釋氏稽古略 3.76

3.76

五祖弘忍大師尊者　蘄川黃梅縣人也。先為破頭山栽松道者。甞請於四祖曰。法道可得聞乎。祖曰。汝已老。脫有聞其能廣化邪。儻若再來吾尚可遲汝。道者去行水邊。見一女子浣衣揖曰。寄宿得否。女曰。我有父兄可往求之。道者曰。諾。我則敢往求。女首肯之。道者回策歸山而化。其女周氏季子輟孕。父母大惡逐之。女無所歸。日庸紡里中夕止眾舘下。已而生一子。以為不祥。拋濁港中。明日泝流而上。大驚遂舉之。成童隨母乞食。里中逢一智者。嘆曰。此兒缺七種相不逮如來。後遇四祖得度。受其傳法。嗣化於破頭山。至是咸亨二年有一居士盧慧能者。自新州來參祖。問曰。何來。盧曰嶺南。祖曰。欲須何事。曰唯求作佛。祖曰。嶺南人無佛性若為得佛。曰人有南北。佛性豈然。祖呵曰。着槽廠去。盧禮而退。便入碓坊。服勞杵臼間經餘八月。祖知付授時至。令眾各隨意見以述一偈。時會下七百餘僧。上座神秀者學通內外眾所尊仰。咸推稱曰。若非尊秀疇敢當之。神秀聞譽書一偈於廊壁曰。身是菩提樹。心如明鏡臺。時時勤拂拭。莫使惹塵埃。祖見之讚嘆曰。依此修行亦得勝果。盧聞之乃曰。美則美矣。了則未了。至夜盧躬秉燭請張日用別駕。書一偈於秀偈之側曰。菩提本無樹。明鏡亦非臺。本來無一物。何處惹塵埃。祖見偈已潛往碓坊問曰。米白也未。盧曰白也未經篩。祖以杖三擊於碓。盧即以三鼓入室。祖告之曰。諸佛出世以大事因緣故隨機大小而引導之。遂有十地三乘頓漸等旨。為之教門。然以無上微妙祕密圓明真實正法眼藏付于上首大迦葉尊者。展轉傳授二十八世至菩提達磨祖師。乃以東來。東之益傳適至於我。我今以是大法并其所受僧伽黎衣寶鉢皆付於汝。善保護之。無使法絕。聽吾偈曰。有情來下種。因地果還生。無情既無種。無性亦無生。盧受法已。作禮問曰。法則聞命。衣鉢復傳授乎。祖曰。昔達磨來自異域。恐世未信其師承。故以衣鉢為驗。今天下已知信矣。可止於汝矣。且當遠隱俟時行化。所謂受衣之人命如懸絲也。盧曰當往何所。祖曰。逢懷即止遇會且藏。盧禮足已即夕去之。眾疑祖三日不上堂扣之。祖曰。吾道行矣。問曰。衣鉢誰得耶。祖曰。能者得之。眾議盧名能。必彼得而往矣。祖付衣法已復經四載。當上元二年告眾曰。吾今事畢。時可行矣。入室安坐而逝。壽七十四。建塔於黃梅之東山。代宗諡號曰大滿禪師。塔曰法雨（正宗記）。

