Ma-tsu Tao-i (Jap., Baso Dōitsu), also Kiangsi (Chiang-hsi) Tao-i, 709-788, one of the most important Chinese Ch’an (Zen) masters; a student and the only dharma successor (hassu) of Nan-yueh Huai-jang (Jap., Nangaku Ejō). He was the master of many great Ch’an masters, among whom the best-known are Pai-chang Huai-hai (Jap., Hyakujō Ekai), Nan-ch’uan P’u-yuan (Jap., Nansen Fugan), and Ta-mei Fa-ch’ang (Jap., Daibai Hōjō). More than any other Ch’an master after Hui-neng, Ma-tsu exercised a shaping influence on the development of Ch’an (Zen) in China. He made use of training methods such as the sudden shout (Chin., ho!; Jap., katsu!, wordless gestures, as for example with the hossu, and unexpected blows of the stick (shippei, kyosaku). He knocked his students to the ground, pinched their noses, and shot sudden questions and paradoxical answers at them in order to shake them out of the routine of “everyman’s consciousness” (bonpu-no-jōshiki), liberate them from well-worn ruts of conceptual thinking, and enable them, through a collapse of their habitual feeling and thinking brought on by a sudden shock, to come to the experience of enlightenment. The power of his mind and the effectiveness of his style of training are attested by the fact that as tradition tells us, he had 139 dharma successors. Ma-tsu appears in examples 30 and 33 of the Wu-men-kuan and in examples 3, 53, and 73 of the – Pi-yen-lu.
Ma-tsu must have been impressive on the basis of his appearance alone. It is said he had a glance like a tiger’s and a gait like a buffalo’s; he could cover his nose with his tongue, and on the soles of his feet were marks in the shape of wheels. In his youth Ma-tsu enjoyed the benefits of strict training under a second generation dharma successor of the fifth patriarch, Hung-jen. After the death of his master, he settled at a hermitage on Mount Heng, where day after day he sat absorbed in meditation (zazen). Here his famous meeting with his later master Nan-yueh took place. (On this meeting, Nan-yueh Huai-jang.)
We see him in a mondō with Pai-chang Huai-hai, the most important of Ma-tsu’s dharma successors for the further development of Ch’an (Zen), in example 53 of the – Pi-yen lu. This kōan is a typical example of Ma-tsu’s training style:
Once when the great master Ma-tsu was out walking with Pai-chang, they saw wild ducks flying by.
The great master said “What is that?”
Pai-chang said, “Wild ducks.”
The great master said, “Where have they flown to?”
Pai-chang said, “They flew away.”
Thereupon the great master pinched the end of Pai-chang’s nose.
Pai-chang cried out in pain.
The great master said, “Why didn’t they fly away?”
As we do not find out in this kōan but can learn from the Ching-le ch’uan-teng-lu, at the last words ofMa-tsu, Pai-chang realized enlightenment.
In the Ching-le ch ‘uan-teng-lu we also find an example of Ma-tsu playing together with a great contemporary Shih-t’ou (for this, also Shih-t’ou Hsi-ch’ien) at training Ch’an monks:
“Teng Yin-feng came to take leave of Master [Ma-tsu]. The master asked him where he was going and he [Teng] informed him he was going to Shih-t’ou.
” ‘Shih-t’ou [lit. rock pinnacle] is slippery,’ said Ma-tsu.
” ‘I’ve outfitted myself with a balancing pole that I know how to make use of at all times,’ answered Teng Yen-feng.
“When he reached his destination, he circumambulated Shih-t’ou’s seat once, shook his stick, and said, ‘What’s that?’
“Shih-t’ou cried, ‘Good heavens! Good heavens!’
“Teng Yin-feng said nothing more. He returned to Ma-tsu and reported to him what had happended.
Ma-tsu charged him to return to Shih-t’ou; there, in case Shih-t’ou shouted ‘Good heavens!’ again, he was to blow and hiss twice.
“Teng Yin-feng returned to Shih-t’ou. He repeated what he had done before and again asked, ‘What’s that?’
“Thereupon Shih-t’ou blew and hissed twice. Again Teng Yin-feng departed without a further word. He reported the incident to Ma-tsu, whereupon Ma-tsu said he had after all warned him that Shih-t’ou was slippery.”
Many well-known Zen sayings come from Ma-tsu, including the two answers he gave to the question, What is Buddha? (mondō). Also famous are his hossen with the enlightened Layman – P’ang-yun, which are recorded in the P’ang-chu-chih yu-lu. Ma-tsu’s comments and teachings are preserved in the Kiangsi Tao-i ch’an-shih yu-lu (Record of the Words of Ch’an Master Tao-i from Kiangsi).
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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