A wrestler named O-Nami, great wave, was immensely strong and highly skilled in the art of wrestling. In private he beat his teacher but in competition he would loose even to his own students.
He decided to visit the Zen Master Tao to ask for advice, who lived in a nearby temple by the sea.
"Great wave is your name," said the Master, "so stay in the temple tonight and listen to the waves of the sea, imagine you are those waves, forget you are a wrestler and become those huge waves sweeping everything before them."
O-Nami remained. He tried to think only of the waves, but he thought of many things. Then gradually he did think only of the waves. They rolled larger and larger as the night wore on.
They swept away the flowers in the vase before the Buddha, they swept away the vases. Even the bronze Buddha was swept away. By dawn the temple was only surging water, and O-Nami sat there with a faint smile on his face.
That day he entered the public wrestling tournament and won every bout, and from that day on, no one in Japan every threw him down again.