Shindokan
Goju Kai Karate Do
By Appointment of Daishoji Imperial Temple of Japan - Temple of Miyamoto Musashi
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Shindokan Goju Kai Karate-Do
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Den 5. Patriark inden for Kinesisk Zen - Hui-Neng - er den hvorfra vi kende Bodhidharma, som tilskrives at være faderen til Kampkunsten.
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Biography of The Venerable Master
H.H. The Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng
Biography of The Venerable Master
Discovering and perfecting the method to extricate living beings from the most fundamental problem of human existence--that of birth and death--has been the primary focus of the venerable Master Hsuan Hua's life.
On the sixteenth day of the third lunar month in 1908, his mother saw Amitaba Buddha emitting a light which illumined the entire world, when she awoke from this dream she gave birth to the Venerable Master. A rare fragrance lingered in the room following her dream and throughout the birth.
The master's awareness of death came at eleven years old when he saw a lifeless infant. The realization that death and birth followed upon on another without cease and both bring suffering, pain and sorrow, awakened a profound sense of compassion and prompted his immediate resolution to leave home life and learn to bring an end to the cycle of birth and death. He honored his mother's wishes that he remained at home to serve his parents until their deaths, however.
The following year on Kuan Yin Bodhisattva's birthday, he dreamed that an old woman wearing a patchwork robe and a string of beads appeared to guide him through a wilderness in which he was lost. she radiated compassion as she led him over the road which was gutted with deep and dangerous holes. He knew that if he had tried to traverse the road alone it would have been difficult if not impossible to reach safety, but as she guided him, the road became smooth and safe and he could see clearly in all directions. Ahead was his home. Glancing back on the dangerous road, he saw many people following him--old and young, men and women, sangha and scholars. "Who are these people?" he asked, "Where did they come from and where are they going?"
"They have affinities with you," she said, "and they also want to go home. You must show them the Way so that you may all arrive at nirvana. I have important work to do elsewhere, and so I shall leave you now, but soon we shall meet again."
The Master asked her name and where she lived. "You will find out when you arrive home," she said. "There's no need to ask so many questions." Suddenly she whirled around and disappeared. The Master led the people safely home and woke from his dream feeling extremely happy.
During that same year he began bowing to his parents three times each, in the morning and evening--twelve bows a day. Then he thought "The world is bigger than just my father and mother," then he began to bow to the heavens, the earth, to the Emperor, and to his teachers as well. He also bowed to his master, even though he had not yet met him. The Master new that without the aid of a good knowing advisor, it is impossible to cultivate, and he felt he would meet his master soon. He also bowed to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Pratyeka Buddhas, and Arhats, and to all the good people in the world to thank them for all the good deed they had done; he bowed on behalf of the people they helped.
"Evil people are to be pitied," he thought, and he bowed for them, asking that their karmis offenses might be lessened and that they might learn to repent and reform. When doing this, he thought of himself as the very worst offender. each day he thought of new people to bow for and soon he was bowing 837 times in the morning and 837 times in the evening, which took about three hours a day in all.
The Master didn't let others see him bow. He rose at four in the morning, washed his face, went outside, lit a sick of incense, and bowed, regardless of the weather. If there was snow on the ground, he would just bow in the snow. In the evening, long after everyone was asleep, he went outside and bowed again. He practiced this way every day for six years. During these years his filial devotion became known far and wide and he was referred to as "Filial Son Pai." Nor did his filial devotion end at the death of his parents. On the day his mother was buried, he remained behind after the ceremonies were completed to begin a three-year vigil beside her grave. Shortly after, he left his mother's grave long enough to go to Three Conditions Temple;e at P'ing Fang Station south of Harbin to receive the shramanera precepts from Great Master Ch'an Chih. He then returned to his mother's grave and built a five by eight hut out of five inch sorghum stalks which kept out the wind and rain but actually set up a little distinction between inside and outside. He commenced to observe the custom of filial piety for watching over his mother's grave for a period of three years. Clothed only in a rag robe, he endured the bitter Manchurian snow and blazing summer sun. He only ate one meal a day, when there was food, and he simply did not eat if food was not offered to him. He never lay down to sleep.
At the side of the grave, the Master read many sutras. When he first read the Lotus Sutra, he jumped for joy. He knelt and recited it for seven days and seven nights, forgetting to sleep, forgetting to eat, until eventually blood flowed from his eyes and his vision dimmed. Then he read the Shurangama Sutra, thoroughly investigating the Great Samadhi and quietly cultivating it: the three stoppings, the three contemplations, neither moving nor still. The master relates of this experience:
"I began to obtain single-minded profound stillness, and penetrate the noumenal state. When i read the Avatamsaka, the enlightenment became ?boundless in its scope, indescribable in its magnificence, unsurpassed in its loftiness, and ineffable in its clarity. National Master Ch'ing Liang said,
Opening and disclosing the mysterious and subtle,
Understanding and expanding the mind and its states,
Exhausting the principle while fathoming its nature,
Penetrating the result which includes the cause,
Deep and wide, and interfused,
Vast and great and totally complete.
"It is certainly so! It is certainly so! At that time I could not put down the text, and bowed to and recited the Great Sutra as if it were clothing from which one must not part or food which one could not do without for even a day. And i vowed to myself to see to its vast circulation."
When his filial duties were completed, the master went into seclusion in Amitaba Cave in the mountains east of his home town. There he delved deeply into dhyana meditation practiced rigorous asceticism, eating only pine nut and drinking only spring water. The area abound with wild beasts, but they never disturbed the master. In fact wolves and bears behaved like house pets, tigers stopped to listen to his teachings, and wild birds gathered to hear the wonderful Dharma.
After his stay in the mountains, the Master returned to Three Conditions Monastery where he helped the Venerable Master Ch'ang-chih and the Venerable Master Ch'ang-jen to greatly expand the monastery, while simultaneously devoting his time to the propagation of the Dharma.
For more than three decades in Manchuria, the Master adhered strictly to ascetic cultivation, diligently practiced dhyana meditation, and worked tirelessly for the expansion and propagation of the Dharma. During those years, he visited many of the local monasteries, attended extensive meditation and recitation sessions, and walk ed many miles to listen to lectures on the Sutras, in addition to lecturing on the Sutras himself. he also visited various non-Buddhist establishments and obtained a thorough grounding in the range of their specific beliefs.
In 1946 the master made a major pilgrimage which took him to P'u T'o Mountain to receive the complete precepts in 1947. Then in 1948, after three thousand miles of travel, the Master went to Nan-hua Monastery and bowed before the Venerable master Hsu-yun, the 44th Patriarch of Shakyamuni Buddha. At that first meeting the Venerable Master Hsu-yun, who was then 109 years old, recognized the master to be a vessel worthy of the Dharma and capable of its propagation. he sealed and certified the master's spiritual skill and transmitted to him the wonderful mind-to-mind seal of all Buddhas. Thus the Master became the 45th generation in a line descending from Shakyamuni Buddha, the nineteenth generation in china for Bodhidharma, and the ninth generation of the Wei-yang lineage. of their meeting the Master has written:
The Noble Yun saw me and said, "Thus it is."
I saw the Noble yun and verified, "thus it is."
The Noble yun and I, both Thus,
Universally vow that all beings will also be Thus."
The mind-to-mind transmission is preformed apart from the appearance of the spoken word, apart from the mark of the written word, apart from the characteristic of the conditioned mind--apart from all such differences. Only sages who have genuine realization understand it; ordinary people have no idea what is happening. It is a mutual recognition of the embodiment of the principle of true suchness.
Nearly eight years later, in may of 1956, the Venerable Master yun sent to the Master a document entitled "The Treasury of the Orthodox Dharma Eye: The Source of Buddhas and Patriarchs." The document bears the seals of Yun-chu Monastery and of the Venerable Master Yun. It serves as tangible and public certification of the transmission of the mind-to-mind seal from the Venerable Yun to the Master, which took place during their initial meeting in 1948.
In 1950 the Master resigned his post at Nan Hua Monastery as the Director of the Nan Hua Institute for the Study of the Vinaya, and journeyed to Hong Kong where he lived in a mountainside cave in the Mew Territories. he stayed in the cave until a large influx of Sangha members fleeing the mainland required his help in establishing new monasteries and temples throughout Hong Kong. he personally established two temples and a lecture hall and helped to bring about the construction of many others. He dwelt in Hong Kong for twelve years, during which many people were influenced by his arduous cultivation and awesome manner to take refuge with the Triple Jewel, cultivating the Dharma-door of recitation of the Buddha's name, and to support the propagation of the Buddhadharma.
In 1962 the Master carried the Buddha's Dharma banner farther west to the shores of America where he took up residence in San Francisco, sat in meditation, and waited for past causes to ripen and bear their fruit. In the beginning of the year in 1968 the Master declared the flower of Buddhism would bloom that year in America with five petals; in the summer of that year the Master conducted the Shurangama Sutra dharma assembly which lasted 96 days--five of the people who attended the session left the home-life and became bhikshus and bhikshunis under the Master's guidance. Since that time more than twenty people have left the home life under his guidance.