The Fifth Patriarch, Great Master and Venerable Hongren. He was a native of Huangmei County in Qichuan. Formerly he had been the pine-planting practitioner on Mount Potou. He once requested of the Fourth Patriarch, "May the Way of the Dharma be heard?" The Patriarch said, "You are already old. Even if you were to hear it, could you widely transform others? If you come again, I might still wait for you." The practitioner left and, walking by the water's edge, saw a woman washing clothes. He bowed and said, "May I lodge for the night?" The woman said, "I have a father and elder brothers; you may go ask them." The practitioner said, "Very well, then I shall dare to ask." The woman nodded to him. The practitioner turned his staff, returned to the mountain, and passed away. The woman, the youngest daughter of the Zhou clan, became pregnant without having married. Her parents detested her greatly and drove her out. The woman had nowhere to go; by day she hired herself out spinning thread in the village, and at night she stayed under public shelters. In time she gave birth to a son; considering him inauspicious, she threw him into a turbid creek. The next day, he was floating upstream against the current. Greatly astonished, she picked him up. When he grew to boyhood, he followed his mother begging for food. In the village, they encountered a wise person, who sighed and said, "This boy lacks only seven marks; otherwise he falls no short of the Tathāgata." Later, he met the Fourth Patriarch, was ordained, received his transmission of the Dharma, and continued the teaching at Mount Potou. In the second year of Xianheng, there was a lay devotee named Lu Huineng, who came from Xinzhou to visit the Patriarch. The Patriarch asked, "Where do you come from?" Lu said, "Lingnan." The Patriarch said, "What do you desire?" He said, "I only seek 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 Patriarch rebuked him, saying, "Go to the stables!" Lu bowed and withdrew, immediately entering the pestle shed, laboring among the mortars and pestles for over eight months. The Patriarch knew that the time for transmission had arrived and ordered the assembly to each compose a verse according to their understanding. At that time, there were over seven hundred monks in the assembly. The head monk Shenxiu was thoroughly versed in both inner and outer learning and was revered by all; everyone recommended and praised him, saying, "If not the venerable Xiu, who would dare undertake it?" Shenxiu, hearing these praises, wrote a verse on the corridor wall: "The body is the bodhi tree, / the mind is like a bright mirror-stand. / At all times diligently wipe it clean, / do not let it gather dust." When the Patriarch saw it, he praised it, saying, "Practicing in accordance with this will also yield superior fruits." When Lu heard it, he said, "Fine though it is, complete it is not." That night, Lu personally held a torch and asked Assistant Magistrate Zhang Riyong to write a verse beside Xiu's verse: "Bodhi originally has no tree, / nor is the bright mirror a stand. / From the beginning there is not a single thing; / where can dust gather?" After the Patriarch saw the verse, he went secretly to the pestle shed and asked, "Is the rice white yet?" Lu said, "It is white, but has not yet been sifted." The Patriarch struck the pestle three times with his staff. Lu then entered his room at the third watch. The Patriarch said to him, "When the Buddhas appear in the world, on account of the one great cause they guide beings according to their differing capacities, large or small. Thus there are principles such as the ten stages, the three vehicles, the sudden, and the gradual, serving as teachings. Yet with the supreme, wondrous, secret, completely luminous, and real Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, it was entrusted to the foremost, the Venerable Mahākāśyapa, and transmitted step by step through twenty-eight generations down to Patriarch Bodhidharma, who then brought it to the east. In the east, it was transmitted further, right down to me. Now, I entrust this Great Dharma, together with the saṃghāṭī robe and precious bowl I received, entirely to you. Guard and protect it well; do not let the Dharma be cut off. Listen to my verse: 'Sentient beings come to sow seeds; / through the causal ground fruits are born anew. / The insentient, having no seeds, / have no nature and no birth.'" After Lu received the Dharma, he paid homage and asked, "I have received instruction regarding the Dharma; will the robe and bowl be transmitted further?" The Patriarch said, "Formerly, Bodhidharma came from a foreign land; fearing that people would not believe his lineage, he used the robe and bowl as verification. Now that all under heaven have faith, it should stop with you. Furthermore, you should hide yourself far away and await the right time to propagate the teaching, for it is said: 'The life of the one who receives the robe hangs as by a thread.'" Lu said, "Where should I go?" The Patriarch said, "When you encounter Huai, stop; when you meet Hui, conceal yourself." Lu bowed to his feet and departed that very night. When the assembly wondered why the Patriarch had not ascended the hall for three days, they inquired of him. The Patriarch said, "My Way has gone forth." They asked, "Who obtained the robe and bowl?" The Patriarch said, "The capable one (Neng) obtained it." The assembly discussed this: "Lu's name is Neng; it must be he who obtained it and departed." Four years after the Patriarch entrusted the robe and the Dharma, in the second year of Shangyuan, he told the assembly: "My work is now complete; it is time for me to go." He entered his room, sat peacefully, and passed away at the age of seventy-four. A stūpa was erected for him on the East Mountain of Huangmei. Daizong posthumously granted him the title Chan Master Daman, and his stūpa was named Fayu (from the *Zhengzong ji*).