景德傳燈錄 1.81

1.81

The sixth patriarch was Miccaka. He was a native of Central India. Having received the transmission of the Dharma, he traveled and taught until he reached Northern India. Seeing golden auspicious clouds above the battlements of the city wall, he sighed and said: 'This is the air of a person of the Way. There must surely be a great being who will be my Dharma heir.' He then entered the city. In the marketplace, there was a man holding a wine vessel in his hand, who approached and asked: 'From where has the Master come, and where do you wish to go?' The Master said: 'I come from my own mind, and wish to go to no-place.' The man said: 'Do you recognize the object in my hand?' The Master said: 'This is an impure vessel that holds what is pure.' The man said: 'Does the Master still recognize me?' The Master said: 'I do not recognize; that which recognizes is not I.' He further said to him: 'Try naming your surname and personal name, and I will later reveal your original cause.' That man answered in verse: 'From immeasurable kalpas / down to my birth in this land, / my original surname is Bhāradvāja, / and my personal name is Vasumitra.' The Master said: 'My teacher Dhītika said that formerly, when the World-Honoured One was traveling in Northern India, he said to Ānanda: "Three hundred years after my extinction, there will be a holy person in this land whose surname will be Bhāradvāja and whose name will be Vasumitra, and among the Zen patriarchs he shall be the seventh." The World-Honoured One predicted you; you should go forth from home.' The man then set down the vessel, bowed to the Master, stood to the side, and said: 'Reflecting on past kalpas, I once acted as a dānapati, offering a jeweled seat to a Tathāgata. That Buddha gave me a prediction, saying: "In the Bhadrakalpa, within the Dharma of Śākyamuni, you shall propagate the supreme teaching." Now it tallies with the Master's words. I pray that you will liberate me.' The Master immediately shaved his head and conferred the full precepts, and then told him: 'The Treasury of the Correct Dharma Eye is now entrusted to you; do not let it be severed.' He then spoke a gāthā, saying: