Thus I have heard. The ascetic Gōtama, not yet the enlightened Buddha, was meandering around the base of Mount Song. Because of his great facility with languages (he was said to have spoken all of them), he was able to learn, by word of mouth, of a great teacher who lived there.
The teacher's name, so it was said, was Master Wong San Wong. The teacher, so great and magnificent, had ensconced themselves in the cliffs to avoid receiving too many guests and, possibly, to be out of reach of the Chinese tax authorities.
With great effort, the Buddha had perservered into the cliffs, groaning with effort as he climbed up and up. But around halfway up, his sweating hands began to insecure on the smooth limestone, and he put his back to the it and let out an exasperated sigh. It was the kind of sigh that a man lets out few times in his life.
Meanwhile, the mountain was entirely indifferent to the Buddha or his effort. It was entirely indifferent to just about everything. Being a mountain, it had seen a lot.
But at this moment, the mountain appeared to tremble just a little. Gōtama thought he heard a voice.
"You people!"
He did hear a voice. It was Chinese, and it was coming from above.
"You people would climb into an elephant's ass if you thought you'd get fifteen percent of my income!"
"What?" called out Gōtama.
"You down there! In the orange! You heard me!"
The Buddha looked up. Much higher up, he could make out a small black dot perched over the edge of the cliff. Whoever was up there was lying down prone on the edge of the cliff.
"I do not mean harm," called out Gōtama, "I... think I may have taken a wrong turn somewhere..."
"Sir, I have not heard of the man you speak of, and I do not know where he lives. The clouds are beneath us now, so whether you must go up or down, I am not sure. Nevertheless you are approaching another fork in the trail. Should you walk towards the left, far enough, you will find yourself on the same side of the mountain as him. And once you are there, well, I have a simple formula for you: if you walk downwards and don't find him, then surely he must be the other way."
"This being a mountain," asked Gōtama, "going to the right ought to do me just as well?"
"Indeed, just as well, sir."
Gōtama sat down on his haunches.
"I will never find the master," he said.
"Oh," said the traveler, "I'm certain you will. I was just on my way home for dinner. Come, I'll make you some food, to prepare you for your search for Master Wong."
The traveler at that moment had drawn back her cowl and her long, silken hair had fallen onto her shoulders. To Gōtama, she looked beautiful, and he had to think very hard about why he was about to say yes to her.
"I'll take you up on that," said Gōtama, "but one more thing before I go with you."
"Yes?" said the traveler.
"I never said the name Wong."
"Indeed — you said it exactly right," she said.
Ma bu, also called the horse stance, is one of the most powerful stances, practiced by the ancient since before recorded history.
When Gōtama entered the hut, the woman quickly filled his bowl with rice and watched him eat.
"Whaf's fhat," said Gōtama, with his mouth full, pointing at something.
"That's my father," she said, "it's an old drawing I did of him."
"Why is ftanding wike that?"
"Oh," said the woman, "that is called the horse-riding stance. Have you really not heard?"
Gōtama shook his head.
"I see. In China, there is a great legend. They say that anyone who can stand like this for one hour will be instantly enlightened." She snapped her fingers as if to say, like that.
The woman stood up. "The feet must be parallel to each other, like this [she demonstrated], the thighs parallel to the floor [she sank down] and the back straight like a pine tree. The hips move forward so that the knees go well over the toes, and the hips round underneath the body. As for your hands, you can do whatever you want with them."
"Oh," she said, "most people think their backs are straight, but they aren't. It's good to get a second opinion." This last part somehow felt important to the story.
The ascetic Gōtama was intrigued.
"So did he manage?"
"He stood like that for many days, over many years. But horse stance is far from easy to master."
"Let me try," said Gōtama. He got up and assumed the horse stance. The woman gently placed her hands on his hips and nudged them forward.
"Spine straight," she said.
Gōtama held that position for some time before standing up.
"How long did I hold it for?" he asked.
"Twenty-six seconds," she said.