佛祖歷代通載 12.39

12.39

（二十　乙亥）　是年五祖弘忍大師示寂。師蘄州黃梅周氏子。生而岐嶷。兒時有異僧歎曰。是子闕七種相。不逮如來。後遇信大師得法。嗣化於破頭山。咸亨中有盧居士者名惠能。自遠來參。師問。汝自何來。曰嶺南。師曰。欲求何事。曰唯求作佛。祖曰。嶺南人無佛性。若為得佛。曰。人即有南北。佛性豈然。師知其異。乃訶之曰。著槽厰去。能禮足而退。便入碓坊服勞於杵臼之間。經旬月祖知付法時至。遂告眾曰。正法難解。不可徒記吾言將為已任。汝等各自隨意述一偈。若語意冥符衣法皆付。時會七百餘眾。神秀居第一座。學通內外眾所推仰。秀亦自負無出其右者。不復思惟。乃於廊壁間書一偈曰。身是菩提樹。心如明鏡臺。時時勤拂拭。莫遣惹塵埃。祖因行次見偈。心知秀之所為。因紿曰。後代依此修行亦得道果。眾聆此語人各諷誦。他日能在碓坊。聞偈乃問同列。此誰為之。同侶告以和上將欲付法各令述偈。此乃秀上座所為。能曰。美則美矣。了則未了。同侶共訶其謬妄。能至莫命童子引至廊間。能自執燭令童子於秀偈側寫偈曰。菩提本無樹。明鏡亦非臺。本來無一物。何假拂塵埃。祖復見此默念。必能之所為。因故為之語曰。此誰作亦未見性。眾以師弗許皆莫之顧。即於是夕潛使人自碓坊喚能至。告曰。諸佛出世為一大事因緣。隨機大小而引化之。遂有十地三乘頓漸等法。以為教門。然以微妙祕密圓明真實正法眼藏付于上首迦葉。展轉傳授二十八世。至菩提達磨大師屆于此土得可祖。承襲以至于吾。吾今授汝。并所傳袈裟用以表信。汝善護持勿令斷絕。聽吾偈曰。有情來下種。因地果還生。無情既無種。無性亦無生。能受畢乃曰。法則既受。衣付何人。師曰。昔達磨初至。人未之信。故傳此衣以明得法。今信心已熟。衣乃爭端。止於汝身勿復傳也。且當遠引俟時行化。所謂受衣之人命如懸絲。能曰。當隱何所。祖曰。逢懷且止。遇會即藏。能禮足捧衣而出。通夕南邁。眾皆未知。祖由是三日不上堂。眾疑之因致問。祖曰。吾道行矣。又問。衣法誰傳。祖曰。能者傳之。眾意盧居士名能必此人也。共力推尋能已不在。至有相率而物色追之者。祖既付法已。復經四載而寂。塔于東山。代宗諡大滿禪師法雨之塔。

