釋氏稽古略 3.76

3.76

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*).