釋氏稽古略 3.213

3.213

Attendant Bumao. His Dharma name was Huitong. His surname was Wu (his secular name was Yuanqing), and he served as an Officer of Offerings. One day in the tenth year of the Yuanhe era, he memorialized the emperor: "Your servant from youth has not eaten meat; my aspiration is to follow the Śākya lineage." Within ten days he received an imperial edict granting permission to leave home. Soon his mother fell ill, and he returned to his home region in Hangzhou. He hastened to pay audience to Chan Master Niaoke by the lake, requesting tonsure. Niaoke said, "Few people who become monks nowadays are diligent and rigorous; their conduct is mostly superficial and excessive." Yuanqing said, "The fundamentally pure does not depend on grinding and polishing; the original brilliance does not follow external illumination." Niaoke said, "If you comprehend that pure wisdom is wonderfully perfect and its substance is naturally empty and tranquil, then that is true renunciation." Yuanqing steadfastly insisted, so Niaoke gave him the tonsure and administered the full precepts, naming him Huitong. Having attended on Niaoke for many years, he suddenly took leave of Niaoke, saying, "I am going to the various quarters to study the Buddha Dharma." Niaoke said, "There is also a little bit of the Buddha Dharma here." Tong said, "Please show me the Reverend's Buddha Dharma." Niaoke picked up a thread of cloth from his robe and blew on it. Tong suddenly awoke to the profound meaning, and thereupon did not travel on pilgrimage. He was elegantly nicknamed Attendant Bumao (Cloth-Fur Attendant). He established a monastery in the cove west of Ge Ridge, east of Xique Monastery, called Zhaoxian (Record of the Transmission of the Lamp).