Mazu Daoyi (709–788) (, Japanese: Baso Dōitsu) was an influential abbot of Chan/Zen Buddhism during the Tang dynasty. He is known as the founder of the Hongzhou school of Chan. The earliest recorded use of the term "Chan school" is from his Extensive Records.
He is most famously known for his two teaching statements: "This Mind is Buddha" (ji xin shi fo 即心是佛) and "Ordinary Mind is the Way."Jinhua Jia (2012), The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, SUNY Press, pp. 67-68.
Biography His family name was Ma – Mazu meaning Ancestor Ma or Master Ma. He was born in 709 northwest of Chengdu in Sichuan. During his years as master, Mazu lived in Jiangxi, from which he took the name "Jiangxi Daoyi".
In the Transmission of the Lamp, compiled in 1004, Mazu is described as follows:
According to the Transmission of the Lamp, Mazu was a student of Nanyue Huairang (677-744) at Mount Heng in Hunan
A story in the entry on Nanyue Huairang in the Transmission of the Lamp is regarded as Mazu's enlightenment-account, though the text does not claim it as such. An earlier and more primitive version of this story appears in the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall which was transcribed in 952:
This story echoes the Vimalakirti Sutra and the Platform Sutra in downgrading purificative and gradualist practices instead of direct insight into the Buddha-nature.
Mazu's Hongzhou school
Mazu became Nanyue Huairang's dharma–successor. Eventually Mazu settled at Kung-kung Mountain by Nankang, southern Jiangxi province, where he founded a monastery and gathered scores of disciples.
Traditionally, Mazu Daoyi is depicted as a successor in the lineage of Huineng, since his teacher Nanyue Huairang is regarded as a student and successor of Huineng. This connection between Huineng and Nanyue Huairang is doubtful, being the product of later rewritings of Chan history to place Mazu Daoyi in the traditional lineages.
Mazu Daoyi is perhaps the most influential teaching master in the formation of Chan Buddhism. While Chan became the dominant school of Buddhism during the Song dynasty, the earlier Tang dynasty and Mazu Daoyi's Hongzhou school became regarded as the "golden age" of Chan. The An Lushan Rebellion (755-763) led to a loss of control by the Tang dynasty, and metropolitan Chan began to lose its status while "other schools were arising in outlying areas controlled by warlords. These are the forerunners of the Chan we know today. Their origins are obscure; the power of Shen-hui's preaching is shown by the fact that they all trace themselves to Hui-neng."
This school developed "shock techniques such as shouting, beating, and using irrational retorts to startle their students into realization". These shock techniques became part of the traditional and still popular image of Chan masters displaying irrational and strange behaviour to aid their students. Part of this image was due to later misinterpretations and translation errors, such as the loud belly shout known as katsu. In Chinese "katsu" means "to shout", which has traditionally been translated as "yelled 'katsu'" – which should mean "yelled a yell."See James D. Sellmann & Hans Julius Schneider (2003), Liberating Language in Linji and Wittgenstein. Asian Philosophy, Vol. 13, Nos. 2/3, 2003. Notes 26 and 41
During 845-846 staunchly Taoist Emperor Wuzong of Tang persecuted Buddhist schools in China along with other dissidents, such as Christians:
This persecution was devastating for metropolitan Chan, but the school of Mazu and his likes survived, and took a leading role in the Chan of the later Tang.
Teachings Mazu Daoyi's teachings and dialogues were collected and published in the Jiangxi Daoyi Chanshi Yulu "Oral Records of Chan Master Daoyi from Jiangxi".
