Fachang asked Mazu, “What is the
Buddha?”
Mazu told him, “The mind just as
it is is the Buddha.”
The statement was sufficient to
bring Fachang to awakening.
Fachang secluded himself in a
straw-roofed hermitage on Damei—or Plum—Mountain.
When Fachang had been living in
the mountains for many years, Mazu became curious about how his practice was
progressing. He sent a student to seek
out Fachang and ask him why he was living in isolation.
“My Master, Mazu, told me that
this very mind, just as it is, is Buddha.
And for that reason I’ve made my dwelling here in these mountains.”
“But our master no longer
teaches that,” the student said. “Now he
says, ‘no mind, no Buddha’.”
“Mazu is a senile old dotard who
enjoys bewildering others,” Fachang replied. “He can say whatever he wishes,
but I still say this very mind is Buddha.”
When the student returned to
Mazu and reported Fachang’s disrespectful comment, Mazu was unoffended, noting,
“The plum, indeed, is ripe.”
Damei
Fachang – Zen Masters of China:
148-50
No comments:
Post a Comment