31/08/2026
🍑 Late Summer Practice: When the Plum Is Ripe
There's an old Zen story about the master Mazu Daoyi and his student Fachang — nicknamed "Great Plum."
A monk was sent to test Fachang. "What did you learn from Mazu?" he asked.
"Mazu told me: this very mind is Buddha," Fachang answered.
"Ah, but that was yesterday," the monk said. "Now Mazu teaches 'neither mind nor Buddha.'"
Fachang didn't flinch. "Let that old man confuse people however he likes. I stand by what I know: this very mind is Buddha."
When Mazu heard how his student had answered, he simply smiled and said: "The plum is ripe."
Fachang wasn't clinging to a phrase — he'd absorbed the teaching so fully that no shift in the master's words could shake him. His understanding wasn't borrowed anymore. It was his own, whole and complete. Like fruit that's finished ripening on the branch.
Late summer feels like this. The reaching season is over. What's been growing all year doesn't need to try anymore — it's just ready.
On the mat this week: fewer cues, longer stillness, less adjusting toward some idea of "correct." Just noticing what in you has already ripened.
🧘 Join us for Zen-inspired yoga on Friday evenings 1800 at MBT Fitness in Liskeard.
