傳法正宗記 6.26

6.26

Venerable Huineng had the surname Lu. His ancestors originally belonged to Fanyang. His father, Xingtao, was demoted to an official post in Xinzhou during the Wude era, where Neng was born; thus he became a man of Xinxing. When he was just three years old, his father died. His mother did not remarry, but raised the Venerable alone to the end of his days. Yet their family was poor, and mother and son could scarcely support themselves. The Venerable thereupon sold firewood to sustain them. One day he went to the marketplace, and at an inn heard a guest reciting a sutra. He immediately asked the man, "What sutra is this?" The guest said, "It is the Diamond Sutra." He asked, "From whom did you receive it?" The guest said, "At present, the Fifth Patriarch, the Great Master Hongren, has appeared in the world in Huangmei County. He often tells people, 'If you uphold this sutra, you will quickly see your nature.' Therefore I recite it." The Venerable rejoiced, prepared a year's provisions for his mother, and then announced his departure to seek the Dharma. Departing, he reached Shaoyang, where he met the lay practitioner Liu Zhilüe, who took the Venerable as a good spiritual friend. Previously, Zhilüe had an aunt who was a nun, known as Wujinzang, who at that time took the reading of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra as her practice. The Venerable went to listen to the sutra, and before long wished to explain it for the nun. The nun then pushed the sutra toward the Venerable. The Venerable said, "Read it to me; I cannot read the characters." The nun said, "If you do not even know the characters, how can you understand their meaning?" The Venerable said, "How could the wondrous principles of the Buddhas lie in characters?" The nun marvelled at his words, knowing he must be no ordinary man, and thereupon told her fellow villagers. The villagers honoured his virtue, soon restored the Baolin Hermitage, and invited the Venerable to dwell there. After dwelling there not long, he was suddenly moved to say to himself, "I originally set out to seek a teacher for the sake of the Dharma; why linger here for long?" He immediately left Baolin, proceeded a little further to Lechang County in Shao, and met the śramaṇa of lofty conduct, the Venerable Zhiyuan. When he had stayed at his place for merely ten-odd days, Zhiyuan said to the Venerable, "Observing your spiritual insight, you are no ordinary person; my way is certainly not sufficient to assist your aspiration. Chan Master Ren of Huangmei is currently serving as the patriarch of the Great Dharma; he should be your teacher. You must go to him quickly. If you attain the Way and return south, do not forget each other." The Venerable thereupon journeyed north. At that time he was already thirty-two years of age. When he reached the East Mountain, Patriarch Ren silently recognized his capacity for the Dharma. At first he tested him by speaking to him, and in the end entrusted him with the Great Dharma-eye. When the Venerable attained the Dharma and returned south, the senior disciples of the East Mountain were all unwilling to accept this, and joined together to pursue him. There was one named Huiming, who caught up with him at the Dayu Ridge. The Venerable immediately placed his robe and bowl on a boulder and concealed himself among the grass. Huiming lifted the robe and bowl but could not move them; thereupon he cried out, "I come for the Dharma, not for the robe and bowl. Dharma brother, why do you not come out?" Thereupon they met. Huiming spoke with him, and Huiming immediately awoke. He paid the courtesies of a disciple to the Venerable and turned back, and then deceived those pursuing behind him, saying, "He has already gone far." When the Venerable returned south, he hid his traces between Sihui and Huaiji, mingling with the common folk for four years without anyone knowing. In the spring of the first year of Yifeng, he reached Nanhai and set down his burdens at Faxing Monastery. He happened to meet the Dharma Master Yinzong lecturing on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra at that monastery. At first, the Venerable lodged in a room in the corridors. One evening the wind arose, and the monastery banner flapped. Presently, two monks outside the room were arguing; one said, "The wind moves," and the other said, "The banner moves." Their exchanges of this sort were numerous, none hitting upon the truth. The Venerable, hearing it, immediately came out and said to the two monks, "May a layman be permitted to join your discussion?" The monks said, "Please let us hear your view." The