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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."
Maneesha, one of the most important things to be remembered all along is that the Zen master is not a philosopher. He is not rational. Basically he is very irrational and absurd, but miraculously he manages -- from his absurdity, from his contradictory statements -- to make the message clear to you. Today he may say something and tomorrow something else. If you bring your logical mind into it, you will think that you are being confused. But there are different ways of saying the same thing. In fact even in contradictions the same message can be given.
This is one of the great contributions of Zen, that there are no contradictions. Everything is expressing the same truth, the same reality. The smallest piece of grass and the biggest star are not in any way giving you a different message. Nobody is lower and nobody is higher in existence. There is no hierarchy. And as far as truth is concerned, fundamentally it is inexpressible. But if you want to express the inexpressible, then you can use even contradictory terms to indicate the same thing.
Two different fingers, coming from two different angles, can point to the same moon. The mind may find it difficult. In fact the Zen master's whole work is to make things so difficult for the mind that you become tired of the mind, tired of thinking, and you put it aside. And that moment of restfulness, when you have put the mind aside, brings you to the door of existence.
This small anecdote is very significant.
MA TZU STAYED WITH HIS MASTER, NANGAKU, FOR MORE THAN TEN YEARS. ON LEAVING HIM, HE BECAME ABBOT OF THE KAI-YUAN TEMPLE AT CHIANG-SI.
IN HIS SERMONS, MA TZU FOLLOWED CLOSELY THE BASIC INSIGHTS OF THE SIXTH PATRIARCH, ENO -- PARTICULARLY, THAT THERE IS NO BUDDHA OUTSIDE OF ONE'S OWN MIND.
This word `mind' can be understood as the ordinary mind, full of thoughts, emotions, sentiments and attachments. And this same mind can also be thought of as
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