In 1968 the Master has delivered complete commentaries on The Heart Sutra, The Diamond Sutra, The Sixth Patriarch's Sutra, The Amitaba Sutra, The Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva, The Great Compassion Heart Dharani Sutra, The Dharma Flower Sutra, The Sutra in Forty-two Sections, The Shramanera Vinaya and others. In June of 1971 the Master commenced a Dharma Assembly on the king of sutras, the Avatamasaka. With such tireless vigor the Master has firmly planted the roots of Dharma in western soil so that it can become self perpetuating. he has spent many hours every day explaining the teachings and their applications to cultivation, steeping his disciples in the nectar of Dharma that they might carry on the Buddha's teachings.
The miraculous events that have taken place in the Master's life are far too numerous to relate in this brief sketch. This is but a brief outline of how the master has worked with selfless devotion to lay the foundation of the Buddha's teachings on western soil.
Hui-neng and a boy
ONE DAY a small boy named Sin Hae came to Hui-neng's temple and asked for instruction.
Hui-neng said,
"You have come from far away. You are a very good boy. Now tell me, did you bring the origin of learning here? If you say you have the origin, then what is your master? Quickly, give me an answer!"
Sin Hae said,
"No attachment to all things is the origin, and perception is my master."
Hui-neng said,
"Your language is very good."
Sin Hae said,
"I will ask you, when you sit Zen, do you see or not see your master?"
Just as soon as Sin Hae had said this Hui-neng hit him and asked,
"Do you feel pain or not?"
Sin Hae said,
"Sometimes painful, sometimes not painful."
"Just so, sometimes I see my master; sometimes I do not."
"Why sometimes see, sometimes not see?"
The Zen master said,
"When I see, I am mistaken. When I don't see, other people are mistaken. When you feel pain, this is thinking. Thinking is for common people. When you do not feel pain, you are the same as a rock. The appearing and disappearing of feeling pain is all thinking. What you said before, 'No attachment to all things is the origin,' is not true. What can your master do about perception?"
Sin Hae stood up and bowed, saying,
"Teach me."
Hui-neng said,
"You should not think of good and of bad; cut all thinking and all speech. Right now, what is your master?"
Sin Hae bowed, saying,
"I don't know."
The Zen master said,
"Keep this 'don't know' mind at all times, and you will understand your master."
After the passing of a few years, Sin Hae said,
"The 'don't know' mind is origin of Buddha and of my buddha-nature."
Hui-neng said,
"The 'don't know' mind is no name and no form. Why do you say 'the origin of Buddha and of my buddha-nature'?"
Sin Hae just then understood, stood up, and bowed three full bows. He went to the South, and became a great Zen master.
*?First Patriarch, Bodhidharma (470 - 543)
*?Second Patriarch, Hui Ko (487 - 593)
*?Third Patriarch, Seng Tsan (? - 606)
*?Fourth Patriarch, Tao Hsin (580 - 651)
*?Fifth Patriarch, Hung Jen (601 - 674)
*?Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng (638- 713)
ONCE, WHEN the patriarch had arrived at the Pao Lin Monastery, prefect Wei of Shao Chou and other officials went there to ask him to deliver public lectures on Buddhism in the hall of Ta Fan Temple in the City of Canton.
In due course there were assembled in the lecture hall Prefect Wei, government officials and Confucian scholars, about thirty each, and bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, Taoists and laymen to the number of about one thousand. After the patriarch had taken his seat, the congregation in a body paid him homage and asked him to preach on the fundamental laws of Buddhism. Upon this His Holiness delivered the following address:
"Learned audience, our essence of mind (literally, self-nature) which is the seed or kernel of enlightenment (bodhi) is pure by nature, and by making use of this mind alone we can reach buddhahood directly. Now let me tell you something about my own life and how I came into possession of the esoteric teaching of the dhyana (or the Zen) school.
My father, a native of Fan Yang, was dismissed from his official post and banished to be a commoner in Hsin Chou in Kwangtung. I was unlucky in that my father died when I was very young, leaving my mother poor and miserable. We moved to Canton and were then in very bad circumstances.
I was selling firewood in the market one day, when one of my customers ordered some to be brought to his shop. Upon delivery being made and payment received, I left the shop, outside of which I found a man reciting a sutra. As soon as I heard the text of this sutra my mind at once became enlightened. Next I asked the man the name of the book he was reciting and was told that it was the Diamond Sutra. I further enquired where he came from and why he recited this particular sutra. He replied that he came from the Tung Ch'an Monastery in the Huang Mei District of Ch'i Chou. The abbot in charge of that temple was Hung Yen, the fifth patriarch. There were about one thousand disciples under him. When the man I talked with went there to pay homage to the patriarch, he attended lectures on this sutra. He further told me that His Holiness used to encourage the laity as well as the monks to recite this scripture, as by doing so they might realize their own essence of mind, and by that reach buddhahood directly.
