Philosopher
Mazu Daoyi
709–788 CE
Also known as Mazu
Founder of the Hongzhou line of Chan, famous for shock tactics and for teaching that 'ordinary, everyday mind is Buddha'.
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Mazu Daoyi founded the Hongzhou lineage of Chan, renowned for physical ‘shock tactics’ such as kicking and punching, though writings of his lineage also quote the Buddhist canon often.
In a famous encounter, his teacher Nanyue Huairang asked why, if a mirror cannot be made by rubbing a stone against a tile, Mazu thought he could make himself a Buddha by sitting in meditation; the question opened Mazu’s mind.
Key ideas
- Ordinary mind is Buddha
- Mazu taught that ordinary, everyday mind is Buddha, and identified it with responding to situations and dealing with people as they come, wherever one is and whoever one is with.
- Teachings as medicine
- Asked why he said ‘mind is Buddha’, Mazu answered: to stop small children crying. When the tears are dry, he said, it is ‘neither mind nor Buddha’: teachings are remedies fitted to the hearer, not doctrines to hold.
- Fluid harmony
- Chan practice bears fruit, Mazu said, as body and mind moving together fluidly, flowing out through the limbs to help even what seems beyond help.
- Tradition
- Chinese
- Region
- China
- Schools
- Chan Buddhism
- Themes
- The self
Sources
- Peter Hershock, Chan Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy