As a young monk Mazu was practicing at Chuanfa temple. One day while it wasn’t a regular meditation period, he was sitting in formal zazen. Master Huairang Nanyue, one of the most renowned of the Sixth Ancestor, Huineng’s Dharma successors, saw him sitting there. He saw something of value in the young monk, and walked over to him.
When the young monk looked up, the master asked, “Why are you sitting in meditation?” Ma replied, “Because I want to become a Buddha.” The old man immediately sat down, picked up a brick and began polishing it with the side of his fist. The young monk asked, “Sir, why are you polishing that brick?” “Because,” replied the old teacher. “I want to make a mirror.” “Master,” he replied. “You can’t make a mirror by polishing a brick.” To which the master replied, “And you don’t become Buddha by sitting in meditation.” The time was ripe for the young monk. He asked, “Then, what must I do?” Master Huairang responded, “When an ox cart stops rolling, do you strike the cart or the ox?”
With that pointer Mazu awakened.
One of the first examples I’d ever encountered of Buddhist “proof texting,” using a scriptural citation, often judiciously clipped out of context to prove some point, was when Alan Watts used this story as proof that meditation wasn’t part of, or at least not an essential part of the Zen way. Me, I’m a fan of Alan Watts. His Way of Zen was one of the first books I read on Zen, and I’m enormously grateful to this day. And, he was a one-off, a spiritual eccentric never wanting to be crammed into anyone else’s box, and as far as Zen was concerned was a dilettante. He didn’t want to meditate, and he looked to find evidence it wasn’t necessary.
Where Mr Watts was right was that we don’t have to sit to wake up. If we make a fetish of zazen, or, of anything for that matter, and cling to it, we are clinging to one more thing made of parts. And, we will be disappointed. More to the point in this dialogue, sitting to become Buddha, as admirable as it is in many ways, is also missing the point.
It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sit. It doesn’t mean zazen isn’t as important as your very breath.
It means don’t create an ox and a cart.
When sitting, just sit.
Sit down and become Buddha has no steps, no strategies.
A word to the wise on a cold February morning…
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