Sometimes it is possible, if a master looks at a child when the child is still uncorrupted by the society, that he can see his potential clearly. And that’s what another great master, Eno, said to Nangaku.

Eno was the sixth patriarch, the sixth great master after Bodhidharma. He told Nangaku, “This child is going to become a great master; be careful.” And finally Ma Tzu became not only a great master, but the second most important master after Eno. Eno’s prophecy was fulfilled more than he had expected. Ma Tzu proved himself to be a greater master than the prophecy had said.

But it is his strange fate that he is not known to the world. Perhaps he was too much ahead of his time; perhaps he was too far away from the ordinary crowd; perhaps his way of teaching was so subtle that the ordinary mind was incapable of comprehending it.

But whatever the cause, we are resurrecting Ma Tzu. We want him to be accepted in the history of consciousness, in the place that belongs to him.

The story Maneesha has brought:

When Nangaku first saw Ma Tzu, he recognized him by intuition as a vessel of the dharma.

A master is nothing but clarity, transparency. To him, things which are invisible to you are visible. Your potentiality is something very invisible, the mystery of your being. But to the master it is almost an open book; he can read it. And to have such a master, who can read your potentiality and can help you grow according to your potentiality – not according to his ideology – is the greatest blessing one can have.

When Nangaku first saw Ma Tzu, he recognized him by intuition as a vessel of the dharma.

These are metaphors. “A vessel of the dharma” is to say that he will become a presence which will send a radiation all around. People will come from thousands of miles away, pulled by an invisible force, like gravitation, not knowing why they are being pulled to a certain person. They will understand only when they have reached to that person – felt his energy, quenched their thirst. Then they will know that some subtle force was pulling them to fulfill their destiny.

Just a few days ago, I came to know that trees have a certain sensibility about water. The scientist who was exploring it was amazed to see that there was a tree with no water around, except that two hundred feet away there was a water pipe. But the tree sent its roots to the water pipe, forced it to break, and was relishing and nourishing itself from that water.