Osho on Enlightened Zen Master Ma Tzu Ma Tzu was born in china in the year 709. He was the most important figure in the history of Zen after the sixth patriarch, eno. Eno told Nangaku, who would become Ma Tzu's master, about a prophecy that Nangaku would have "a spirited young horse" of a disciple who would "trample the whole world." In chinese, the `Ma' of Ma Tzu means `horse'.&nbsp; Osho says He was a born genius, and even had prophecies about him by other masters -- that he is not to be taken as just XYZ, he has a possibility of becoming a great master -- and the prophecies were fulfilled. Sometimes it is possible, if a master looks at a child when the child is still uncorrupted by the society, that he can see his potential clearly. And that's what another great master, Eno, said to Nangaku. Eno was the sixth patriarch, the sixth great master after Bodhidharma. He told Nangaku, "This child is going to become a great master; be careful." And finally Ma Tzu became not only a great master, but the second most important master after Eno. Eno's prophecy was fulfilled more than he had expected. Ma Tzu proved himself to be a greater master than the prophecy had said. But it is his strange fate that he is not known to the world. Perhaps he was too much ahead of his time; perhaps he was too far away from the ordinary crowd; perhaps his way of teaching was so subtle that the ordinary mind was incapable of comprehending it. Ma Tzu was very unique Master in the sense that he had found unique ways to awaken his disciples. Osho says Ma Tzu moved on all fours just to go beyond mind and be in tune with nature. Everybody laughed. They said, "This is strange!" And he looked like a tiger. He had such shiny eyes that he would look at you like a tiger. The disciples who gathered around Ma Tzu were men of great courage, because he used to jump on people, beat them. Ma Tzu devised beating and slapping and jumping on people as methods of meditation! You won't believe it, but he managed to make more people enlightened than even Gautam Buddha, because he had found a secret in it.<div class="raw-html-embed"><div style="width:100%;height:1px;background:#00000036;margin:10px 0;"></div></div>MA TZU WAS ONE OF THE FIRST MASTERS TO USE A SPECIFICALLY ZEN TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING; THAT IS, THROUGH LIVING, NOT PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS. BY INDICATING THE ABSOLUTE IN THE RELATIVE -- A RELATIVE WITHOUT RELIGIOUS DOGMA, ROMANCE, SYMBOLISM, OR INTELLECTUALISM, BUT WITH A DEEP SENSE OF THE EXISTENTIAL VALUE OF A THING -- MA TZU BROUGHT ZEN INTO THE REALM OF ORDINARY, DAY-TO-DAY LIVING. His contribution to Zen is immense. He brought it down from the heights to where you are. About Ma Tzu it can be said, just as it is said about Mohammed... Mohammed is reported to have said that if the thirsty will not come to the well, the well is going to go to the thirsty. To go to the heights of buddhas is really an arduous thing. They shine forth like a full moon in the sky, and a tremendous longing arises in you to reach to the same heights. But there is a great fear of insecurity, of danger, of those mountainous regions where you will be alone. Many who want to reach to those heights think twice before they take their first step. Ma Tzu saw this and he introduced something which was never known before. He came down from the mountains to the marketplace. He said, "The marketplace cannot change me, so why avoid it? I am going to change the marketplace. Sitting on my heights, I will not be able to change thousands of people. And if when it is possible I go to the people themselves, just as ordinary as they are, communication will be easier." Hence he dropped all philosophical teachings. He brought new devices, more in tune with the earth, not in tune with the sky, more in tune with the ordinary human activities. Once he has got hold of you, he will take you to the heights. But the first question is to take hold of you. He is the first master in the history of Zen who has shown such compassion. He also introduced beating for the first time. That too is part of his compassion. His beating has to be understood because it will come again and again. He is beating you to wake you up. There is no need to go anywhere to find the buddha. The buddha is fast asleep within you. He just needs a little awakening. The beating was out of pure love and compassion. It is very difficult for other religions in the world to understand: "What kind of teaching is this? Teach about God, teach about heaven and hell and virtues and ten commandments." To them it will look... it does look almost crazy. But Ma Tzu helped far more people to become enlightened than any other master. The end result shows that his devices worked. A MONK ONCE DREW FOUR LINES IN FRONT OF MA TZU. THE TOP LINE WAS LONG AND THE REMAINING THREE WERE SHORT. HE THEN DEMANDED OF THE MASTER, "BESIDES SAYING THAT ONE LINE IS LONG AND THE OTHER THREE ARE SHORT, WHAT ELSE COULD YOU SAY?" MA TZU DREW ONE LINE ON THE GROUND AND SAID, "THIS COULD BE CALLED EITHER LONG OR SHORT. THAT IS MY ANSWER." It reminds me of an incident in a court of a great Indian emperor, Akbar. One day he came into the court and drew a line on the wall and told all the members of his court... and he had collected the most wise people from all parts of the country into his court; it must have been the richest court in the world as far as wisdom is concerned. He had all the great artists, musicians, dancers -- anybody who was at the top was invited to be part of his court. He asked the court members, "Can you make this line smaller without touching it?" It looks like a Zen koan. How can you make it smaller without touching it? You will have to touch it, only then you can make it smaller. That seems to be obvious. But one man laughed. He was the court joker, Birbal. Every