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in the present simply means being out of the grip of the mind.
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 SPECIALLY 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.
This very mind is neither the buddha nor the mind. Now Ma Tzu is teaching this way.
"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.'"
He has understood clearly that Ma Tzu has changed his expression from positive to the negative. He can confuse an ordinary man, but he cannot confuse an enlightened man anymore.
"THAT OLD FELLOW!" SAID TA-MEI. "WHEN WILL HE CEASE TO CONFUSE THE MINDS OF MEN?"
There was no need to change, the old expression was perfect.
"LET HIM GO ON WITH HIS `NEITHER MIND NOR BUDDHA.' I WILL STICK TO `THIS PRESENT MIND ITSELF IS BUDDHA.'"
You may think that he is not agreeing with his master, Ma Tzu, but then you will not have understood it. He is agreeing perfectly well. He understands that it means the same. He has just changed the expression from positive to negative. Only the expression is changed, not the expressed. So he says, "Let the old fellow do whatever he wants, but I am going to insist that this present mind itself is the buddha."
WHEN THE MESSENGER TOLD MA TZU OF THIS EXCHANGE, MA TZU COMMENTED: "THE FRUIT OF A PLUM HAS RIPENED."
Ma Tzu understood perfectly well that Ta-mei had become enlightened. Any unenlightened man would have been confused because the unenlightened mind can never think that
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