六祖大師法寶壇經 1.122

1.122

「惠能沒伎倆，不斷百思想，
對境心數起，菩提作麼長。」

your fetters.” He thereupon recited a verse, which stated:

Huineng is without techniques

And does not eradicate the hundred thoughts.

The mind is activated frequently with regard to the sensory realms.

How could bodhi increase?

When the patriarch [Huineng] resided at Baolin[si] in Caoqi, Great Master Shenxiu was at Yuquansi (“Jade Spring Monastery”) in Jingnan. At this time

the two schools flourished, and everyone said, “[Hui]neng in the South and [Shen]xiu in the North.” Hence there was a division into the two schools of South and North, sudden and gradual, but students did not understand the purport [of this distinction].

The master told the assembly, “In the Dharma there is fundamentally one doctrine; it is in people that there is South and North. The Dharma is thus a single seed, but in seeing it there is fast and slow.What is it that is named sudden and gradual? The Dharma is without sudden and gradual; it is people that are clever or dull, therefore the names sudden and gradual. But Shenxiu’s followers frequently criticize the Southern school, [saying] the patriarch [Huineng] is completely illiterate, so how could it be better? Shenxiu said, ‘He has attained the wisdom that is without teacher and is profoundly enlightened to the superior vehicle. I have not. In fact, my teacher, the Fifth Patriarch, personally transmitted the robe and Dharma [to him]—how could this possibly have been in error? I regret I am unable to travel the great distance to be close to him, but falsely receive the nation’s munificence. You people—do not linger here, but go to Caoqi to consult [with Huineng and have your doubts] resolved!’”

One day [Shenxiu] commanded his student Zhicheng, “You are intelligent and wise in many things. Go on my behalf to Caoqi and listen to [Huineng’s] Dharma. Whatever you hear, memorize it and come back and tell it to me.” Following this command, Zhicheng went to Caoqi, where he joined the assembly and inquired [of Huineng] without saying where he was from. At that time the patriarch informed the assembly, “There is now a person hiding in this assembly in order to steal the Dharma.” Thereupon Zhicheng came forward, did obeisance, and told everything. The master said, “You have come from Yuquan[si]; this must have been a plot.”

[Zhicheng] answered, “No, it isn’t.”

The master said, “Why isn’t it?”

[Zhicheng] answered, “Before I spoke up it was, but now that I’ve spoken up it isn’t.”

The master said, “How does your master teach his followers?”

[Zhicheng] answered, “He always teaches his congregation to ‘fix the mind to contemplate purity and sit constantly without lying down.’”

The master said, “To ‘fix the mind to contemplate purity’ is a sickness,

not meditation. How could it benefit the principle to ‘sit constantly’ with a rigid body? Listen to my verse:

You can sit [in meditation] without lying down from the day you’re

born,

But when you die you will lie down and not sit up.

One always has this putrid skeleton,

Why should one set such a task?

Zhicheng did obeisance again and said, “When I was at Great Master Shenxiu’s, I studied the Way for nine years without achieving enlightenment. Now I have heard one explanation by Your Reverence and I have conformed to (i.e., become enlightened to) the fundamental mind. I believe that the matter of birth and death is important. Would Your Reverence in your compassion teach me further?”

The master said, “I have heard that your master teaches students about morality, meditation, and wisdom, but I don’t know how he explains them.