六祖大師法寶壇經 1.176

1.176

With greetings resolute, let this continue forever without cease.

Epitaph for Chan Master Great Mirror

(Along with the Inscription on the Buddha’s Robe,

both of which were compiled by Liu Yuxi)

On a certain month and day in the tenth year of the Yuanhe [period, or 815], an edict delivered praise on Huineng of Caoqi, the Sixth Patriarch, bestowing the posthumous title “Great Mirror.” In truth, Ma Zong, Governor of Guangzhou, had enumerated [the details of Huineng’s career] in a memorial, which was followed [by the emperor]. Revering the Way and honoring names revert identically to the same good and do not differ in the disparate teaching (i.e., Buddhism). With a single word of praise both Chinese and barbarians are extremely moved, attaining that for which they had appealed. Lord Ma [Zong of Fufeng] venerated [Huineng’s] accomplishments, and, with respect, was the first to record them for posterity, and then consulted with literati.

Now, Lord Liu [Zongyuan] of Hedong, Governor of Liuzhou, has composed an earlier epitaph. Three years later the monk Daolin led his followers here from Caoqi, saying they wished to erect a second epitaph. This was the desire of [Huineng’s] students.

During the middle five hundred years after the Tathāgata’s nirvana, [Kāśyapa] Matanga and Zhu Falan brought sutras to China, and people first

heard his words. This was like seeing sunrise through layered darkness. During the next five hundred years [Bodhi]dharma brought the Dharma to China, and people first transmitted [the Buddha’s] mind. This was like seeing the gleaming sun on a dark morning. From [Bodhi]dharma the sixfold transmission reached Great Mirror and, like wish-bestowing pearls strung together, there was neither identity nor difference from one to the other. What is referred to in this world as the true doctrine, also known as the sudden teaching, was initially brought by [Bodhi]dharma along with the Buddha’s robe, which is transmitted by the enlightened as a seal of the truth. [The robe] has reached Great Mirror and will no longer be transmitted. How could it possibly be like the fish and rabbit traps or the straw dog [that are discarded after the game is caught or the ritual finished]? Is it not that people simply had no choice but to do something with it and decided to let it stay [at Caoqi]?170

I am without [spiritual] attainment but have come to know [the following].171 On the basis [of Daolin’s testimony, Chan Master] Great Mirror was born in Xinzhou, left home at thirty-four, and died at age seventy-four. After one hundred and six years he received a posthumous title. Initially, it was at East Mountain in Qi[zhou] that he received the prophecy of future enlightenment from the Fifth Patriarch, then returned [to the south]. [Emperor] Zhongzong sent a palace worthy who repeatedly invited [Huineng to court, but he] did not accept the invitation. [The palace worthy] then submitted [Huineng’s] words to the throne, which reverentially put them into practice.

The inscription reads:

The birth of the Perfected Man was unlike any other.

Identical to people was his form, transcending the human was his

wisdom.

In this southern outskirt [of civilization where insects] wriggle did

descend to be born one of exceptional greatness.

His father the sky and [his] mother the earth, alone did he take his

form from the primal pneuma.

At a single word he was suddenly enlightened, without treading

[even] the first stage [of the bodhisattva path],

With the transmission from the fifth master, who bestowed the

precious implements (i.e., the robe and bowl).174

Sitting in meditation at Caoqi, the world called it the Southern

school.

Students come here like the [inexorable flowing of] water to the east.

Drinking of the wondrous medicine, they heal their deafness and

dumbness.

Summoned but unable to proceed [to court,] he was allowed to

become a hero of the Dharma.

The time of the Buddha is remote, and his words have accumulated

to a hundred million.

Attaching themselves to emptiness and grasping being, everyone

races toward his realm (the Western Paradise).

“I (Huineng) have established a snare for truth, which has been

triggered in this southern country.

Cultivating without cultivation, attaining without attainment,

[This teaching] can cause students to return to their natural awareness.”

As when dark and obscure, one lifts one’s eyes to the polestar.

Attaining it naturally, ultimately it cannot be transmitted.

Transmitted by mouth and passed by hand, [to hand down the robe]

would be to be obstructed by being.

The robe is stored in the hall of emptiness, to attain it is to have it