In the early days of the Springs and Autumns period in China there lived a well-known wrestler named Da Po, Great Wave. He was immensely strong and knew the art of wrestling. In his private bouts he defeated even his teacher, but in public he was so bashful that his own students threw him. The wrestler felt he should go to a Chan master for help. Venerable Nan Dao-zi, a wandering master, was stopping in a little temple nearby, so Da Po went to see him and told him of his trouble. "Great Wave is your good name," the master advised, "so stay in this temple tonight imagining that you are that billow. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid. You are that huge wave sweeping everything before it, swallowing in all in its path. Do this and you will be the greatest wrestler in the land between the four seas." Saying so, the master retired.

No sooner said than done. Da Po sat in meditation trying to imagine himself as a huge wave. He thought of many different things. Then gradually he turned more and more to the feeling of the waves. As the night advanced the waves became larger and larger. They swept away the flowers in their vases. Even the statue of Buddha in the shrine was inundated. Before dawn the temple was nothing but the ebb and flow of an immense ocean. . .

In the morning the master found Da Po meditating in perfect bliss, a faint smile reflected on his face. He patted the wrestler's shoulder. "Now nothing can disturb you," he said. "You are that wave of your good name, my friend. You will sweep everything before you."

The same day Da Po entered the wrestling contests and won. After that, no one in all under heaven was able to defeat him.