Venerable thereupon said, "It is not the wind that moves, nor the banner that moves; it is your minds, kind sirs, that move." The next day, the two monks reported his words to Yinzong. Yinzong marvelled at them and immediately led him into his room, thoroughly interrogating him on their meaning. The Venerable spoke to him further with the ultimate principle. Yinzong was thereupon all the more subdued, and said to the Venerable, "Layman, you are truly no ordinary man. Who is your teacher, and whence did you attain the Way? Do not conceal it, but please reveal it to me." The Venerable thereupon recounted to him the beginning and end of his attainment of the Dharma. Yinzong was exceedingly fortunate in what he had encountered, and immediately adopted the rites of a disciple, requesting to learn his essential teachings. He then said to the assembly, "This Layman Lu is a flesh-body bodhisattva. How could an ordinary fellow such as Yinzong have expected to meet him?" Choosing an auspicious day, he gathered elder bhikṣus to strip off his secular robes and shave his head. Choosing another auspicious day, they adorned the monastery's ordination platform, and commanded the Vinaya Master Zhiguang to administer the full precepts to him. That platform had originally been inaugurated during the Song dynasty by the Tripiṭaka Master Guṇavarman. Initially, Guṇavarman had predicted, "Later there will be a flesh-body bodhisattva receiving the precepts here." And at the end of the Liang dynasty, when the Tripiṭaka Master Paramārtha approached the platform, he personally planted two Bodhi trees and also predicted, "In the fourth generation hence, there will be a bodhisattva of the Supreme Vehicle receiving the precepts here. His preaching of the Dharma will deliver immeasurable people." Once ordained, the assembly immediately requested the Venerable to expound the East Mountain teaching. Thus, although Guṇavarman and Paramārtha were from the start known as holy beings who had attained the fruit, only at this point was that verified in this person. The following year, the Venerable thought to return to the Baolin Cloister, and wished to bid farewell to the assembly and depart immediately. Yinzong, together with more than a thousand monastics and laypeople, saw him off to Shaoyang. Before long, Wei Ju, the prefectural governor of Shao, invited him to dwell at Dafan Monastery in that prefecture and preach the Dharma. At that time, Daoists and Confucian scholars who hastened to ask about the Way were very numerous, just like Confucius at the Zhu and Si Rivers. His disciples thereupon compiled his discourses and titled them the Platform Sutra. Moreover, his ordinary congregation was never fewer than a thousand. Emperor Zhongzong heard of his reputation and, during the Shenlong era, issued an imperial edict stating: "We invited the two masters Huian and Shenxiu to inquire about the Way in the palace; both recommended: 'In the south there is Chan Master Neng, who personally received the robe and Dharma from the Great Master Ren, and is capable of answering this inquiry.' Now We dispatch the palace attendant Xue Jian to gallop with the edict to summon the Master. You should take this into consideration and come to fulfil Our wishes." The Venerable thereupon submitted a memorial claiming illness and did not rise. Xue Jian then asked the Venerable, "Chan practitioners in the capital always say: 'If you wish to comprehend the Way, you must sit in meditation. It has never happened that one attains liberation without relying on dhyāna-concentration.' What about this statement?" The Venerable said, "The Way is awakened to through the mind; how could it depend on sitting? The sutra says: 'If anyone says that the Tathāgata comes, goes, sits, or lies down, this person does not understand the meaning of what I have spoken. Why? The Tathāgata has nowhere whence he comes and nowhere whither he goes; therefore he is named Tathāgata.' Since there is nowhere whence he comes, he is not born; since there is nowhere whither he goes, he does not perish. If there is no birth and death, this is the Tathāgata's pure dhyāna; that all phenomena are empty and tranquil is the Tathāgata's pure sitting. Ultimately there is nothing to attain, nor is there anything to realize; why must one sit?" Xue Jian said, "When I, Jian, return, the Emperor will certainly ask questions. I pray that the Great Master will reveal the essential Dharma teachings, so that I may report them in reply and spread them throughout the capital, causing practitioners to cultivate them, just as one lamp ignites hundreds and thousands of lamps, so that those in darkness all become bright, and the brightness will never end." The Venerable said, "The Way has neither light nor darkness. Light and darkness have the sense of alternation. 