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When Yaoshan expressed doubt about being ready to go off on his own, Mazu told him, “One cannot always be traveling without abiding, nor always be abiding without traveling. To advance from where you can no longer advance, and to do what can no longer be done, you must make yourself into a raft or ferryboat for others. It is not for you to abide here forever.”

Yaoshan started out with Shitou as his teacher. But Shitou told Yaoshan that circumstances were not right for him to attain awakening there, so he referred him to Mazu. Yaoshan served as Mazu’s attendant for three years after his awakening experience. It was at that time that Mazu told Yaoshan he needed to go off and set up shop for himself.

Having myself had the experience of being told by a teacher that there were no karmic causes for me to become awakened with them, and having been referred by one teacher to another teacher, and having left one teacher and gone to another teacher to explore a different path, and having had two teachers at the same time are all ways in which this koan has resonated within me.

You don’t have to be a Zen teacher for Mazu’s advice to hit home. There are many ways of making yourself a raft.

Have you ever noticed what happens on a crowded freeway where traffic is entering from an on-ramp? Things can come to a standstill as people refuse to yield space to the merging traffic. But if you make space for someone to enter the stream, others notice and some do the same. If more folks would do that, the traffic would not come to a standstill.

I think that’s one ordinary mind is a kind of way of making yourself a raft.

What are yours?

Further musings from sesshin, on Mazu’s Whole Meaning of Life:

The whole meaning of your life rests in the current matter.  —Mazu

The whole meaning of my life is sitting here writing this copy for the newsletter? I would have hoped for more. Maybe I need to look into what “whole meaning” means. There’s another conversation that involves Mazu that seems to throw some light on it:

Someone asked, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?”
Mazu responded, “What does this mean, here and now?”

Other times, Mazu answered the same question various ways such as:

“What is the meaning of your asking at this moment?”

“I’m not in the mood today. Go and ask Zhizang.”

“Come a little nearer, and I’ll tell you.” When the student went over to Mazu,
Mazu kicked them so hard that they fell over.

Mazu kept silent.

“Rush flowers, willow catkins, bamboo needle, and hemp thread.”

Perhaps we can get a better sense of what “meaning” means by appreciating that all of the above responses are not ways of avoiding answering the question or even answers to the question, they are living, breathing, experiences of the answer.

When I think about it that way, writing this copy for the newsletter being the whole meaning of my life is not such a bad thing. As a matter of fact, it’s kind of great.

—David

COME JOIN US us on Tuesdays for koan meditation, dharma talk and conversation. All are welcome. Register to participate.

David Weinstein Roshi,
Director of Rockridge Meditation Community