The Sun Is Round

The Red-Haired Barbarian
with the bulging blue eyes
faced a wall at Shaolin for 9 years straight.
One day as snow fell outside,
a raven croaked its hollow bell-like rawk --
& Bodhidharma laughed & got up from meditating
 to start a little fire & boil water for his tea.

Lohan Hoshang of Shōshu, China, wrote the following account of his experience of Sudden Enlightenment in the 9th century:

It was in the seventh year of Hsien-tung [867 A.D.] that I for the first time took up the study of the Tao [Zen].
Wherever I went I met words and did not understand them.
A lump of doubt inside the mind was like a willow-basket.
For three years, residing in the woods by the stream, I was altogether unhappy.
When unexpectedly I happened to meet the Dharmarāja [Zen Master] sitting on the rug,
I advanced towards him earnestly asking him to dissolve my doubt.
The master rose from the rug on which he sat deeply absorbed in meditation;
He then baring his arm gave me a blow with his fist on my chest.
This all of a sudden exploded my lump of doubt completely to pieces.
Raising my head I for the first time perceived that the sun was round.
Since then I have been the happiest man in the world, with no fears, no worries;
Day in day out, I pass my time in a most lively way.
Only I notice my inside filled with a sense of fullness and satisfaction;
I do not go out any longer, hither and thither, with my begging bowl for food.