I was also given ten taels for the maintenance of my mother by a man who advised me to go to Huang Mei to interview the fifth patriarch. After arrangements had been made for her, I left for Huang Mei.
It took me less than thirty days to reach the place. I then went to pay homage to the patriarch, and was asked where I came from and what I expected to get from him. I replied,
"I am a commoner from Hsin Chou of Kwangtung. I have travelled far [800 km ] to pay you respect and I ask for nothing but buddhahood."
"You are a native of Kwangtung, a barbarian? How can you expect to be a buddha?" asked the patriarch.
I replied,
"Although there are northern men and southern men, north and south make no difference to their buddha-nature. A barbarian is different from Your Holiness physically, but there is no difference in our buddha-nature."
He was going to speak further to me, but the presence of other disciples made him stop short. He then ordered me to join the crowd to work.
"May I tell Your Holiness," said I, "that prajna (transcendental wisdom) often rises in my mind. When one does not go astray from one's own essence of mind, one may be called the 'field of merits'. I do not know what work Your Holiness would ask me to do."
"This barbarian is too bright," he remarked. "Go to the stable and speak no more."
I then withdrew to the back yard and was told by a lay brother to split firewood and to pound rice.
More than eight months after the patriarch saw me one day and said,
"I know your knowledge of Buddhism is very sound, but I have to refrain from speaking to you lest evil-doers should do you harm. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Sir, I do," I replied. "To avoid people taking notice of me, I dare not go near your hall."
The patriarch one day assembled all his disciples and said to them,
"The question of incessant rebirth is a momentous one. Day after day, instead of trying to free yourselves from this bitter sea of life and death, you seem to go after tainted merits only (i.e. merits which will cause rebirth). Yet merits will be of no help if your essence of mind is obscured. Go and seek for prajna (wisdom) in your own mind and then write me a stanza (gatha) about it. He who understands what the essence of mind is will be given the robe (the insignia of the patriarchate) and the dharma (law, here: the esoteric teaching of the Zen school), and I shall make him the sixth patriarch. Go away quickly. Delay not in writing the stanza, as deliberation is quite unnecessary and of no use. The man who has realized the essence of mind can speak of it at once, as soon as he is spoken to about it; and he cannot lose sight of it, even when engaged in battle."
Having received this instruction, the disciples withdrew and said to one another,
"It is of no use for us to concentrate our mind to write the stanza and submit it to His Holiness, since the patriarchate is bound to be won by Shen Hsiu, our instructor. And if we write perfunctorily, it will only be a waste of energy."
Upon hearing this all of them made up their minds not to write and said,
"Why should we take the trouble? Hereafter, we will simply follow our instructor, Shen Hsiu, wherever he goes, and look to him for guidance."
Meanwhile, Shen Hsiu reasoned thus with himself.
"Considering that I am their teacher, none of them will take part in the competition. I wonder whether I should write a stanza and submit it to His Holiness. If I do not, how can the patriarch know how deep or superficial my knowledge is? If my object is to get the Dharma, my motive is a pure one. If I were after the patriarchate, then it would be bad. In that case, my mind would be that of a worldling and my action would amountto robbing the patriarch's holy seat. But if I do not submit the stanza, I shall never have a chance of getting the dharma. A very difficult point to decide, indeed!"
In front of the patriarch's hall there were three corridors, the walls of which were to be painted by a court artist, named Lu Chen, with pictures from the depicting the transfiguration of the assembly, and with scenes showing the genealogy of the five patriarchs for the information and veneration of the public.
When Shen Hsiu had composed his stanza he made several attempts to submit it to the patriarch, but as soon as he went near the hall his mind was so perturbed that he sweated all over. He could not screw up courage to submit it, although in the course of four days he made altogether thirteen attempts to do so.
Then he suggested to himself,
"It would be better for me to write it on the wall of the corridor and let the patriarch see it for himself. If he approves it, I shall come out to pay homage, and tell him that it is done by me; but if he disapproves it, then I shall have wasted several years in this mountain in receiving homage from others which I by no means deserve! In that case, what progress have I made in learning Buddhism?"
At twelve o'clock that night he went secretly with a lamp to write the stanza on the wall of the south corridor, so that the patriarch might know what spiritual insight he had attained. The stanza read:
Our body is the Bodhi-tree,
And our mind a mirror bright.
