MA TSU TAO I (709–788)
Ma Tsu, “Ancestor Ma,” also called Great Master Ma, was one of the most illustrious Ch’an masters of all time, the teacher of one hundred and thirty-nine enlightened successors.
His teacher was Huai Jang of Nan Yueh, one of the foremost heirs of the Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng. The following is the account of Ma Tsu’s meeting with Huai Jang told in the Ching Te Ch’uan Teng Lu:)
During the K’ai Yuan era (713–741) an ascetic named Tao I was dwelling in the Ch’uan Fa Temple; all day he sat meditating. Huai Jang knew that he was a vessel of Dharma, and went to question him; “Great Worthy, what are you aiming at by sitting meditation?” Ma replied, “I aim to become a Buddha.” Jang then took a tile and began to rub it on a rock in front of the hermitage; Ma asked him what he was doing rubbing the tile. Jang said, “I am polishing it to make a mirror.” Ma said, “How can you make a mirror by polishing a tile?” Jang said, “Granted that rubbing a tile will not make a mirror, how can sitting meditation make a Buddha?” Ma asked, “Then what would be right?” Jang said, “It is like the case of an ox pulling a cart: if the cart does not go, would it be right to hit the cart, or would it be right to hit the ox?” Ma didn’t reply.
Jang went on to say, “Do you think you are practicing sitting meditation, or do you think you are practicing sitting Buddhahood? If you are practicing sitting meditation, meditation is not sitting or lying. If you are practicing sitting Buddhahood, ‘Buddha’ is not a fixed form. In the midst of transitory things, one should neither grasp nor reject. If you keep the Buddha seated, this is murdering the Buddha; if you cling to the form of sitting, this is not attaining its inner principle.”
Ma heard this teaching as if he was drinking ambrosia. He bowed and asked, “How shall I concentrate so as to merge with formless absorption?” Jang said, “Your study of the teaching of the mind ground is like planting seeds; my expounding the essence of reality may be likened to the moisture from the sky. Circumstances are meet for you, so you shall see the Way.” Ma also asked, “If the Way is not color or form, how can I see it?” Jang said, “The reality eye of the mind ground can see the Way. Formless absorption is also like this.” Ma asked, “Is there becoming and decay, or not?” Jang said, “If one sees the Way as becoming and decaying, compounding and scattering, that is not really seeing the Way. Listen to my verse:
> Mind ground contains various seeds;
When there is moisture, all of them sprout.
The flower of absorption has no form;
What decays and what becomes?
Ma heard this and his understanding was opened up. His heart and mind were transcendent. He served his master for ten years, day by day going deeper into the inner sanctum.
Quotes from the Blue Cliff Record
Ma Tsu’s lineage text is called “Sun Face Buddha”
chadpills notes:
Q: “It is like the case of an ox pulling a cart: if the cart does not go, would it be right to hit the cart, or would it be right to hit the ox?”
Still the mind and still the body? Why are you going around whipping wood and axle?
Better to find the ox’s rear, set the whole cart in motion with a single crack of the whip.
———
Here I sit, rubbing rocks, a thousand aeons, rub rub rub. At last it is the roundest rock, so round and smooth. It’s been so long, I almost forgot, what’s even the point, a rock so round and smooth?
Drop it at once, no rock, no hand. At last it is the roundest rock, bounces right off the moon, so smooth, so smooth.
Submitted June 16, 2019 at 10:10PM by chadpills http://bit.ly/2WOf5Lq
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