Which Path Leads Out of the Mountains? Follow the Stream
After hearing Mazu Daoyi's teaching that "this very mind is Buddha," the monk Damei (752–839) awakened and withdrew into the wilderness. He built himself a simple grass hut right there on the mountain trail.
After hearing Mazu Daoyi's teaching that "this very mind is Buddha," the monk Damei (752–839) awakened and withdrew into the wilderness. He built himself a simple grass hut right there on the mountain trail.
One day, a wandering monk—an unsui, or "cloud-water" pilgrim—studying under Master Yanguan (himself a Dharma-heir of Mazu) lost his way in the woods. He stumbled upon the sage-like old monk and asked, "How many years have you lived in these mountains?"
Damei simply replied, "I've only watched the surrounding peaks turn green, then yellow. I pay no mind to the months or the years—there are no calendars in the mountains."
The wanderer pressed on: "Which path will take me out?"
Damei's answer was immediate: "Follow the stream. Go with the water, and it will carry you to the river's mouth, where you'll find a town."
Action itself is simple. It's the tangle of rigid rules that so often leaves us unable to move a single step—we each have to find our own natural way. When the wandering monk returned and told his teacher Yanguan about the encounter, Yanguan realized Damei was a Dharma-brother under Mazu. He sent a young novice with a letter, earnestly asking the hermit to come down from the mountain and teach the Dharma. Damei, however, gave no reply.
Unwilling to let the world draw any closer, he left behind a verse and retreated even deeper into the mountains:
A pond of lotus leaves yields clothes without end, a few pine trees offer more than enough food. Now that the world has found my dwelling place, I'll move my thatched hut into a deeper valley.