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I love this story, and what I hear in it is freedom from the illusions of context and conditioning. Rest.

This is the version I'd been more familiar with:

Fundamentally no wisdom-tree exists,
Nor the stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is empty from the beginning,
Where can the dust alight -Hui Neng

Which seems to pair nicely with other poems:

In spring, hundreds of flowers,
In summer, refreshing breeze.
In autumn, harvest moon,
In winter, snowflakes accompany you.
If useless things do not hang in your mind,
Every season is a good season.
- Mumon (1183-1260)

Sky has no preferences but doesn't deny nor reify the weather. :)
More and more I seem to read these as with a foundation at bottom and the Rest unfolding and illuminating upwards/outwards. Lotus like.

As in:

May all beings attain happiness and the causes of happiness;
May they be freed of suffering and the causes of suffering;
May they never be separated from bliss that is without suffering;
May they rest in Equanimity, free from attachment, hate, and aversion.

RESTing in Equanimity free from attachment, hate, and aversion... one has never been separated from the bliss that is without suffering, or freedom from the causes/context/conditioning of suffering, so naturally happiness (which I see as 'being available for others') overflows.

It isn't getting something or doing something, ie polishing the mind mirror or showing outward signs. Virtues naturally outflow from Rest/ Buddha Nature. Stopping is acknowledgement. Go the root and nevermind the branches.

Let go of what has passed
Let go of what may come
Let go of what is happening now
Don’t try to figure anything out
Don’t try to make anything happen
Relax, right now, and rest    (not after you figure everything out and make things happen. Rest first)
-Tilopa's Advice to Naropa