A young man wanting to find truth goes to see a famous guru. “Master, can you teach me meditation and truth?” he asks.

The guru agrees, and the disciple immediately assumes the lotus posture, closing his eyes and breathing rhythmically to show what he knows. The master doesn’t say anything but picks up two stones from the ground and starts rubbing them against each other. Hearing the strange noise, the disciple opens his eyes and asks, “Master, what are you doing?”

The guru answers “I am rubbing these stones against each other to polish them into a mirror so I can look at myself.”

The disciple laughs,“But master, if you don’t mind my telling you: you’ll never be able to make a mirror of these stones by rubbing them against each other. You can do that forever, and it won’t work.”

“Similarly, my friend,” the master says, “you can sit like that forever, but you’ll never be meditating or understanding truth.”

(as told by Jiddu Krishnamurti)