佛祖歷代通載 13.7

13.7

(4. Jiayin [714 CE]) On the seventeenth day of the tenth month of the second year, Chan Master Xuanjue of Yongjia demonstrated nirvāṇa. His surname was Dai. He went forth into the monastic life in his childhood, broadly mastered the Tripiṭaka, and was skilled in the wondrous, complete Dharma-gate of Tiantai calming and contemplation (śamatha-vipaśyanā). Together with Chan Master Ce of Dongyang, he went to visit the Sixth Patriarch. When the Master arrived, he shook his khakkhara and circumambulated the Patriarch three times. The Patriarch said, "A śramaṇa possesses three thousand dignified demeanors and eighty thousand subtle conducts. From where has the Great Worthy come, giving rise to such great arrogance?" The Master said, "The matter of birth and death is great; impermanence is swift." The Patriarch said, "Why not embody the unborn and realize the non-swift?" The Master said, "The embodiment itself is unborn; realization is originally without swiftness." The Patriarch said, "So it is, so it is." The Master then assumed dignified deportment, paid homage, and after a moment took his leave. The Patriarch said, "Are you not returning too quickly?" The Master said, "Originally there is no movement; how could there be quickness?" The Patriarch said, "Who knows it is non-moving?" The Master said, "The benevolent one yourself generates discrimination." The Patriarch said, "You have understood very clearly the meaning of the unborn." The Master said, "How could the unborn have any meaning?" The Patriarch said, "Without meaning, who discriminates?" He said, "Discrimination is also not a meaning." The Patriarch said, "Excellent, excellent! Stay for a night." At the time, he was called the "One-Night-Enlightened One." When he returned, students flocked to him. He composed a piece, the Zhengdao ge (Song of Enlightenment). An Indian monk transmitted it back to India, where all revered it, regarding it as a Mahāyāna scripture from the Eastern Land. He also wrote the Chan zong wu xiu yuan zhi (Ten Essays on the Complete Tenets of Enlightenment and Cultivation in the Chan School) and the Guan xin shi men (Ten Gates of Mind Contemplation), both of which were widely circulated in the world.