Asanga, the learned sage, his heart set on realizing the inner wisdom, meditated in retreat for many years. The object of his meditation was Champa (Maitreya), the Buddha of the future who resides in the Tushita heaven awaiting his descent to earth. Asanga was patient in his endeavors, but even he, after many years of earnest meditation, was beginning to be frustrated by his attempts to attain the wisdom he desired.
One day, while taking a walk outside of his cave, Asanga noticed some birds landing on a nearby overhanging rock. Where the birds' wings brushed the rock as they landed, Asanga noticed a deep crevice had been worn in the rock. Asanga reflected on the countless number of years it must have taken for the soft brushing of birds' wings to make such a deep indentation.
On returning to his cave, Asanga, his senses sharpened by deep meditation, heard the soft drip of water over stone. On closer examination he found a small rivulet of water running down the rock face; over the years the gentle dripping of the water had cut a deep pathway into the rock.
"If birds' wings and water can cut into the rock," Asanga thought, "Then so can I, through meditation, cut through the layers of mind and so attain wisdom." So, Asanga continued to meditate, but still without result. It seemed the more earnestly he sought wisdom and the more passionately he tried to invoke Champa, the more impossible it became. Asanga left his cave to search for food, and he came upon a man rubbing a stout iron bar with a piece of cotton. Asanga inquired of the man what he was doing, and the man replied that he was making a needle. Asanga was amazed that the man should consider it possible to make a needle by rubbing soft cotton over a thick iron bar, and when he said as much, the man replied, "If a man is really determined to do something, he will not meet with failure, even if the task is seemingly impossible."
Asanga found renewed strength, believing his task no harder than that of the man making the needle, and returned to his cave inspired to continue with his meditation. After he had been meditating for twelve years, still without result, Asanga finally decided to leave his retreat and give up his meditation on Champa, for Champa would not appear to him, even after so many years of trying.
Upon leaving his retreat Asanga came upon a dog mad with pain from a wound in its side which was infested with worms. Asanga felt great compassion for the dog and wished to relieve its suffering, but knew that if he removed the worms from the dogs side, then they would surely die for lack of food. Asanga decided to remove the worms, and place them on his own flesh so that they could continue to live. Just as Asanga reached out to remove the worms, he held back. "If I remove them with my fingers," he thought, " then I may crush them." So, closing his eyes, Asanga leaned forward to lick the worms from the wound on the dogs side. Just as his tongue touched the dog, it disappeared, and in its place, bathed in a pool of brilliant light, appeared Champa, the future buddha.
Overcome with emotion, Asanga spoke to Champa: "For so many years and in so many ways I have tried to see you. Why now - now that my thirst is gone, do you appear before me?"
Champa replied: "It is only now, through your great act of compassion, that your mind is pure and therefore able to see me. In truth I have been here all the time."
Then Champa instructed Asanga to carry him on his back into the city so that other people might see him. This Asanga did, but the people, their minds clouded by impure thoughts, could not see Champa, and they thought Asanga was mad when he cried that he had Champa on his back. One old woman who looked and saw a puppy on Asanga's back was immediately endowed with riches. A poor porter caught a glimpse of Champa's toes, and from that moment onwards attained power and tranquility of mind.
Champa then took Asanga to the Tushita heaven, and there he was able to receive the teaching and gain the insight that had eluded him for so many years.
