Ma Tzu The Empty Mirror ~ 03

event type	discourse & meditation
date & time	18 Sep 1988 pm
location	Gautam the Buddha Auditorium, Pune
language	English
audio	Available, duration 1h 26min. Quality: good. Osho leading meditation from 1:02:56. 10 minutes of live music after the discourse.
online audio	free download from OshoWorld purchase from Osho.com
video	Available, duration 1h 30min. Quality: good.
online video
see also	timeline : Osho Timeline 1988 first edition : Ma Tzu: The Empty Mirror (1989) other editions, translations and links
online text	find the PDF of this discourse
shorttitle	MATZU03

notes

synopsis: Reader of the sutra: Ma Prem Maneesha. Questions are being read by Osho himself.
After discourse Osho leads No-Mind Meditation.

The sutra

One day, when Ma Tzu was on his way home from Chiang-si, he stopped to visit his old master, Nangaku. When Ma Tzu had burned incense and made bows to Nangaku, Nangaku gave him this verse:

"I advise you not to go home.

If you do, the Tao is immovable.

And an old woman

Next door to you

Will talk of your infant name."

Ma Tzu respectfully accepted it and swore to himself never to go home, however often he might be reborn. Staying only in Chiang-si, he had disciples come to him from all parts of China.

One day a monk called Ta-mei joined a training assembly of Ma Tzu. Ta-mei asked the master: "What is Buddha?"

Ma Tzu replied: "It is the present mind."

On hearing this, Ta-mei attained his full enlightenment. He took himself off into the mountains, and over the years hardly noticed the passing of time; he only saw the mountains around him turn green or yellow.

One day, Ma Tzu sent a monk especially to test him. The monk asked Ta-mei, "When you once saw Ma Tzu, by what word did you become enlightened?"

Ta-mei replied, "By Ma Tzu's saying, 'The present mind is the Buddha.'"

"Now his way is another," the monk told Ta-mei.

"What is it then?" asked Ta-mei.

"Ma Tzu now says that this very mind which is Buddha is neither mind nor Buddha," replied the monk.

"That old fellow!" said Ta-mei. "When will he cease to confuse the minds of men? Let him go on with his 'neither mind nor Buddha.' I will stick to 'this present mind itself is Buddha.'"

When the messenger told Ma Tzu of this exchange, Ma Tzu commented: "The fruit of a plum has ripened."

Question 1

Our beloved master, how amazing it would be if you turned up one evening in Gautam the Buddha auditorium, and all you could see was a vast hall of empty mirrors, or rows and rows of juicy, ripe plums.

Do you really think it's possible? Is anything happening? Or better: Is nothing happening?

(source:CD-ROM)