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Mazu's Salt and Sauce (EV61)
KOAN:
After Mazu Daoyi received the Dharma from Nanyue Huairang, he went to Jiangxi to spread the teachings of the Zen school.
One day Huirang said to a monk, “Mazu is in Jiangxi teaching the Dharma, but there’s been no word from him … go to Mazu’s place, wait until he gives a talk, then ask, ‘How is it?’ Remember what he says and tell me when you come back.”
The monk did as instructed. When he asked, “How is it?” Mazu replied, “It’s been twenty years of getting by, but I’ve never lacked for salt and sauce.”
Huairang approved.
—Entangling Vines Case 61
You Can’t Cage a Koan – Make It a Raft!
In the Blue Dragon’s cave, everything is there. If you think you haven’t seen a dragon, you may be wrong. In fact, who says you’re not a dragon? And if you think you don’t know about koans, you may be wrong, too. Who says you’re not a koan? Transcript of a dharma talk in Summer Sesshin 2020.
Salt & Sauce, Trouble & Spice, Losing Things & Getting By
Salt and sauce—the taste of life is complex. Even in times of deprivation, persecution and war, the flavor of life may include radical happiness. In Zen, we don’t have to know the solution, we just put the next foot forward. We ally with the capacity of life to dissolve outrage and the need to be either right or wrong. Difficulty and richness accord with each other. Walking the path is the gift of Zen, feeling the ancestors’ gifts of salt and sauce.
Salt & Sauce, Trouble & Spice, Losing Things and Getting By
Salt and sauce—the taste of life is complex. Even in times of deprivation, persecution and war, the flavor of life may include radical happiness. In Zen, we don’t have to know the solution, we just put the next foot forward. We ally with the capacity of life to dissolve outrage and the need to be either right or wrong. Difficulty and richness accord with each other. Walking the path is the gift of Zen, feeling the ancestors’ gifts of salt and sauce.