Deshan's White Staff

"A monk asked, "What's the essential meaning of Zen?"
Deshan replied, "You don't have Buddha nature."
The monk said, "What is sudden enlightenment?"
Deshan drew a circle in the ground with his staff.
The monk asked, "What is gradual enlightenment?"
Deshan poked the middle of the empty space three times with his staff."

Deshan would often ask a question and then say,
"If you speak you get three blows with my staff.
If you don't speak you get three blows with my staff."

Old Yantou later said to Linji,
"Deshan usually just relied on a white staff.
If the Buddha came he hit him with his staff.
If an ancestor came he hit him with his staff.
Why did he have so many students?
Before Linji could answer,
Yantou struck the floor with is staff.
Linji then let out a loud shout."

- Zen's Chinese Masters, 2000, p. 208, 199
Translated by Andy Ferguson

Many Zen masters used the staff as a teaching tool, and it was also a symbol of their enlightened wisdom and authority.