Definition
Reading: Mayoku Hotetsu / Reading (ZH): Mágǔ Bǎochè
Mayu Baoche is a Zen monk of the Tang Dynasty. He studied under the Zen master Mazu Daoyi. The story of the "Permanent Nature of the Wind" is famous.
One day, a monk asked Ma-gu, "The wind is everywhere. Why do you use a hand fan?" Mayu said, "You know the nature of the wind is everywhere. However, you do not know the principle that the wind fills every place." The monk asked, "What is the principle that the wind fills every place?" Mayu did not answer with words. He only fanned himself with the hand fan.
Q&A
- Q: Why did Mayu fan himself, even though he knew that wind is everywhere?
- A: Because knowing that wind is omnipresent as a matter of knowledge and actually manifesting the function of the wind with one's own hands are two entirely different things. By demonstrating the "concrete function of the wind"—that is, cooling away the heat of reality—right in front of the monk, who only understood the existence of the wind intellectually, Mayu sought to shift the monk’s awareness from conceptual understanding to experiential practice.
