傳法正宗記 6.6

6.6

Thereupon he again addressed Sengcan, saying, “I have past karmic debts in Ye; I am going there to pay them. However, you yourself will also face calamity later; you should by all means avoid it.” Can said, “This is truly my master’s holy wisdom foreseeing it. Yet I wish to hear the cause of the calamity.” [Huike] replied, saying, “This is not stated by me alone; the former patriarch Prajñātāra also prophesied it.” Can said, “What prophecy?” [Huike] replied, saying, “It is what he called ‘arising after one hundred and fifteen years.’ Does the verse not say:
‘Though within the mind is auspicious, on the outside it is baneful;
Under the river, the monk’s chamber will not have a favorable name.
Meeting a poisonous dragon, he gives birth to a brave son;
Suddenly encountering a little rat, all becomes ceaselessly silent.’
Calculating by the numbers, it will fall in your time. You must protect the Dharma all the more.” When Ke arrived in Ye and preached the Dharma, people were vastly transformed; this lasted for thirty-four years in all. One day, he abruptly changed his conduct and wandered at ease, no longer choosing where to go. Whether in markets or in the wilderness, even butchering stalls and wine houses, he mingled with them all alike. Someone who knew him tried to admonish him, saying, “The Master is of an exalted rank; how can you do this?” The Venerable said, “I am adjusting my own mind; what concern is it of yours?” Earlier, there was a monk in Ye named Bianhe, who was gathering disciples to lecture on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra at Kuangjiu Monastery in Guancheng County. The Venerable often went to the monastery gate to expound for people. As it happened, just at the morning session the crowd followed Ke in great numbers, and even the disciples of Bianhe defected to him. Bianhe was enraged by this, and soon said to the county magistrate Zhai Zhongkan, “Huike is crazy and heretical, and misleads the multitude greatly. This should be punished.” Zhongkan listened to his words and subjected him to cruel punishment. On account of this, the Venerable passed away. His worldly age at that time was one hundred and seven years. Men and women mourned him, and together gathered his remains and buried them east of Fuyang in Cizhou. It was the thirteenth year, the guichou year, of the Kaihuang era of the Sui. Emperor Dezong of the Tang bestowed the posthumous title Chan Master Dazu. During the Wude era, the eminent monk Falin, hearing of his reputation, once composed an inscription for him, which said in brief: “Alas, that Chan Master! None knew how he was so. Only the Dharma remained here. If not recorded in writing, how would one know the nobility of his Way? His being admired and longed for by later worthy people was just like this.”