The following mondo are all
taken the book "Sayings of the Ancient Worthies", fas. I (Ku tsun-hsiu
yu-lu).], translated by D.T. Suzuki:
Someone asked Ma-tsu: "How does a
man discipline himself in the Tao?"
The master replied: "In the Tao
there is nothing to discipline oneself in. If there is any discipline in it, the
completion of such discipline means the destruction of the Tao. One then will
be like the Sravaka. But if there is no discipline whatever in the Tao, one remains
an ignoramus."
"By what kind of understanding does a man attain the
Tao?"
On this, the master gave the following sermon:
"The Tao
in its nature is from the first perfect and self-sufficient. When a man finds
himself unhalting in his management of the affairs of life good or bad, he is
known as one who is disciplined in the Tao. To shun evils and to become attached
to things good, to meditate on Emptiness and to enter into a state of samadhi--this
is doing something. If those who run after an outward object, they are the farthest
away [from the Tao].
Only let a man exhaust all his thinking and imagining
he can possibly have in the triple world. When even an iota of imagination is
left with him, this is his triple world and the source of birth and death in it.
When there is not a trace of imagination, he has removed all the source of birth
and death, he then holds the unparalleled treasure belonging to the Dharmaraja.
All the imagination harboured since the beginningless past by an ignorant being,
together with his falsehood, flattery, self-conceit, arrogance, and other evil
passions, are united in the body of One Essence, and all melt away.
"It
is said in the sutra that many elements combine themselves to make this body of
ours, and that the rising of the body merely means the rising together of all
these elements and the disappearance of the body means also merely that of the
elements. When the latter rise, they do not declare that they are now to rise;
when they disappear they do not declare that they are now to disappear.
So
with thoughts, one thought follows another without interruption, the preceding
one does not wait for the succeeding, each one is self-contained and quiescent.
This is called the Sagaramudra-samadhi, "Meditation of the Ocean-stamp",
in which are included all things, like the ocean where all the rivers however
different in size, etc., empty themselves. In this great ocean of one salt-water,
all the waters in it partake of one and the same taste. A man living in it diffuses
himself in all the streams pouring into it. A man bathing in the great ocean uses
all the waters emptied into it.
"The Sravaka is enlightened and yet going
astray; the ordinary man is out of the right path and yet in a way enlightened.
The Sravaka fails to perceive that Mind as it is in itself knows no stages, no
causation, no imaginations. Disciplining himself in the cause he has attained
the result and abides in the Samadhi of Emptiness itself for ever so many kalpas.
However enlightened in his way, the Sravaka is not at all on the right track.
From the point of view of the Bodhisattva, this is like suffering the torture
of hell. The Sravaka has buried himself in emptiness and does not know how to
get out of his quiet contemplation, for he has no insight into the Buddha-nature
itself.
If a man is of superior character and intelligence he will, under the
instruction of a wise director, at once see into the essence of the thing and
understand that this is not a matter of stages and processes. He has an instant
insight into his own Original Nature. So we read in the sutra that ordinary beings
change in their thoughts but the Sravaka knows no such changes [which means that
he never comes out of his meditation of absolute quietude].
"'Going astray'
stands against 'being enlightened'; but when there is primarily no going astray
there is no being enlightened either. All beings since the beginningless past
have never been outside the Dharma-essence itself; abiding for ever in the midst
of the Dharma-essence, they eat, they are clothed, they talk, they respond; all
the functioning of the six senses, all their doings are of the Dharma-essence
itself. When they fail to understand to go back to the Source they follow names,
pursue forms, allow confusing imaginations to rise, and cultivate all kinds of
karma. Let them once in one thought return to the Source and their entire being
will be of Buddha-mind.
"O monks, let each of you see into his own Mind.
Do not memorize what I tell you. However eloquently I may talk about all kinds
of things as innumerable as the sands of the Ganges, the Mind shows no increase;
even when no talk is possible, the Mind shows no decrease. You may talk ever so
much about it, and it is still your own Mind; you may not at all talk about it,
and it is just the same your own Mind. You may divide your body into so many forms,
and emitting rays of supernatural light perform the eighteen miracles, and yet
what you have gained is after all no more than your own dead ashes.
"The
dead ashes thoroughly wet have no vitality and are likened to the Sravaka's disciplining
himself in the cause in order to attain its result. The dead ashes not yet wet
are full of vitality and are likened to the Bodhisattva, whose life in the Tao
is pure and not at all dyed in evils. If I begin to talk about the various teachings
given out by the Tathagata, there will be no end however long through ages I may
go on. They are like an endless series of chains. But once you have an insight
into the Buddha-mind, nothing in Lore is left to you to attain.
"I have
kept you standing long enough, fare you well!"
P'ang the lay-disciple'
asked one day when Ma-tsu appeared in the pulpit: "Here is the Original Body
altogether unbedimmed! Raise your eyes to it!" Ma-tsu looked straight downward.
Said Fang, "How beautifully the master plays on the first-class stringless
lute!" The master looked straight up. P'ang made a bow, and the master returned
to his own room. Fang followed him and said, "A while ago you made a fool
of yourself, did you not?"
Someone asked: "What is the Buddha?"
"Mind
is the Buddha, and there's no other."
A monk asked: "Without resorting
to the four statements and an endless series of negations, can you tell me straightway
what is the idea of our Patriarch's coming from the West?"
The master
said: "I don't feel like answering it today. You go to the Western Hall and
ask Shih-tsang about it."
The monk went to the Western Hall and saw the
priest, who pointing at his head with a finger said, "My head aches today
and I am unable to explain it to you today. I advise you to go to Brother Hai."
[1.
Ho-koji in Japanese. He was one of the greatest disciples of Ma, and for further
quotations see my Essays on Zen, I, II, and III.]
The monk now called on Hai,
and Hai said: "As to that I do not understand."
The monk finally
returned to the master and told him about his adventure. Said the master: "Tsang's
head is black while Hai's is white."
A monk asked: "Why do you teach
that Mind is no other than Buddha?"
"In order to make a child stop
its crying."
"When the crying is stopped, what would you say?"
"Neither
Mind nor Buddha."
"What teaching would you give to him who is not
in these two groups?"
"I will say, 'It is not a something.'
"If
you unexpectedly interview a person who is in it what would you do?" finally,
asked the monk.
"I will let him realize the great Tao."
The master
asked Pai-chang, one of his chief disciples: How would you teach others?"
Pai-chang
raised his hossu.
The master remarked, "Is that all? No other way?"
Pai-chang
threw the hossu down.
A monk asked: "How does a man set himself in harmony
with the Tao?"
"I am already out of harmony."
Tan-yuan, one
of Ma-tsu's personal disciples, came back from his pilgrimage. When he saw the
master, he drew a circle on the floor and after making bows stood on it facing
the master. Said Ma-tsu: "So you wish to become a Buddha?"
The monk
said: "I do not know the art of putting my own eyes out of focus."
"I
am not your equal."
The monk had no answer.
One day in the first month
of the fourth year of Chen-yuan (788), while walking in the woods at Shih-men
Shan, Ma-tsu noticed a cave with a flat floor. He said to his attendant monk,
"My body subject to decomposition will return to earth here in the month
to come." On the fourth of the second month, he was indisposed as he predicted,
and after a bath he sat cross-legged and passed away.