognize the patriarch in both motion and stillness. Who can have stillness in his mind all day long without concerns? The spiritually illuminated enlightened nature is always present. The energy spontaneously returns: it does not call on us to work at it. The elixir forms forms by itself. It is something natural, something that is inherently present in our lives. You should not use a sectarian point of view when you look at this Hundred Word Inscription. Lu Ch'un-yang in addition to being a Taoist adept, was also a great Dharma protector of the Zen School, one of the disciples of Huang-lung Nan who truly attained to his Dharma. If you want health and long life, and proceed according to what he said, that will certainly be enough." Here's some other translations and commentaries on the "The Hundred Character Tablet" - http://www.scribd.com/doc/90588603/The-Hundred-Character-Tablet-Compare