宋高僧傳 8.6

8.6

Shi Huineng was surnamed Lu and was a native of Xinxing in Nanhai; his ancestors had lived for generations in Fanyang. His deceased father, whose taboo personal name was Xingtao, was banished during the Wude era to live among the common folk of Xinzhou and died in his place of exile. Recounting the family lineage in brief is to avoid [confusing him with] the dullness of the island barbarians of the Luting. He was born in the wuxu year, the twelfth year of Zhenguan. Of pure, good, and open nature, his insightful character stood out from time to time. Although the local Man customs and Lao traditions did not deeply contaminate him, his unconventional conduct and diminutive form were mixed and difficult to gauge. Having lost his father early, while his mother lived as a widow, the household was repeatedly destitute and possessed no fertile estate. Huineng carried firewood on his back, daily selling his shoulder-pole loads. By chance, hearing the Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra being recited in a marketplace shop, Huineng concentrated his mind and listened closely through the wall, lingering long without leaving. He asked, "From whom did you study and receive this sūtra?" The person answered, "From Dhyāna Master Ren at Mount Fengmao in Huangmei of Qizhou, who urges upholding this teaching, saying that one thereby immediately sees one's nature and achieves buddhahood." Hearing this explanation, Huineng was like a parched man drinking cold nectar; he hurried home, provided what was necessary, and left it to support his aged mother. During the Xianheng era, he went to Shaoyang and met Liu Zhilüe. Zhilüe had an aunt named Wujinzang who constantly read the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra. When Huineng listened, he forthwith analyzed the internal meaning for the nun. Surprised that Huineng could not read the graphs, she questioned him, and he said, "The principles and doctrines of the buddhas: if taken to be mere written characters, that is not the intention of the buddhas." The nun deeply admired and submitted to him, referring to him as an exemplary practitioner (xingzhe). Some urged him to cultivate the Way at the ancient Baolin Temple. He said to himself, "My original vow was to seek a teacher; yet if I covet dwelling in a temple to grasp the Way, how is that different from walking backward to return home?" The next day he departed, arriving at the stone cave west of Lechang County, where he relied upon Dhyāna Master Zhiyuan and attended his seat to discuss the esoteric. Yuan said, "The practitioner is certainly no ordinary dragon among men; I do not know, exceedingly I do not know [your measure]!" He advised him to proceed to the Fifth Patriarch in Qichun for certification: "I myself shall ultimately request instruction from you in a subordinate position." Before long he arrived there. Master Ren, seeing that Huineng's appearance and demeanor were unimposing, tested him, asking, "Where have you come from?" He replied, "I have come from beyond the Ridges to pay homage, seeking only to become a buddha." Ren said, "People from south of the Ridges have no buddha-nature." Huineng said, "Persons have north and south, but buddha-nature has no north or south." Ren asked, "What merits do you wish to perform?" He replied, "I wish to exhaust my strength clinging to the pestle-stone to pound rice and simply supply the assembly." Thus toiling at the well and mortar, he took the lead ahead of the lay servants (kappiya-kāraka); understanding birth and death, he saw them as equal to nirvāṇa. Although Ren nurtured him impartially, what could an ordinary mind discern? When Shenxiu was made to lead the singing, it prompted Huineng to harmonize in response. The verses were inscribed on the wall; their views diverged, and as wading deep or shallow differs, the superficial and the profound were thereby distinguished. Ren secretly entrusted him with the robe of the Dharma, saying, "From ancient times my ancestral teachers transmitted it in succession; how could it be a trifling matter? Alas! In future generations, the life of whoever receives my robe will hang by a thread. Young man, mark this well!" Huineng planned his return to his native place and hid between Sihui and Huaiji, gradually revealing his sharp acumen. Going to the grand gathering on the Nirvāṇa-sūtra held by Dharma Master Yinzong of Nanhai, when discourse arose regarding the wind and the banner, Yinzong's arguments were exhausted and his spirit yielded; he then shaved Huineng's topknot at Faxing Temple. Huineng received the complete precepts from Vinaya Master Zhiguang, ascending the very ordination platform that had been constructed by the Tripiṭaka Master Guṇavarman during the Southern Song dynasty. Guṇavarman had already attained the fruit of sagehood and left a predictive prophecy, saying: "Later, a bodhisattva in his flesh-body will receive the precepts here." Furthermore, at the end of the Liang, Tripiṭaka Master Paramārtha had planted a bodhi tree with his own hands beside the platform, telling the assembly: "One hundred and twenty years after this is planted, an enlightened being will expound the Supreme Vehicle beneath it and deliver immeasurable beings." When Huineng settled here and indeed opened the East Mountain teaching under the shade of the tree, both earlier prophecies were verified. During the Shangyuan era, as he was expounding the ancestral wind, he suddenly looked mournful and displeased. The great assembly asked, "Why are you feeling so melancholy?" He replied, "The ceaseless cycle of transience, arising and ceasing without permanence: my master has now returned to quiescence!" When the sorrowful notice arrived, his words were confirmed. Thereupon he moved to reside at Baolin Temple. At that time, Prefect Wei Ju invited him to come out to Dafan Temple; declining firmly, Huineng entered Caohou Creek on the Twin Peaks. The great dragon suddenly arose, spreading showers of moisture to bestow it everywhere, so that all living things were nourished, benefiting according to their roots and stalks. Monks in patchwork robes packed his gates; guests of the four assemblies encircled his seat. At times he expounded