景德傳燈錄 13.45.1

13.45.1

Chan Master Zongmi of Guifeng on Mount Zhongnan was a native of Xichong in Guozhou whose family name was He. His family was originally noble and prosperous. From childhood he mastered the Confucian classics, and upon capping he explored the Buddhist scriptures. In the second year of the Yuanhe era of the Tang (807 CE), when he was about to take the imperial examination, he encountered the Dharma assembly of Upādhyāya Daoyuan; joyfully matching minds with him, he sought ordination. That same year he took full ordination. One day, accompanying the assembly of monks to a meal at the residence of the prefectural clerk Ren Guan, he sat in a lower seat. Receiving the scriptures in order, he obtained the twelve chapters of the Scripture of Complete Enlightenment. Before he had finished reading the scroll, he was deeply moved and shed tears of realization. Returning, he reported the purport of what he had realized to Daoyuan. Daoyuan stroked him and said, “You shall greatly propagate the complete and sudden teaching. This was bestowed on you by the Buddhas. Go forth, do not linger in a single corner.” Weeping, the master received the command, paid homage, and departed. He subsequently visited Chan Master Zhang of Jingnan (Nanyin). Zhang said, “You are a propagator of the teaching; you should proclaim and guide in the imperial capital.” He again met Chan Master Zhao of Luoyang (Shenzhao of Fengguo). Zhao said, “He is a bodhisattva person; who could fathom him?” Soon he reached Xianghan. There, a sick monk entrusted to him a commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, which had been composed by Great Master Chengguan of the Upper Capital. The master had never studied it, yet upon a single reading he lectured on it. Reassuring himself of what he had encountered, he said, “In the past, the works of the various masters rarely fathomed its ultimate purport; none is like this commentary, whose river of words flows smoothly and whose hidden subtleties are illuminated. In Chan, I encountered the Southern school; in doctrine, I met the Complete Enlightenment. With a single word, the mind-ground opened up; in a single scroll, the sky of meaning shone brightly. Now, chancing upon this supreme work, my heart is completely poured out.” When the lectures were finished, he wished to see the author of the commentary. At that time, it happened that his disciple Taigong severed his arm to repay his kindness. The master first sent a letter to the commentator, recounting from afar their mutual joy and comfort as master and disciple. Soon after Taigong’s wound healed, he then accompanied him to the Upper Capital to perform the duties of a disciple. Chengguan said, “Could it be you who can roam with me through Vairocana's Flower Treasury?” The master entered Chengguan’s room, and though his virtue renewed daily, the fault of clinging to the fish-trap and grasping at images was extinguished forever. He traveled north to Mount Qingliang, and returning, resided at Caotang Temple in Hu County. Before long, he re-entered the Guifeng hermitage south of the temple. In the Dahe era, he was summoned to the imperial palace and granted a purple robe. The emperor repeatedly inquired about the essentials of the Dharma. The court officials looked up to him with admiration; only Prime Minister Lord Pei Xiu penetrated deeply into the inner sanctum, receiving his teachings and serving as his external protector. Because scholars of Chan and doctrinal studies mutually maligned each other, the master composed the *Collected Explanations of the Sources of Chan*, transcribing what was stated by various masters and explaining the fundamental source and principle of the Chan gate. Gathering their words, sentences, and verses into a single canon (some say one hundred fascicles), he bequeathed it to later generations. His General Preface says in brief: “Chan is an Indic term; spoken fully, it is dhyāna. Translated, it means 'cultivation of thought,' or 'quiet contemplation.' Both are general terms for concentration and wisdom. 'Source' refers to the originally awakened true nature of all sentient beings, also named Buddha-nature, and also named mind-ground. Awakening to it is called wisdom; cultivating it is called concentration. Concentration and wisdom are collectively termed Chan. This nature is the root source of Chan; therefore it is called 'source of Chan.' It is also called dhyāna. 