We can interpret the story of the Emperor who boasted of his accomplishments to Bodhidharma from two positions. From the causal position, the Emperor did in fact accumulate merit and virtue, because he performed worthy deeds. But Bodhidharma answered from the consequence position. He did this to shock the Emperor, to help him wake up from his attachment. He was trying to help the Emperor see into the emptiness of phenomena. He was trying to get the Emperor to realize that in any situation, the action, the agent of the action and the result of the action are all empty. Unfortunately, Bodhidharma's method didn't work on the Emperor.

The Emperor should not be condemned or cast in a disparaging light, because he was a dedicated Buddhist and a loyal supporter of the Sangha. He just wasn't receptive to the shockingly direct approach of Ch'an methods. His life and deeds were exemplary, however, and indeed he deserves praise. Historically, this exchange between Bodhidharma and the Emperor probably never took place. Nonetheless it is famous because of its relevance to the teachings of the Buddha.

This story has generated a lot of confusion through the centuries, so in order to help people, another story was invented to help clarify things. The story involves Master Pai-chang (720-814), who lived a few hundred years after Bodhidharma. After one of Pai-chang's talks, an old man in the audience lingered behind and said: "I am not really a human being, but in fact the spirit of a fox. In ancient times I was a monk. A student asked me if an enlightened person was still subject to cause and consequence. I told him that an enlightened person was not so bound. For this reason I have been reborn as a fox for five hundred lifetimes. Now I am asking you to enlighten me on this matter."

Pai-chang said, "An enlightened person is not ignorant of cause and consequence."

The old man became enlightened by these words. Happily, he prostrated to Pai-chang and said, 'Tomorrow, please go behind the mountain and perform a ceremony appropriate for a dead monk."