court in the ancient days used to have a court joker, just to keep the court playful, nonserious. There were serious problems, but the joker would always keep it cool; he would cut a joke, and all the heat would disappear, and people would come to their senses. Birbal perhaps is one of the most well known men, who had an immense sense of humor; but he was also a wise man. He stood up and he went to the wall and drew a bigger line above the small line that Akbar had drawn. And he said, "I have made it small without touching it" -- because small, or long, or short, are all relative terms. In itself you can draw a line... that's what Ma Tzu is doing, drawing a line. And he says, "You can call it either long or short." It is a question of relativity. If you are comparing it with a longer line, it is short; if you are comparing it with a shorter line, it is long. In itself it is just what it is. Relativity is a comparison with something else. Why Ma Tzu did it has to be understood. And particularly now that Albert Einstein has introduced the theory of relativity in the scientific sphere, it has become more important to understand Ma Tzu's meaning. He is saying, "Everyone is just himself, neither great nor small -- because that greatness or smallness comes from relativity -- neither beautiful nor ugly. Everyone is simply just himself." You can bring a taller man by his side and he becomes smaller, but he remains the same. Only relatively, conceptually, intellectually, can you see that he is smaller, but he has not changed even an inch. You can bring a pygmy by his side and suddenly he has become taller, and he has not changed a bit. What he is saying is that relativity is a dangerous concept to be applied to human beings. It is relativity that makes some people big, great, famous, celebrities. Some people live in obscurity, some people are just nobodies. This is relativity; otherwise everybody is just himself, it does not make any difference. There is no question of inequality, everybody is unique. The person who is nobody is happy in his nobodiness. But this concept of relativity drives people mad. Everybody is trying to climb higher on the ladder, to become somebody special. And even the most special people are hankering for so many things which they are missing. For example, Napoleon was one of the world conquerors. But he was suffering from a great inferiority complex because of his height -- he was only five feet five inches tall. Even his bodyguards were over six feet and he felt very much embarrassed -- on both sides bodyguards, and bodyguards are chosen particularly to be strong, tall. He looked just like a small child in comparison to his own bodyguards, and this was very embarrassing. One day he was trying to fix a picture on the wall, but his reach was just a little bit short, he could not reach the picture. His bodyguard said, "Your honor, you need not bother about it. I am higher than you, I can do it without any difficulty." Napoleon said, "I will shoot you. Change your word `higher'. You are simply taller than me, not higher." The poor bodyguard could not see why he had become so angry. He had touched the very soft spot in his unconscious. Higher? -- nobody is higher. At the most you can say, physiologically, that you are taller. But Napoleon suffered immensely. Every time he saw a taller man, he was in immense misery. You cannot have all the things in the world. There will be poets, there will be musicians, whose very touch is golden. There will be wrestlers whose bodies are almost a work of art. You cannot have all these things. Relatively, everybody is inferior in comparison to somebody else. You can find out to whom you are inferior, and you will find so many people to whom you are inferior. Somebody is a great flutist and you don't know which side of the flute to put in your mouth. Somebody is a great mathematician... miraculous mathematicians have happened. In India, just in this century, there were two people; one was Shankaran, a rickshaw wallah in Madras. Just by chance a professor in the Madras university took his rickshaw and on the way the rickshaw wallah asked him, "What do you teach in the university?" He was an Englishman. He said, "I am a professor of mathematics." The rickshaw wallah said, "Mathematics? That is my special subject. You just tell me any number, multiplied by any other number, and before you have ended your question I will answer it." And he did it. The professor could not believe his own eyes and ears. The number that he had given to be multiplied by another number would have taken the greatest mathematician at least three minutes. Without going through the whole process, he had simply answered. And the professor had to work it out, whether his answer was right or wrong -- and it was right. He took him to the university. Shankaran convinced all the professors that he had an intuitive grasp. Asked how he managed it, he said he did not know. "Just as you ask, a number appears on the screen of my mind, and I simply repeat that number. I don't know any process, I am not educated." The professor took him around the world as a show of intuitive mathematics -- to Oxford, to Cambridge -- and everywhere he was a celebrity. An uneducated rickshaw wallah -- and great mathematicians like Whitehead, Bertrand Russell, they simply could not believe it. Bertrand Russell has written the greatest book on mathematics. Just to explain two plus two is four, he has taken two hundred and forty pages. And this man -- you give him any number to multiply or any kind of question, and he immediately writes the answer on the board. He goes through no process. And then there is another woman, her name is Shakuntala, and I think she is still alive -- and strangely from the same place, Madras. She has been around the world showing her intuitive capacity for mathematics. Even great mathematicians have felt childish next to these people; they are not educated, they know nothing of mathematics, but they can make the greatest mathematicians feel inferior. If you are going to compare, if you are going to think around, you will find thousands of people who will make you inferior. And you cannot do anything about it. You cannot be the greatest dancer, you cannot be the greatest mathematician, you cannot be the greatest poet, you cannot be the greatest painter; you cannot have all the greatness in the world at the same time. The very idea of thinking in relativity about human beings is absurd. You are just yourself. Just be authentically yourself, without any comparison. No inferiority arises; no superiority arises. You are simply relaxed as you are. And whatever you are doing, you do your best, with joy and creativity. Ma Tzu's answer... he DREW ONE LINE ON THE GROUND AND SAID, "THIS COULD BE CALLED EITHER LONG OR SHORT. THAT IS MY ANSWER." It depends with what you are comparing it. But why compare in the first place?&nbsp; Relativity is perfectly good in scientific fields. It is absolutely wrong in the world of humanity. Human beings are not mathematical digits; human beings are unique. Everyone -- however he is, whatever he is -- has just to bring his potentiality to its totality, its profundity, to clean it and bring it to blossom. It does not matter whether it is a wildflower or a roseflower. What matters is flowering, bringing your potentiality to its uttermost height. And that will bring you joy and peace, and a rest, a relaxation with the universe. You will be in tune, and there will be no turmoil in your mind -- how to become this, how to become that. How to be the richest person, how to be the most famous -- all that is garbage; and it is driving thousands of people mad, unnecessarily mad. They could be the most beautiful people if they were not thinking in terms of relativity. If they were satisfied with themselves and their potential, and they were working to bring their potential to its uttermost height, without any comparison to anyone -- this is the only way a man can be psychologically healthy. ON ANOTHER OCCASION, A MONK SAID TO MA TZU, "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF BODHIDHARMA'S COMING FROM THE WEST?" This is a traditional question in Zen, asked thousands of times, asked to hundreds of different masters by thousands of disciples; and every time a different answer. Ma Tzu is not going to give any philosophical answer. The philosophically oriented masters can give much meaning to Bodhidharma's coming from India to China -- remember that in China, India is the West. Bodhidharma brought Gautam Buddha's message, and he transformed the whole of China into a great love affair with Buddha. He did not create an organized religion, he simply spread the fragrance of Buddhism. No organized church, but everybody is allowed to drink from the well of Buddha, and quench his thirst. No priest exists in Buddhism -- there is no need of the priest. He is a hindrance, not a bridge. You can be a buddha yourself, just by going within yourself. No priest is needed for that. China was so happy to hear the message, "You are a buddha; you just don't understand your interiority, your subjectivity." So much can be said about "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF BODHIDHARMA'S COMING FROM THE WEST?" But MA TZU REPLIED, "AT THIS MOMENT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY `MEANING'?" Ma Tzu was a strange master with strange methods. Rather than answering the question, he turns the question into another question. He changes the whole thing. He asks, "AT THIS MOMENT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY `MEANING'?" AGAIN THE MONK ASKED THE QUESTION, AND MA TZU STRUCK HIM, SAYING, "IF I DIDN'T STRIKE YOU, PEOPLE WOULD LAUGH AT ME." A strange anecdote, but Ma Tzu is right. He is saying, "The whole meaning of Gautam Buddha and his message is you. Bodhidharma came here to wake you up. Rather than philosophizing about it, I will do exactly the same as Bodhidharma did. AT THIS MOMENT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY `MEANING'?" That comes as a shock, because the monk was not thinking that somebody would ask this question. AGAIN THE MONK ASKED THE QUESTION, AND MA TZU STRUCK HIM, SAYING, "IF I DIDN'T STRIKE YOU, PEOPLE WOULD LAUGH AT ME -- because you are the meaning, and you are asking it. You are the buddha, and you are asking where the buddha is. If I don't strike you, for centuries people will laugh about me." Source: Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link. Discourse Series: <a href="/ma-tzu-the-empty-mirror-08" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ma Tzu: The Empty Mirror, Chapter #8</a> Chapter title: This Moment 21 September 1988 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium References: Osho has also spoken on other Zen Masters and Mystics Mahakashyap, Bodhidharma, Hyakujo, Ma Tzu, Nansen, Dogen, Isan, Joshu, Kyozan, Basho, Bokuju, Sekito, Yakusan, Bankei, Sosan, Nan-in and many more in His discourses. Some of these can be referred to in the following books/discourses: 1. Bodhidharma: The Greatest Zen Master 2. Ancient Music in the Pines 3. Ah, This! 4. A Bird on the Wing 5. Dang Dang Doko Dang 6. Dogen, the Zen Master: A Search and a Fulfillment 7. Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing 8. God is Dead, Now Zen is the Only Living Truth 9. Isan: No Footprints in the Blue Sky 10. Joshu: The Lion's Roar 11. Kyozan: A True Man of Zen 12. The Language of Existence 13. Ma Tzu: The Empty Mirror 14. Nansen: The Point of Departure 15. Hyakujo: The Everest of Zen, with Basho's Haikus&nbsp; 16. No Mind: The Flowers of Eternity 17. No Water, No Moon 18. Yakusan: Straight to the Point of Enlightenment 19. Zen: Zest, Zip, Zap and Zing &nbsp;