'Principle and practice': this root source is the principle of Chan; forgetting emotional attachments and according with it is the practice of Chan. Therefore it is said 'principle and practice.' However, the works of various masters collected here mostly discuss the principle of Chan and rarely speak of the practice of Chan; therefore, it is provisionally entitled 'Sources of Chan.' Nowadays, there are those who simply regard the true nature as Chan; this is failing to grasp the purport of principle and practice, and also failing to distinguish the sounds of China and India. Yet the substance of Chan does not exist apart from the true nature. It is only that when sentient beings are confused about the real and unite with dust, it is called distraction; when they turn their backs on dust and unite with the real, it is called Chan concentration. If one directly discusses the original nature, then it is neither real nor false, without turning back or uniting, without concentration or distraction—who speaks of Chan? Moreover, this true nature is not only the source of the Chan gate, but also the source of the ten thousand phenomena; therefore it is called Dharma-nature. It is also the source of the confusion and enlightenment of sentient beings; therefore it is called the Tathāgata-garbha and the storehouse consciousness (appearing in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra). It is also the source of the myriad virtues of all Buddhas; therefore it is called Buddha-nature (appearing in scriptures such as the Nirvāṇa Sūtra). It is also the source of the myriad practices of bodhisattvas; therefore it is called mind-ground (the chapter on the 'Dharma-gate of the Mind-Ground' in the Brahma Net Sūtra says: 'It is the root source of all Buddhas, the foundation of practicing the bodhisattva path, and the foundation of the great assembly of all Buddha sons'). The myriad practices do not go beyond the six pāramitās, and the Chan gate is merely one of the six, being the fifth. How could one universally regard the true nature as merely one practice of Chan? Yet the single practice of Chan concentration is the most wondrously spiritual: it can engender the outflow-free wisdom of one's nature. All wondrous functions, myriad practices, myriad virtues, and even spiritual penetrations and radiance arise from concentration. Therefore, students of the three vehicles who wish to seek the noble path must cultivate Chan. Apart from this, there is no gate; apart from this, there is no road. As for reciting the Buddha's name and seeking birth in the Pure Land, one also cultivates the sixteen contemplative Chans, the Buddha-mindfulness samādhi, and the pratyutpanna samādhi. Furthermore, the true nature is neither defiled nor pure, without distinction between the ordinary and the sacred; yet Chan has shallow and deep, with distinct stages. That which is cultivated with deviant views, delighting in the higher and detesting the lower, is non-Buddhist Chan. That which is cultivated with correct faith in cause and effect, yet also through delight and detestation, is ordinary Chan. That which is cultivated upon awakening to the principle of self-emptiness and biased truth is Hinayana Chan. That which is cultivated upon awakening to the true principle revealed by the emptiness of both self and phenomena is Mahayana Chan (the above four categories all have differences of the four form realms and four formless realms). If one suddenly awakens to one’s own mind as originally pure, fundamentally without defilements, the outflow-free nature of wisdom being intrinsically complete, and that this mind is Buddha, ultimately not different—that which is cultivated relying on this is the Supreme Vehicle Chan, also called the Tathāgata’s Pure Chan, the Samādhi of One Practice, and the Suchness Samādhi. This is the root of all samādhis. If one can cultivate and practice it thought after thought, one will naturally and gradually attain hundreds of thousands of samādhis. What has been transmitted from one to another within Bodhidharma’s lineage is this Chan. Before Bodhidharma arrived, the understanding of the various ancient masters was all the aforementioned four Chans and eight absorptions; various eminent monks cultivated them and all obtained efficacy. Nanyue and Tiantai caused one to cultivate the three cessations and three contemplations according to the principle of the three truths; although their doctrinal meaning was the most complete and wondrous, the order of their entry gates was still merely the forms and practices of the previous Chans. Only what Bodhidharma transmitted is suddenly identical with the Buddha-body and far surpasses all other gates. Therefore, those who follow the tradition find it difficult to grasp its purport. If one grasps it, one becomes a sage and quickly verifies bodhi; if one misses it, one turns heterodox and swiftly enters misery. The ancestral masters, reforming ignorance and guarding against error, therefore transmitted it only from one person to another. Since later generations already had something to rely upon, they allowed a thousand lamps to shine a thousand times. But when the Dharma endured for long, corruptions arose.”