佛祖統紀 29.12

29.12

六祖慧能。新州盧氏。采薪養母。常入市聞客誦金剛經。問曰。從誰受。曰黃梅忍大師。云讀此可以見性成佛。能遂辭母至韶州。與劉志略為友。志略姑為尼。常讀涅槃。師暫聽即說。尼因問字。師曰。字即不識。義則任問。尼曰。字尚不識。何能達義。師曰。諸佛解脫非關文字。尼異之。號為行者。居人瞻禮請住寶林。咸亨中至黃梅。祖問何來。答曰。嶺南。祖曰。欲須何事。曰唯求作佛。祖曰。嶺南人無佛性。曰人有南北。佛性豈然。祖異之。謂曰。著槽厰去。乃入碓坊抱石而舂。經八月五祖俾眾各述一偈。若語意冥符則傳衣授法。時眾七百。上座神秀。乃於廊壁書偈云。身是菩提樹。心如明鏡臺。時時勤拂拭。莫遣有塵埃。師聞之曰。美則美矣。了則未了。至夜命童子寫偈壁間曰。菩提本無樹。明鏡亦非臺。本來無一物。何假拂塵埃。五祖知之。夜令人召師。告之曰。佛以正法眼藏展轉傳授。吾今授汝并以信衣。昔達磨初至。故傳衣以明得法。今信心已熟。衣乃諍端。止於汝身勿復傳之。師禮足持衣而出。通夕南邁。時道明上座聞之。即率人追至大庾嶺。明先至。師擲衣石上曰。此衣表信。豈當力爭。明舉之不動。乃曰。我來求法非為衣也。師曰。不思善不思惡。正恁麼時阿那。个是明上座本來面目。明當下大悟。禮拜問曰。上來密語密意外。還更有意旨否。師曰。我今所說即非密。若反照自己密在汝邊。明禮謝而回。儀鳳元年至南海。遇印宗法師於法性寺。暮夜風颺剎旛。二僧對論。一云旛動。一云風動。師云非風旛動。心自動耳。印宗異之。請受禪要。因出信衣令眾瞻禮。印宗即為剃髮。請智光律師於本寺。臨壇授滿分戒。此壇是宋求那跋摩所造。甞記云。後當有肉身菩薩來此受戒。梁真諦於壇側手植二菩提樹。記云。百二十年後。有大士於此樹下說無上道。師乃坐樹下。大開東山法道。宛如宿契。明年歸韶州寶林（即曹溪也）神龍元年詔師入見。師上表辭疾。先天二年復歸新州國恩寺。既而示寂。弟子奉靈體反葬於曹溪。師化韶陽秀化洛下。南能北秀自此而分。上元元年肅宗遣使請衣鉢入內供養。永泰元年。代宗夢師請衣鉢還山。乃遣劉崇景頂戴而送。憲宗朝諡大鑑禪師。

