“A bodhi-druma is in itself an illusion.

Even more phantasmal are a cleaned mirror and its lucidity!”

So the level of awakening gained by Master Shenxiu, as couched in the language of his gatha, is evidently much, much lower than that laid plain in Hui Neng’s gatha, when viewed from the perspective of the core tenets of the Chan Order. When the progress made by a practitioner in his self-cultivation brings him to attain such a level of awakening, as is on a par with the level attained by Hui Neng as is evinced demonstrated by his gatha, then “a current of Buddha-nature will be circulating in his body all day long”. And even his minutest thought or slightest corporeal movement is spontaneously in concord with the tenets of Chan which have become ingrained in his psyche. In that case he would be reckoned as having become the Chan incarnate. When he practices wushu, his every pugilistic movement would be a manifestation of the spirit of the Chan Faith.(From My Heart My Buddha)