釋氏稽古略 3.123

3.123

六祖慧能大士尊者　俗姓盧氏。名能。其先本籍范陽（今豕州也冀域）。父行[啗-口+王]高祖武德年謫官新州生能。遂為新興人也。甫三歲而父喪母守節育之。及長家益貧。祖乃採薪鬻而供母。一日過市廛。聞客讀經應無所住而生其心。問客曰。此法得於何人。客曰。此名金剛經。得於黃梅忍大師。祖遽告其母。即趨。五祖抵韶州。尼無盡藏者讀涅槃經。尼問經字。祖曰。字則不識。義則請問。尼曰字尚不識。曷能會義。祖曰。諸佛妙理非關文字。尼驚異之。謂人曰。能是有道之人宜供養之。近處寶林古寺舊基。眾請營茸而延居之。四眾雲集俄成寶坊。祖念大法。直造黃梅之東山。即高宗咸亨二年也。既得法已。機語列于五祖章下。丙子儀鳳元年正月八日。回屆南海法性寺。二僧論風動幡動。祖曰。不是風動不是幡動仁者心動。印宗法師聞之竦異。遂邀祖扣其所自。乃知其為盧居士也。正月十五日會諸名德為祖剃落。二月八日法性寺就智光律師受具戒。既得戒遂開東山法門。明年二月八日歸寶林寺。韶州刺史韋據請於大梵寺轉妙法輪。并受無相心地戒。門人紀錄目為壇經。後返曹溪雨大法雨。中宗神龍元年四月。帝遣內侍薛簡詔師不起。簡以所資法要回奏。帝嘆美詔賜磨衲袈裟鉢絹。十二月十九日勅改韶州古寶林為中興寺。丁未十一月十八日又勅韶州刺史重加崇飾。賜額為法泉寺。祖新州舊居為國恩寺。睿宗先天元年一日。忽謂眾曰。吾忝於忍大師處受其法要并及衣鉢。今為汝等信根純熟。但說法要無有疑者。衣鉢不須傳也。聽吾偈曰。心地含諸種。普雨悉皆生。頓悟華情已。菩提果自成次年七月一日吾返新州國恩寺。至是度人說法已。四十年八月三日。沐浴跏趺而化。壽七十六。十一月十三日歸塔於曹溪。今南華寺是也。前刺史韋據碑之（正宗記）。肅宗上元元年。帝慕祖之道。遣使詔取其所傳西竺衣鉢。就內瞻禮。代宗嗣位。承泰元年五月五日。帝夢祖請衣鉢還。帝即遣使馳送曹溪。憲宗元和十年。南海經略。馬總以曹溪六祖未有諡請于朝。帝賜諡曰大鑑禪師。塔曰靈照。總又請柳子厚為師撰行業碑（傳燈錄。又子厚文集）。

The Sixth Patriarch, the Mahāsattva and Venerable Huineng. His secular surname was Lu, and his given name was Neng. His ancestors originally had their native registry in Fanyang (now Zhuozhou, in the territory of Ji). His father, Xingtao, was demoted to an official post in Xinzhou during the Wude era of Gaozu, where Neng was born; thus he became a native of Xinxing. When he was just three years old, his father died, and his mother maintained her chastity and raised him. When he grew up, the family became increasingly poor, so the Patriarch gathered and sold firewood to support his mother. One day, passing through the marketplace, he heard a traveler reciting a scripture: 'One should produce that thought which does not abide anywhere.' He asked the traveler, 'From whom was this Dharma obtained?' The traveler said, 'This is called the Diamond Sūtra, and it was obtained from the Great Master Ren of Huangmei.' The Patriarch at once informed his mother and hurried off to the Fifth Patriarch, arriving at Shaozhou. There was a nun named Wujinzang reciting the Nirvāṇa Sūtra. The nun asked about the characters of the scripture. The Patriarch said, 'As for the characters, I do not know them; as for the meaning, please ask.' The nun said, 'If you do not even know the characters, how can you understand the meaning?' The Patriarch said, 'The marvelous principle of all Buddhas does not concern written characters.' The nun was amazed and said to the people, 'Neng is a man who possesses the Way; we ought to make offerings to him.' Nearby were the old foundations of the ancient Baolin Temple; the assembly requested that it be repaired and invited him to dwell there. The four assemblies gathered like clouds, and it soon became a jeweled sanctuary. The Patriarch, mindful of the Great Dharma, went directly to East Mountain in Huangmei; this was in the second year of Gaozong's Xianheng era [671]. After he had obtained the Dharma, the pivotal dialogues are recorded in the chapter on the Fifth Patriarch. On the eighth day of the first month in the first year of Yifeng, a bingzi year [676], he arrived back at Faxing Temple in Nanhai. Two monks were debating whether the wind moved or the banner moved. The Patriarch said, 'It is neither the wind that moves nor the banner that moves; it is the minds of you benevolent ones that move.' Dharma Master Yinzong heard this and was astonished; he thereupon invited the Patriarch and questioned his origins, thus learning that he was Layman Lu. On the fifteenth day of the first month, he convened various eminent and virtuous monks to tonsure the Patriarch. On the eighth day of the second month, at Faxing Temple, [the Patriarch] received the full precepts from Vinaya Master Zhiguang. Having received the precepts, he thereupon opened the Dharma gate of East Mountain. On the eighth day of the second month of the following year, he returned to Baolin Temple. Wei Ju, the Prefect of Shaozhou, invited him to turn the marvelous wheel of the Dharma at Dafan Temple and to transmit the formless mind-ground precepts. His disciples recorded them, titling [the work] the Platform Sūtra. Afterwards, he returned to Caoxi and rained down the great rain of Dharma. In the fourth month of the first year of Zhongzong's Shenlong era [705], the Emperor dispatched the palace attendant Xue Jian to summon the master, but he did not rise [to go]. Jian reported back with the essentials of the Dharma that he had drawn upon, and the Emperor praised him with sighs of admiration, issuing an edict bestowing a patchwork kāṣāya robe, a bowl, and silk. On the nineteenth day of the twelfth month, an imperial edict renamed the ancient Baolin Temple of Shaozhou as Zhongxing Temple. On the eighteenth day of the eleventh month of the dingwei year [707], an imperial edict further instructed the Prefect of Shaozhou to re-adorn and embellish it, bestowing the temple plaque reading 'Faquan Temple.' The Patriarch's former residence in Xinzhou became Guo'en Temple. One day in the first year of Ruizong's Xiantian era [712], he suddenly said to the assembly: 'I have humbly received the essentials of the Dharma along with the robe and bowl from Great Master Ren. Now, because your faculties of faith are pure and mature, I merely speak the essentials of the Dharma without any doubts; the robe and bowl need not be transmitted. Listen to my verse:
'The mind-ground contains all seeds;
With universal rain, all of them sprout.
Once flower-like sentience is suddenly awakened,
The fruit of bodhi naturally matures.'
'On the first day of the seventh month of next year, I shall return to Guo'en Temple in Xinzhou.' By this time, he had been delivering people and preaching the Dharma for forty years. On the third day of the eighth month, he bathed, sat cross-legged, and passed away at the age of seventy-six. On the thirteenth day of the eleventh month, he was entombed in a stupa at Caoxi; this is the present Nanhua Temple. The former Prefect Wei Ju composed his stele (Zhengzong ji). In the first year of Shangyuan under Suzong [760], the Emperor, admiring the Patriarch's Way, dispatched an envoy with an imperial decree to take the Western Indian robe and bowl transmitted by him, so as to pay reverence to them in the palace. When Daizong succeeded to the throne, on the fifth day of the fifth month of the first year of Dali [766], the Emperor dreamed that the Patriarch asked for the robe and bowl to be returned; the Emperor at once dispatched an envoy to rush and deliver them to Caoxi. In the tenth year of Xianzong's Yuanhe era [815], Ma Zong, the Military Commissioner of Nanhai, petitioned the court because the Sixth Patriarch of Caoxi had not yet been granted a posthumous title. The Emperor bestowed the posthumous title Chan Master Dajian ('Great Mirror') and named the stupa Lingzhao ('Spiritual Illumination'). Zong also requested Liu Zihou to compose a stele recording the master's deeds and conduct (Transmission of the Lamp; also the Collected Works of Zihou).