Ma Tzu The Empty Mirror ~ 04

From The Sannyas Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
event type discourse & meditation
date & time 19 Sep 1988 pm
location Gautam the Buddha Auditorium, Pune
language English
audio Available, duration 1h 10min. Quality: good.
Osho leading meditation from 50:18.
Live music after the discourse.
online audio
video Available, duration 1h 14min. Quality: good.
online video
see also
online text find the PDF of this discourse
shorttitle MATZU04
notes
synopsis
Reader of the sutras: Ma Prem Maneesha. Questions are being read by Osho himself.
After discourse Osho leads No-Mind Meditation.
The sutras
One day, as Hyakujo was visiting his master, Ma Tzu, a flock of wild geese flew overhead. Ma Tzu asked, "What are they?"
"They are wild geese, sir," said Hyakujo.
"Where are they?" asked the master.
"They have flown away, sir," replied Hyakujo.
Ma Tzu suddenly took hold of Hyakujo's nose and twisted it. Overcome with pain, Hyakujo cried out. Ma Tzu said, "You say they have flown away, but all the same they have been here from the very beginning."
At that moment, Hyakujo attained enlightenment.
The next day, at a regular assembly, Ma Tzu had hardly sat down when Hyakujo came to roll up his mat, which made the master descend from the platform. Hyakujo followed him into his room.
Ma Tzu said, "Just now, before I had begun my sermon, what made you roll up my mat?"
Hyakujo said, "Yesterday your reverence twisted my nose and I felt acute pain."
"Where did you apply your mind yesterday?" Ma Tzu asked.
All that the disciple said was, "I feel no more pain in the nose today."
Thereupon the master commented, "You have profoundly understood yesterday's episode."
On another occasion, as soon as Ma Tzu sat down on the zazen bench as usual, he spat.
A monk asked, "Why did you spit?"
Ma tzu said, "When I sat here, there were mountains, rivers, and the whole natural universe in front of me. I spat because I didn't like that."
The monk said, "But the universe is so splendid! Why don't you like that?"
Ma tzu replied, "It may be splendid to you, but it is disgusting to me."
The monk continued, "What kind of mental state is this?"
Ma tzu said, "This is the state of a bodhisattva."


Question 1
Our beloved master, the story about Ma Tzu spitting brought home to me how everything you do and say seems to be only for your disciples' sake.
You relate to such a diverse bunch of us -- from dancing plums to hot potatoes, from German stoneheads to laughing sardarjis -- and yet you are never other than yourself, just like water that takes the shape of whatever container it flows into and yet doesn't lose its essential nature.
Is it that when you are nobody, you can be anybody?


(source:CD-ROM)


Previous event Next event
Previous in series Next in series