景德傳燈錄 5.36

5.36

Chan Master Zhiche of Jiangxi was a native of Jiangxi. His surname was Zhang, and his given name was Xingchang. In his youth, he acted as a knight-errant. Ever since the South and North separated their teachings, although the two school leaders had extinguished [the sense of] self and other, their disciples vied in generating love and hate. At that time, the disciples of the Northern school set up Master [Shen]xiu as the sixth patriarch, and envied Great Master [Hui]neng's transmission of the robe being known throughout the world. However, the Patriarch was a bodhisattva and knew this in advance, so he placed ten ounces of gold in the abbot's quarters. At that time, Xingchang accepted the request of the Northern school disciples, and with a blade in his bosom entered the Patriarch's room intending to harm him. The Patriarch extended his neck and submitted to it. Xingchang swung the blade three times, but caused no injury whatsoever. The Patriarch said: "A righteous sword is not evil; an evil sword is not righteous. I only owe you gold; I do not owe you life." Xingchang fell to the ground in shock, and only after a long while revived, begging for mercy and repenting his fault; he immediately wished to leave home. The Patriarch then gave him the gold, saying: "Go for now, lest my assembly harm you in retaliation. You may change your appearance and come on another day, and I will accept you." Xingchang received these instructions and fled by night. Eventually, he went to a monk, left home, received the full precepts, and practiced vigorously. One day, remembering the Patriarch's words, he traveled from afar to pay homage. The Patriarch said: "I have thought of you for a long time; why have you come so late?" He said: "Formerly I received the Upādhyāya's pardon of my guilt. Though I have now left home and practice austerities, in the end it is difficult to repay such deep kindness. Can it only be by transmitting the Dharma and liberating beings? I have read the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, but do not yet understand the meaning of permanence and impermanence. I beg the Upādhyāya out of compassion to explain it briefly." The Patriarch said: "Impermanence is the Buddha-nature; permanence is the discriminating mind regarding all wholesome and unwholesome phenomena." He said: "What the Upādhyāya says greatly contradicts the sutra text." The Patriarch said: "I transmit the Buddha's mind-seal; how would I dare contradict the Buddha's sutras?" He said: "The sutra says that the Buddha-nature is permanent, yet the Upādhyāya says it is impermanent. All wholesome and unwholesome phenomena, even the bodhicitta, are impermanent, yet the Upādhyāya says they are permanent. This contradiction only increases this student's doubt." The Patriarch said: "Formerly, when I heard the nun Wujinzang recite the Nirvāṇa Sūtra once, I explained it for her, and not a single word or single meaning failed to accord with the sutra text; even now for you, there are fundamentally no two teachings." He said: "My capacity of understanding is shallow and dark. I pray the Upādhyāya will explain it thoroughly." The Patriarch said: "Do you understand? If the Buddha-nature were permanent, what further need would there be to speak of wholesome and unwholesome phenomena, such that through exhausted kalpas not a single person would arouse the bodhicitta? Therefore, my speaking of impermanence is precisely the way of true permanence taught by the Buddha. Furthermore, if all phenomena were impermanent, then every single thing would have a self-nature subject to birth and death, and the nature of true permanence would have places where it is not pervasive. Therefore, my speaking of permanence is precisely the meaning of true impermanence spoken by the Buddha. Formerly, because ordinary beings and non-Buddhists clung to wrong permanence, and the practitioners of the two vehicles conceived of impermanence regarding the permanent, together forming the eight inversions, the Buddha, in the definitive teaching of the Nirvāṇa, shattered their one-sided views and revealed true permanence, true self, and true purity. Now you follow words and turn against the meaning, using annihilationist impermanence and fixed, dead permanence to misunderstand the Buddha's perfectly wondrous final subtle words. Even if you read it a thousand times, what benefit is there?" Xingchang suddenly felt as if waking from drunkenness, and spoke a gāthā, saying: