Not so ordinary

Zen Master Mazu/Ma-tsu who most likely coined the term "ordinary mind" (平常心) had this to say about the ordinary mind which I hasten to add is anything but ordinary.

"The Way needs no cultivation, just prevent defilement.  What is defilement?  When with a mind of birth and death one acts in a contrived manner, then everything is defilement.  If one wants to know the Way directly: ordinary mind is the Way!  What do I mean by "ordinary mind?"  [It is a mind] that is devoid of [contrived] activity, and is without [notions of] right and wrong, grasping and rejecting, terminable and permanent, worldly and holy.  The [Vimalakirti] scripture says, "Neither the practice of ordinary people, nor the practice of sages, that is the Bodhisattva's practice."  Just now, whether walking, standing, sitting, or reclining, responding to situations and dealing with people as they come: everything is the Way" (Poceski, Ordinary Mind as the Way, p. 183).

Keep also in mind that Zen master Hui-hai, The Great Pearl said:  "the man who seeks for the Buddha outside of the human mind is a heretic; and he who clings to the view that the human mind is the Buddha is a devil" (trans. Sohaku Ogata, The Transmission of the Lamp, p. 199).

 

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