esoteric verses, or cited sūtras; all were universally suffused, all hearing the Elephant Treasure; simultaneously gaining wealth, all holding the serpent's pearl. All proceeded along the direct path, completely returning to the ultimate roundness. For this reason, whenever the world spoke of the way of dhyāna, Caoxi was on everyone's lips. When this reached the hearing of the Nine-fold Palace, feelings were stirred across ten thousand li, longing to publish imperial favor and receive him respectfully, wishing to take refuge and fulfill their aspirations. Empress Dowager Wu and Emperor Xiaohu both dispatched imperial rescripts summoning him to the capital, which were occasioned by the memorial recommendation of Dhyāna Master Shenxiu. Next, the palace official Xue Jian was sent with a summons, but Huineng again pleaded illness and declined to rise. How could the mind of Zimu dare forget the Phoenix Gate, or Master Huiyuan's feet fail to cross Tiger Creek? He firmly declined on this basis, not to play hard to get with the ruler. The court then bestowed an anointment patchwork robe (mona kāṣāya), a bowl, a sūtra-cover woven with threaded pearls, a flower-patterned cotton cloth with green ground and red halo, and five hundred bolts of silk to provide for his offerings. Furthermore, his old residence in Xinxing was donated to become Guo'en Temple. In the third year of Shenlong, it was decreed that the Buddha hall and abbot's quarters of the temple where Huineng resided in Shaozhou should be restored with strict magnificence, and the name plaque was altered by imperial favor to Faquan. In the seventh month of the first year of Yanhe, he instructed his disciples to erect a stūpa at Guo'en Temple, urging them to finish it quickly. On the third day of the eighth month of the second year of Xiantian, he suddenly manifested illness; an extraordinary fragrance filled the room, and a white rainbow connected with the ground. Having finished his meal, he bathed, changed clothes, snapped his fingers ceaselessly, and with faint breath and closed eyes, his entire physical form passed away forever. At that time, mountain rocks collapsed, streams and springs dried up, birds wept in continuous mournful tones, and gibbons wailed with heartbroken choked sobs. Some cried aloud, saying, "The eye of the world has vanished; on whom shall we rely?" His age was seventy-six. In the eleventh month of that year, his seat was relocated to the plain of Caoxi. His disciple Shenhui was to him what Yanzi was to the Confucius school; Huineng diligently gave him instructions, the account of which is in the biography of Shenhui. Shenhui erected Huineng's portrait hall at Heze Temple in Luoyang. Vice Minister of War Song Ding composed an inscription for it. Shenhui arranged the ancestral lineage, in which, aside from the patriarchs of the Western Regions descending from the Tathāgata, there were six patriarchs in the land of Cīna, all of whose likenesses were painted. Grand Defender Fang Guan composed the Preface to the Chart of the Six Leaves. Moreover, because Huineng's erect form did not decompose, looking as if he were entering dhyāna absorption, it was later covered with lacquered cloth. Furthermore, the Shu monk Fangbian sculpted a small replica image, which was identical to his former appearance. Huineng had once said, "After my passing, a virtuous man will surely take my head; do not blame him." Remembering these words, they wrapped iron bands around his neck. In the eleventh year of Kaiyuan, a man of Ruzhou indeed accepted payment from a Silla guest and stealthily applied a blade to the head, wishing to enshrine it in a casket and take it back to Korea for worship. Hearing the sound of iron being struck, they captured him. Beneath his stūpa was preserved an uttarāsaṅga made of kucī-cloth; its color was bluish-black, lined with jade-green thin silk, not a thing of the human realm. Stolen away several times, the thieves were baffled, walked backward, and returned it. During the Zhide era, Shenhui sent his disciple Jinping to deliver an ivory back-scratcher. He was held in high esteem by prominent court officials: Song Zhiwen visited Huineng and composed a lengthy piece; Zhang Yue, Duke of Yan, sent ten catties of incense together with a poem through Wu Pingyi, the poem saying: "The Great Master has renounced the world and departed; / in vain his Dharma-body remains! / We wish to send unhindered incense / to follow our thoughts to Nanhai." Because the disciple Huairang cast a giant bell, Duke Wu composed an inscription and praise for it, which was brushed by Song Zhiwen. Later, Song Jing, Military Commissioner of Guangzhou, came to pay homage at his stūpa and asked the disciple Lingtao about the meaning of the endurance of the non-arising of dharmas (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti). Hearing the Dharma, Duke Song rejoiced, and prayed toward the stūpa for an auspicious sign. In an instant, a gentle breeze gradually arose, an extraordinary fragrance suffused people, and a misty drizzle fell only encircling the one temple. Miraculous omens were somewhat numerous, but to avoid verbosity they are not recorded. Later, Emperor Suzong issued a summons to Huineng's disciple Lingtao; Tao pleaded illness and did not go, but sent Mingxiang carrying the inherited Dharma-robe and bowl to present to the emperor, which were returned after the presentation. Emperor Xianzong posthumously granted him the posthumous title Great Mirror (Dajian), and named his stūpa Yuanhe Zhengzhen. When the Liu family claimed imperial authority in Panyu during the late Tang, whenever they lit lanterns at the Shangyuan festival, they welcomed his true body into the city to pray for the people's blessings. After the Great Song pacified Nanhai, the bandit Zhou Siqiong of Shaozhou rebelled and burned down the temple and its stūpa, the fire threatening to spread. In ordinary times, the flesh-body could not be lifted except by several men; as the smoke and flames approached, two monks lifted it together, as light as a dry-lacquer cloth image. In the third year of Taiping Xingguo, our present sovereign decreed the rebuilding of the stūpa, and the name was changed to Nanhua Temple.