釋氏稽古略 3.250

3.250

In the yichou year, the fifth year [of Huichang], Zhao Guizhen recommended Deng Yuanchao, and together with Liu Xuanjing and others they even more fiercely attacked the Śākya lineage. In the fifth month, an imperial decree ordered the consolidation and reduction of Buddhist monasteries throughout the empire and the purge of Buddhist monastics. Chan Master Huizhong, [known as] Zhizhen of Guiyang in Fuzhou, composed ten gāthās, three of which are presented here: / 'The bright moon divides its form, fresh in every place; / How could a white-robed layman fall behind one who understands emptiness? / Who says that dwelling in the secular world hinders the cultivation of the Way? / Golden Grain (Vimalakīrti the Elder) once took the form of an elder.' / 'When the Rishi of Patience sat in meditation beneath the trees, / He once had his limbs cut off by King Kali. / How much more so in our sagely court there is no such affair— / Being merely commanded to cease practicing the Way, why should one grieve?' / 'Though appearance changes, the Way is constantly preserved; / Mingling with the secular, the source of the mind is also not clouded. / Try reading the pilgrimage gāthās of Sudhana: / Were they in those days without exception śramaṇas?' / Zhong was a son of the Liu family of Yangzhou, heir to Caotang Yi; Yi was an heir to Chan Master Caoshan Danzhang, [whose taboo name was] Benji of Fuzhou; Ji was an heir to Dongshan Jie (Transmission of the Lamp).