勅修百丈清規 8.45

8.45

The constellations lodge near the Dipper; the mountain stands like a vulture. The foremost of the śramaṇas was called Chan Master Huaihai. He had his chamber here, his stūpa here, and conferred the Great Dharma here. His disciples, fearing that hills and valleys might shift and change, and the dates and periods be lost to record, entrusted a Confucian scholar to compose an inscription to commemorate him. When the western teaching spread to the central realm, taking their Six Perfections to reflect our Five Constants, halting evil and turning to good, they followed different paths to the same goal. Only the single lineage of Dhyāna transcends birth and death, and only those of great wisdom can attain it. From Kukkuṭapāda down to Caoxi, the records and genealogical charts are detailed. Caoxi transmitted it to Upādhyāya Huairang of the Guanyin Terrace on the Heng Peak; Guanyin transmitted it to Upādhyāya Daoyi of Jiangxi, who was posthumously imperial titled Chan Master Daji. Daji transmitted it to the Great Master. The succession in the central realm has been nine generations in all. The Great Master was surnamed Wang of Taiyuan, a man of Changle County in Fuzhou. His distant ancestors moved to the corner of Min during the Yongjia upheavals. The Great Master was born in the Semblance Age through the causes and conditions of the Great Matter. When he was conceived in the womb, pungent and foul foods were naturally abandoned; as he was about to be born, miraculous wonders immediately arrived. When he became a youth, his numinous and sagely nature was displayed. Were it not for having planted roots of virtue in past lives, how could he have reached this? He had his head shaved under Upādhyāya Huizhao of the Western Mountain, and received full ordination under Vinaya Master Fachao of Mount Heng. Soon after, he sighed and said: 'If one wishes to wash away the source of delusion, one must roam the ocean of Dharma. How can it be attained solely through realization? One must also rely on verbal teachings.' Thereupon he went to Lujiang to read the Fucha Tripiṭaka, not glancing at the courtyard for accumulated years. Having become a disciple of Daji, he completely obtained the mind-seal. His speech was concise and his principle refined; his countenance was harmonious and his spirit towering. Seeing him, one immediately gave rise to reverence; in his daily life he humbled himself. In goodness he did not court fame, hence the stele inscription of his late master alone obscured his appellation. In practice he was equal to the assembly, hence when his disciples performed manual labor, he invariably shared their toil. Forgetting both resentment and affection, he abandoned his old home; treating the worthy and the foolish alike, he universally instructed those who came to learn. He constantly held that the three bodies are without dwelling, the ten thousand practices are all empty, right and wrong are both cast aside, and the source and its flow are simultaneously obliterated. Using this doctrinal purport as a model for people, this was what the previous Buddhas taught as the Sudden Gate. Among Daji's followers were many dragons and elephants: some, their names heard by the emperor of ten thousand chariots, entered and relied on the imperial capital; some, spreading their transformation over an entire region, settled each their own commanderies and realms. Only the Great Master favored secluded retreat, dwelling amid the clouds and pines. Abandoning fame, his reputation for virtue grew ever higher; walking alone, his students grew ever more numerous. There were those who had thoroughly explored the lecture halls and visited the Chan gates, yet their attachments were not eliminated, and emptiness and existence were still obstructive. None failed to conceal their [doubts] and travel ten thousand li to resolve them with a single word: the net of doubt spread like clouds was sliced like ice by the blade of wisdom. From this, Qi, Lu, Yan, Dai, Jing, Wu, Min, and Shu dashed like shooting stars upon seeing his shadow, and arrived like a whirlwind upon hearing his voice. When their hunger and thirst were happily put to rest, there were often people who attained transcendent release. The Great Master initially resided at Shimen, relying on the stūpa of Daji. Next, he succeeded to his master's seat, proclaiming anew the supreme Dharma. Later, because the multitude assembled and gathered, and his intention was for seclusion and depth—Mount Baizhang stood isolated in a corner, cut off from human habitation on all sides. When he wished to divine a dwelling, he had to wait for a dānapati. The upāsakas You Chang and Gan Zhen requested to donate their family mountain, wishing to serve as his guides. Hermitages encircled it, offerings accumulated in abundance, and the assembly again surpassed that of Shimen. However, because the ground was numinous and the environment secluded, he had the intention of passing his final days here. On the seventeenth day of the first month of the ninth year of the Yuanhe era, he verified extinction upon his meditation bed at the age of sixty-six, with a monastic standing of forty-seven. On the twenty-second day of the fourth month of that year, his whole body was interred on the Western Peak. According to the text of the Vibhāṣā, he used the burial method of the pure-practicing brāhmaṇas, complying with his bequeathed instructions. Prior to this, a white light left the chamber, and a golden khakkhara sounded in the sky. The Numinous Stream dried up in the middle of spring, and the fir torches illuminated through the night. When subtle virtue evokes an unseen response, what does not occur? His disciples Fazheng and others, who had received his teachings, were all made gentle and subdued. Expounding them one after another, they did not let the entrustment fall to the ground. In future years of succession, they would naturally spread. His disciples, speaking and recounting, ever cherished their master's grace, glorifying the stūpa sanctuary. Piling up earth and heaping stones, their strength and minds were utterly exhausted. His disciples Shenxing and Fanyun collected his subtle words and compiled them into recorded sayings. All learners of today, though not having set foot across his threshold, uphold them as a model. Earlier, Vinaya Master Ling'ai of Minyue, the doctrinal authority of the region to whom the Three Learnings turned in reverence, once inquired about the presence or absence of Buddha-nature upon hearing of his reputation. The Great Master sent a letter to explain it. Today it circulates together with the recorded sayings among later students. I, Xu, was serving in the government of Jiangxi and have fully tasted the Great Master's Dharma flavor, so I did not decline the request of the multitude. The inscription reads: The Indian Hero established teachings, with both provisional and real. Without attaining the Sudden Gate, all is a dark room. When the ancestral master arrived, he only then transmitted the secret; like a thick darkness, where suddenly hangs the bright sun. (First) Only this Great Being vastly inherited the orthodox lineage. Although practicing wondrous deeds, he did not abide in true emptiness. Relying on no expedients, how could he await polishing? Placidly returning to the source, the ten thousand realms are completely penetrating. (Second) The assembly of hundreds and thousands completely dispelled their feverish illness. They all attained something, yet I truly had nothing to say. The mind originally is unarisen; the physical form is merely displayed as extinct. In this land it is ashes; in other realms, the moon in water. (Third) The Dharma is transmitted through human generations; the stūpa is closed in the mountain wilderness. The firs and pines are dark by day, yet the temple and stūpa still remain. The flourishing disciples, none failed to reach his door. Only by being able to awaken and illuminate does one repay the master's grace. (Fourth) Erected on the third day of the tenth month of the thirteenth year of the Yuanhe era.