The Sixth Patriarch was Huineng, of the Lu clan from Xinzhou. He gathered firewood to support his mother. Once, when he entered the marketplace, he heard a guest reciting the Diamond Sūtra. He asked: 'From whom did you receive this?' The guest replied: 'From Great Master Ren of Huangmei. He says that by reading this one can see one's nature and attain Buddhahood.' Huineng thereupon took leave of his mother and went to Shaozhou, where he became a friend of Liu Zhilüe. Zhilüe's paternal aunt was a nun who constantly read the Nirvāṇa Sūtra. The Master listened briefly and immediately expounded it. The nun then questioned him on the characters, to which the Master said: 'As for the characters, I do not know them; as for the meaning, feel free to ask.' The nun said: 'If you do not even know the characters, how can you grasp the meaning?' The Master said: 'The liberation of all Buddhas does not concern written words.' The nun marveled at him and called him a practitioner (xingzhe). The local residents paid homage and invited him to dwell at Baolin. During the Xianheng era, he reached Huangmei. The Patriarch asked: 'Where have you come from?' He replied: 'From Lingnan.' The Patriarch said: 'What do you seek?' He replied: 'I seek only to become a Buddha.' The Patriarch said: 'People from Lingnan have no Buddha-nature.' He replied: 'Humans have north and south, but how could Buddha-nature be so?' The Patriarch marveled at him and said: 'Go to the stable.' He then entered the pestle shed, tied a stone to his waist, and pounded rice. After eight months, the Fifth Patriarch instructed the assembly to each compose a verse, saying that if the expression and meaning secretly coincided [with the truth], he would transmit the robe and confer the Dharma. At that time, the assembly numbered seven hundred. The head monk Shenxiu wrote a verse on the corridor wall: 'The body is the bodhi tree, / The mind like a bright mirror stand. / At all times diligently wipe and brush it, / Do not allow dust to settle.' When the Master heard this, he said: 'Splendid though it is, it is not yet thorough.' At night, he ordered a young boy to write a verse on the wall: 'Bodhi originally has no tree, / The bright mirror is also not a stand. / Fundamentally not a single thing exists, / Why rely on wiping away dust?' The Fifth Patriarch learned of this and secretly sent someone at night to summon the Master. He told him: 'The Buddha transmitted the treasury of the true Dharma eye successively from one to another. I now transmit it to you together with the robe of faith. In the past, when Bodhidharma first arrived, he transmitted the robe to make plain the attainment of the Dharma. Now that faith is ripe, the robe is a source of contention. Let it stop with your person and transmit it no more.' The Master bowed to his feet, took the robe, and left, heading south throughout the night. At that time, the head monk Daoming heard of this and led men in pursuit to Dayuling. Ming arrived first. The Master threw the robe onto a rock, saying: 'This robe signifies faith; how could one contend for it with force?' Ming tried to lift it, but it would not move. He then said: 'I came to seek the Dharma, not for the sake of the robe.' The Master said: 'Thinking neither of good nor of evil, at precisely such a moment, which is the original face of the senior monk Ming?' Ming had a great awakening on the spot. He bowed and asked: 'Beyond the secret words and secret meanings conveyed above, is there still any other significance?' The Master said: 'What I have spoken to you now is not secret. If you reflect back upon yourself, the secret is on your side.' Ming gave thanks with a bow and returned. In the first year of the Yifeng era, he arrived in Nanhai and met Dharma Master Yinzong at Faxing Monastery. At dusk, the wind fluttered the temple banner. Two monks were debating: one said the banner moved, the other said the wind moved. The Master said: 'It is neither wind nor banner moving; your mind moves of itself.' Yinzong marveled at him and requested to receive the essentials of Zen. [The Master] then brought out the robe of faith and allowed the assembly to pay homage. Yinzong immediately shaved his hair and invited Vinaya Master Zhiguang to this monastery to preside at the platform and confer the full precepts. This platform had been built by Guṇavarman of the Liu Song dynasty, who had once foretold: 'Later there will be a bodily bodhisattva who comes here to receive the precepts.' Paramārtha of the Liang dynasty had planted two bodhi trees beside the platform with his own hands, and foretold: 'A hundred and twenty years later, a great being will expound the unsurpassed Way beneath these trees.' The Master then sat beneath the trees and broadly opened the Dharma gate of East Mountain, exactly matching the ancient predestination. The following year, he returned to Baolin in Shaozhou (that is, Caoxi). In the first year of the Shenlong era, an imperial edict summoned the Master for an audience, but he submitted a memorial declining on account of illness. In the second year of the Xiantian era, he returned again to Guo'en Monastery in Xinzhou, and soon afterward manifested nirvaṇa. His disciples escorted his holy remains back and buried them at Caoxi. The Master converted Shaoyang, while Xiu converted Luoxia; Southern Neng and Northern Xiu were divided from this time on. In the first year of the Shangyuan era, Emperor Suzong sent an envoy to invite the robe and bowl into the palace for worship. In the first year of the Yongtai era, Emperor Daizong dreamed of the Master requesting that the robe and bowl be returned to the mountain; he then dispatched Liu Chongjing to carry them upon his head and return them. In the reign of Emperor Xianzong, he was posthumously granted the title Zen Master Dajian.