景德傳燈錄 3.26

3.26

The thirty-second patriarch, Great Master Hongren, was a native of Huangmei in Qizhou, surnamed Zhou. From birth he was precociously intelligent. When playing as a child, he met a wise man who sighed, saying, "This child lacks seven marks, falling short of a Tathāgata." Later he encountered Master Daoxin, received the transmission of the Dharma, and transformed beings on Potou Mountain. During the Xianheng era, an upāsaka surnamed Lu, named Huineng, came from Xin Prefecture (the old edition mistakenly has the character Qi) to pay respects to the Master. The Master asked, "Where do you come from?" He said, "From Lingnan." The Master asked, "What do you seek?" He said, "I seek only to become a Buddha." The Master said, "People of Lingnan have no Buddha-nature. How could you become a Buddha?" He said, "People may be from north or south, but how could Buddha-nature be so?" The Master knew he was an extraordinary person and scolded him: "Go to the threshing shed!" Huineng bowed at his feet and withdrew, then entered the millhouse and toiled between pestle and mortar, day and night without rest for eight months. The Master, knowing that the time for transmission had arrived, told the assembly: "The correct Dharma is difficult to understand; you cannot merely memorize my words and take that as your duty. Each of you, according to your mind, compose a verse. If its words and meaning secretly accord, the robe and Dharma will both be entrusted to you." At that time, there were more than seven hundred monks in the community. Sthavira Shenxiu was learned in both internal and external texts and was revered by the assembly. All together they praised and recommended him, saying, "If not the venerable Xiu, who would dare undertake it?" Shenxiu, secretly hearing the praise of the assembly, deliberated no further and wrote a verse on the wall of the corridor: