景德傳燈錄 3.19

3.19

Zen Master Huiman of Longhua Monastery in Xiangzhou was a man of Xingyang. His surname was Zhang. He first met Zen Master Sengna at this monastery and received his instruction. He was set upon frugality, keeping only two needles; in winter he begged for mending, and in summer he gave them away. He said of himself that throughout his life, his mind had no fear or terror, his body had no fleas or lice, and he slept without dreaming. He constantly practiced begging for food, and he never stayed in a place for a second night. Wherever he arrived at a monastery, he would chop firewood and make sandals. In the sixteenth year of the Zhenguan era, near Huishan Monastery in Luoyang, he stayed overnight in an ancient tomb and encountered heavy snow. In the morning he entered the monastery and met Dharma Master Tankuang. Kuang marveled at where he came from. The Master said, "Do phenomena have a coming?" Kuang sent someone to look for the place he had come from, and the snow piled up around him was about five feet deep. Kuang said, "He cannot be fathomed." Soon after, there was word of a census register inspection, and the monks fled into hiding. The Master held his bowl and walked around the settlements without any hindrance; whatever he received he immediately dispersed, remaining detached, empty, and leisurely. When someone invited him to stay for a vegetarian meal, the Master said, "Only when there are no monks in the world will I accept this invitation." Furthermore, he once instructed people, saying, "All the Buddhas spoke of the mind to make one know that the mind's characteristics are false and empty. Now people further add characteristics to the mind, which deeply opposes the Buddhas' intention. Moreover, increasing theoretical arguments departs far from the great principle." Therefore, he constantly carried the four fascicles of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra as the essentials of the mind and acted in accordance with what it said, which was in deference to the bequeathal handed down through the generations. Later, he sat and passed away without illness in a pottery workshop, at the age of about seventy.