(20; yihai) In this year, the Great Master Hongren, the Fifth Patriarch, showed nirvanic cessation. The Master was a son of the Zhou clan of Huangmei in Qizhou. At birth he was extraordinarily bright. When he was a child, an exceptional monk sighed and said: "This child lacks only seven physical marks; otherwise, he would not fall short of a Tathāgata." Later he met Master [Dao]xin and attained the Dharma, succeeding to the teaching at Mount Potou. During the Xianheng era, there was a lay devotee named Lu Huineng, who came from afar to pay respects. The Master asked, "Where do you come from?" He replied, "Lingnan." The Master asked, "What do you seek?" He replied, "I seek only to become a Buddha." The Patriarch said, "People of Lingnan have no Buddha-nature; how can you attain buddhahood?" He replied, "People may be from north or south, but how could Buddha-nature be so?" The Master, knowing he was extraordinary, then scolded him, saying, "Go to the work shed!" Neng bowed to his feet and withdrew, then went into the threshing room to labor among the mortars and pestles. After several months, the Patriarch, knowing the time to transmit the Dharma had arrived, told the assembly: "The True Dharma is difficult to understand; you must not merely memorize my words and consider that your own task. Each of you, as you see fit, compose a verse. If your words and meaning subtly tally, the robe and Dharma will both be transmitted." At that time the assembly numbered more than seven hundred, and Shenxiu occupied the first seat. His learning encompassed the internal and external [teachings], and he was looked up to by the assembly. Shenxiu also prided himself that none surpassed him, and without further contemplation, he wrote a verse on the corridor wall, saying:
"The body is the bodhi tree,
The mind is like a clear mirror stand.
Time and again diligently wipe it,
Do not let it gather dust."
The Patriarch, passing by, saw the verse and knew in his heart it was Shenxiu's work. He then dissembled, saying: "If future generations practice according to this, they will also attain the fruit of the Way." Hearing these words, everyone recited it. Another day, Neng was in the threshing room, heard the verse, and asked his companion, "Who made this?" His companion told him that the Upādhyāya was about to transmit the Dharma and had ordered everyone to compose a verse, and that this was the work of Elder Shenxiu. Neng said: "Beautiful as it is, it is not yet complete." His companions together scolded him for his absurdity. In the evening, Neng had a boy lead him to the corridor; holding a candle himself, Neng had the boy write a verse beside Shenxiu's verse, saying:
"Bodhi originally has no tree,
The clear mirror is also not a stand.
Originally there is not a single thing;
Where could dust gather?"
The Patriarch saw this again and thought silently: "This must be Neng's doing." He therefore deliberately said: "Who made this? This one too has not yet seen the nature." Because the Master did not approve it, the assembly paid no more attention to it. That very night, he secretly sent someone to summon Neng from the threshing room, and told him: "The Buddhas appear in the world for one great cause, guiding and transforming beings according to their faculties, great or small; thus there are the ten stages, the three vehicles, the sudden and the gradual teachings to serve as gateways of instruction. Yet with the marvelous, secret, complete, luminous, and true Treasury of the Eye of the Correct Dharma, it was entrusted to the foremost, Kāśyapa, and transmitted down for twenty-eight generations until Great Master Bodhidharma arrived in this land and found Patriarch Ke, handing it down successively to me. I now confer it upon you, along with the transmitted kāṣāya to serve as a token of trust. Protect and maintain it well; do not let it be broken off. Listen to my verse:
'Sentient beings come to sow the seeds;
From the causal ground the fruit is born again.
Inanimate things, having no seeds,
Have no nature and are unborn.'"
After Neng received it, he asked, "The Dharma having been received, to whom should the robe be transmitted?" The Master said: "Formerly when Bodhidharma first arrived, people did not believe him, so he transmitted this robe to make plain the attainment of the Dharma. Now that faith has matured, the robe is a source of contention; let it stop with your person and do not transmit it further! Moreover, you must withdraw far away to await the right time to carry out the transformation. As it is said, the life of the person who receives the robe hangs by a thread." Neng asked, "Where should I hide?" The Patriarch said, "When you meet Huai, stop; when you encounter Hui, hide." Neng bowed to his feet, held the robe, and went out, traveling south through the night, without anyone in the assembly knowing. Because of this, the Patriarch did not ascend the hall for three days. The assembly was suspicious and asked him about it. The Patriarch said, "My Way has gone forth!" They further asked, "To whom was the robe and Dharma transmitted?" The Patriarch said, "The able (neng) one transmitted it." The assembly reasoned that the lay devotee Lu was named Neng, so it must be this person. They searched for him together, but Neng was already gone; some even went so far as to band together to hunt him down. After the Patriarch had transmitted the Dharma, he passed away four years later. A stūpa was erected at Dongshan; Emperor Daizong bestowed the posthumous title Great Master Daman and the Stūpa of the Rain of the Dharma.