14 Facts About Mazu Daoyi

Mazu Daoyi was an influential abbot of Chan Buddhism during the Tang dynasty.

Mazu Daoyi is known as the founder of the Hongzhou school of Zen.

Mazu Daoyi was born in 709 northwest of Chengdu in Sichuan.

Mazu Daoyi strode along like a bull and glared about him like a tiger.

Traditionally, Mazu Daoyi is depicted as a successor in the lineage of Huineng, since his teacher Nanyue Huairang is regarded as a student and successor of Huineng.

Mazu Daoyi is perhaps the most influential teaching master in the formation of Chan Buddhism.

In Mazu Daoyi's doctrine, the spontaneous, ordinary state of human mind and life, which is a mix of purity and defilement, is identical with Buddha-nature.

Yanagida Seizan saw this story as an indication that Mazu Daoyi rejected formal sitting meditation.

Some worried that the spontaneity and emphasis on wisdom promoted by Mazu Daoyi could be misunderstood, and despite the criticisms and doctrinal debates, seated dhyana continued to be practiced, even by many of its critics.

Mazu Daoyi is depicted as having employed novel and unconventional teaching methods in order to shake his students out of routine consciousness.

Mazu Daoyi is credited with the innovations of using katsu, striking, kicking, and unexpectedly calling to a person by name as that person is leaving.

Mazu Daoyi employed silent gestures, non-responsive answers to questions, and was known to grab and twist the nose of a disciple.

Mazu Daoyi appears in later Song dynasty Chan anthologies of transmission, encounter dialogues and koans:.

Mazu Daoyi observed dryly that Zhiang had white hair, while Baizhang's was black.