Doctrinal Background Relying on the well-known essence-function paradigm, Mazu taught that buddha-nature manifests in function and that function was identical to buddha-nature.Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, pages 76, 78, State University of New York Press, 2006 As Jinhua Jia points out, in this he seems to have been directly influenced by the Huayan doctrine of nature-origination in which all phenomena are manifestations of the Tathāgata.Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 78, State University of New York Press, 2006 The doctrine of nature-origination is closely associated with the related Huayan teaching of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena (li-shih wu-ai).Peter Gregory, Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism, page 162, University of Hawaii Press, 2002 Where "principle" (li), or the absolute, refers to the mind as suchness; "phenomena" (shih) refers to the mind subject to birth-and-death.Peter Gregory, Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism, page 157, University of Hawaii Press, 2002 Regarding the meaning of the interfusion of principle and phenomena, the Huayan patriarch Fazang explains that the tathāgatagarbha, whose self-nature is neither born nor annihilated, accomplishes all phenomena in accordance with conditions.Imre Hamar, Avatamsaka Buddhism in East Asia, page 59, Harrassowitz Verlag · Wiesbaden, 2012 He says, "The principle and phenomena interfuse and are not obstructed, thus one-mind and the two truths are not obstructed."Imre Hamar, Avatamsaka Buddhism in East Asia, page 59, Harrassowitz Verlag · Wiesbaden, 2012 Similarly, Mazu taught, "The absolute and the phenomenal are without difference; both are wonderful functions."Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 124, State University of New York Press, 2006
However, according to Jia, while Mazu's theory that Buddha-nature manifests in function is similar to the Huayan doctrine of nature-origination, there is nonetheless a difference. Jia says: ...while their theoretical frameworks are the same, the target and content of the Huayan nature-origination and Mazu’s idea that function is identical with Buddha-nature are nevertheless different. In the Huayan theory, the pure Buddha-nature remains forever untainted, even though it gives rise to defiled phenomena and originates the realization of all sentient beings’ enlightenment. In Mazu’s doctrine, the spontaneous, ordinary state of human mind and life, which is a mix of purity and defilement, is identical with Buddha-nature.Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 78, State University of New York Press, 2006
Ordinary Mind is the Way It is within this doctrinal context that Mazu affirmed the "fundamental value of the human being" which Yanagida Seizan saw as the basic standpoint of Linji Yixuan, but as Jinhua Jia points out, it can actually be traced back to Mazu.Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 76, State University of New York Press, 2006 "Ordinary mind is the Way" was perhaps Mazu's most famous slogan. He says: If you want to know the Way directly, then ordinary mind is the Way. What is an ordinary mind? It means no intentional creation or action, no right or wrong, no grasping or rejecting, no terminable or permanent, no profane or holy. The sūtra says, “Neither the practice of ordinary men, nor the practice of sages—that is the practice of the Bodhisattva.” Now all these are just the Way: walking, abiding, sitting, lying, responding to conditions, and handling matters.Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 123, State University of New York Press, 2006
Jia states that "identifying absolute buddha-nature with the ordinary human mind, Mazu confirmed that the entirety of daily life was of ultimate truth and value."Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 76, State University of New York Press, 2006 Similarly, Peter Gregory observes that Mazu's Hongzhou school collapses essence (buddha-nature) into function ("all activities—whether good or bad, enlightened or deluded").Peter Gregory, Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism, page 237, University of Hawaii Press, 2002 As an example of this, when Fenzhou Wuye told Mazu he did not understand the meaning of "this mind is the Buddha," Mazu responded: "This very mind that doesn't understand is it, without any other thing."Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 129, State University of New York Press, 2006
Mazu's sermons indicate that awakening and ignorance form a false dichotomy since "originally there is no ignorance," and hence "awakening also need not be established."Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 127, State University of New York Press, 2006 He says, "Since limitless kalpas, all sentient beings have never left the samādhi of dharma-nature, and they have always abided in the samādhi of dharma-nature. Wearing clothes, eating food, talking and responding, making use of the six senses, all activities are dharma-nature."Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 127, State University of New York Press, 2006 Accordingly, there was no need to deliberately try to enter into samādhi since, as Mazu says, "You are the diamond-samādhi by yourself, without again intending to attain samādhi by concentration."Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 122, State University of New York Press, 2006
Modern scholars interpret Mazu's ordinary mind in various ways. Mario Poceski connects ordinary mind with the early Chan teaching of no-mind. According to Poceski, this refers to an unattached mind free of impurity and defilements.Poceski, Mario (2007), Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism. Page 185. Oxford University Press. On the other hand, Jia takes ordinary mind to refer to "the complete, empirical human mind of good and evil, purity and defilement, enlightenment and ignorance of ordinary people."Jia, Jinhua (2006). The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China. Page 69. State University of New York Press. In this way, Jia understands Mazu's doctrine to point to the spontaneous state of the human mind which is a mix of purity and impurity.Jia, Jinhua (2006). The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China. Page 78. State University of New York Press.
John McRae offers an alternative position to both Poceski and Jia, which is that of the Japanese scholar Ogawa Takashi. According to this view, ordinary mind is neither a pure mind divorced from all defilements (as Poceski understands it), nor a capacious container of enlightened and unenlightened mentalities (as Jia understands it). Instead, this view takes ordinary mind to be "the fundamental capability of cognition, the bare working of the human mind" which is functioning all the time, perfectly and automatically, as "primordial cognitive capacity."
Attitude towards cultivation Mazu taught that the Way cannot be cultivated, since whatever is attained through cultivation will still be subject to decay.Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 126, State University of New York Press, 2006 Mazu says: [It] originally existed and exists at present. It does not depend on the cultivation of the Way and seated meditation. Neither cultivation nor seated meditation—this is the pure Chan (dhyāna) of Tathāgata.Jinhua Jia, The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China, page 125, State University of New York Press, 2006