'Endless brightness' also has an end, for names are established through mutual dependence. Therefore the sutra says: 'The Dharma has no comparison, because it has no mutual dependence.'" Xue Jian said, "Light is compared to wisdom, and darkness to afflictions. If a cultivator of the Way does not illuminate and destroy afflictions by means of wisdom, by what means can he escape beginningless birth and death?" The Venerable said, "Illuminating afflictions with wisdom is the capacity of the sheep and deer vehicles of the small children of the Two Vehicles; the supreme wisdom of great vessels is entirely unlike this." Xue Jian said, "What is meant by the view of the Great Vehicle?" The Venerable said, "Light and ignorance—their nature is not two. The nature that is not two is the real nature. The real nature does not decrease in the ordinary and foolish, nor does it increase in the worthy and holy. It abides in afflictions without being disordered, and dwells in dhyāna-concentration without being quiescent. It is neither annihilated nor permanent, neither comes nor goes, is not in the middle nor inside or outside. Unborn and unperishing, its nature and marks are suchness, permanently abiding and unchanging: this is named the Way." Xue Jian said, "How does what the Great Master speaks of as unborn and unperishing differ from the sayings of the non-Buddhists?" The Venerable said, "When non-Buddhists speak of unborn and unperishing, they merely use perishing to stop birth, and use birth to manifest perishing; perishing is still not perishing, and birth is spoken of as un生. When I speak of unborn and unperishing, it is originally without birth and now also without perishing; how could it be the same as the non-Buddhists? If you, kind sir, wish to clarify the essence of the mind, merely do not think of any good or evil, and you will naturally gain entry. The substance of the mind will be limpid and constantly tranquil, its wondrous functions numerous as the sands of the Ganges." Xue Jian was awakened by this, bowed twice and departed. Returning to court, he indeed reported his words to the throne. The Son of Heaven commended him, and again issued an edict of comforting thanks, bestowing patchwork robes and precious silks in varying degrees, and imperially ordering Baolin to be renamed Zhongxing Monastery. The following year, he commanded the prefect of Shaozhou to renovate it, and again renamed it Faquan Monastery, and made the former residence in Xinzhou into Guo'en Monastery. The Venerable always said to the assembly: "Good spiritual friends, each of you purify your mind and listen to my preaching of the Dharma. The self-mind of each of you is Buddha; do not harbor further doubts. Outside, there is not a single phenomenon that can be established; all are the myriad phenomena born from one's own mind. Therefore the sutra says: 'When the mind is born, various phenomena are born; when the mind perishes, various phenomena perish.' If you wish to achieve the knowledge of all aspects, you must master the single-mark samādhi and the single-practice samādhi. If you do not abide in marks in all places, do not give rise to hatred or love toward those marks, do not grasp or abandon, and do not think of gain, loss, success, or destruction, being peaceful, at ease, and pure—this is named the single-mark samādhi. If, while walking, standing, sitting, or lying down in all places, you maintain a purely straight mind without moving from the place of practice, making it a pure land—this is named the single-practice samādhi. If a person possesses these two samādhis, it is like the earth possessing seeds, capable of containing, nurturing, and completing their fruits; the single-mark and single-practice are also like this. My present preaching of the Dharma is like timely rain, everywhere moistening the great earth. Your Buddha-nature is compared to seeds; encountering this soaking moisture, all are able to sprout. Those who accept my words will definitely attain bodhi; those who rely on my practice will certainly realize the Buddha-fruit." Reaching the first year of Xiantian, one day he suddenly said to the assembly: "Unworthy as I am, I received the Dharma essentials along with the robe and bowl from the Great Master Ren. Now, although I preach the Dharma, I do not transmit the robe and bowl, because your faithful minds are mature and free of doubts, therefore I do not transmit them. Listen to my gāthā:"