Carefully we wipe them hour by hour,
And let no dust alight.
As soon as he had written it he left for his room; so nobody knew what he had done. In his room he again pondered:
"When the patriarch sees my stanza tomorrow and is pleased with it, I shall be ready for the dharma; but if he says that it is badly done, it will mean that I am unfit for the dharma, owing to the misdeeds in previous lives which thickly becloud my mind. It is difficult to know what the patriarch will say about it!"
In this vein he kept on thinking until dawn, as he could neither sleep nor sit at ease.
But the patriarch knew already that Shen Hsiu had not entered the door of enlightenment, and that he had not known the essence of mind. In the morning, he sent for Mr. Lu, the court artist, and went with him to the south corridor to have the walls there painted with pictures. By chance, he saw the stanza.
"I am sorry to have troubled you to come so far," he said to the artist. "The walls need not be painted now, as the Sutra says, 'All forms or phenomena are transient and illusive.' It will be better to leave the stanza here, so that people may study it and recite it. If they put its teaching into actual practice, they will be saved from the misery of being born in these evil realms of existence. The merit gained by one who practices it will indeed be great!"
He then ordered incense to be burnt, and all his disciples to pay homage to it and to recite it, so that they might realize the essence of mind. After they had recited it, all of them exclaimed,
"Well done!"
At midnight, the patriarch sent for Shen Hsiu to come to the hall, and asked him whether the stanza was written by him or not.
"It was, Sir," replied Shen Hsiu. "I dare not be so vain as to expect to get the patriarchate, but I wish Your Holiness would kindly tell me whether my stanza shows the least grain of wisdom."
"Your stanza," replied the patriarch, "shows that you have not yet realized the essence of mind. So far you have reached the 'door of enlightenment', but you have not yet entered it. To seek for supreme enlightenment with such an understanding as yours can hardly be successful.
"To attain supreme enlightenment, one must be able to know spontaneously one's own nature or essence of mind, which is neither created nor can it be annihilated. From ksana to ksana (thought-moment to thought-moment), one should be able to realize the essence of mind all the time. All things will then be free from restraint (i.e., emancipated). Once the Tathata (suchness, another name for the essence of mind) is known, one will be free from delusion forever; and in all circumstances one's mind will be in a state of 'thusness'. Such a state of mind is absolute truth. If you can see things in such a frame of mind you will have known the essence of mind, which is supreme enlightenment.
"You had better go back to think it over again for couple of days, and then submit me another stanza. If your stanza shows that you have entered the 'door of enlightenment', I will transmit you the robe and the dharma."
Shen Hsiu made obeisance to the patriarch and left. For several days, he tried in vain to write another stanza. This upset his mind so much that he was as ill at ease as if he were in a nightmare, and he could find comfort neither in sitting nor in walking.
Two days after, it happened that a young boy who was passing by the room where I was pounding rice recited loudly the stanza written by Shen Hsiu. As soon as I heard it, I knew at once that the composer of it has not yet realized the essence of mind. For although I had not been taught about it at that time, I already had a general idea of it.
"What stanza is this?" I asked the boy.
"You barbarian," he replied, "don't you know about it? The patriarch told his disciples that the question of incessant rebirth was a momentous one, that those who wished to inherit his robe and dharma should write him a stanza, and that the one who had an understanding of the essence of mind would get them and be made the sixth patriarch. Elder Shen Hsiu wrote this 'Formless' stanza on the wall of the south corridor and the patriarch told us to recite it. He also said that those who put its teaching into actual practice would attain great merit, and be saved from the misery of being born in the evil realms of existence."
I told the boy that I wished to recite the stanza too, so that I might have an affinity with its teaching in future life. I also told him that although I had been pounding rice there for eight months I had never been to the hall, and that he would have to show me where the stanza was to enable me to make obeisance to it.
The boy took me there and I asked him to read it to me, as I am illiterate. A petty officer of the Chiang Chou District named Chang Tih-Yung, who happened to be there, read it out to me. When he had finished reading I told him that I also had composed a stanza and asked him to write it for me.
"Extraordinary indeed," he exclaimed, "that you also can compose a stanza!"
"Don't despise a beginner," said I, "if you are a seeker of supreme enlightenment. You should know that the lowest class may have the sharpest wit, while the highest may be in want of intelligence. If you slight others, you commit a very great sin."
"Dictate your stanza," said he. "I will take it down for you. But do not forget to deliver me, should you succeed in getting the Dharma!"
My stanza read:
There is no Bodhi-tree,
Nor stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?
When he had written this, all disciples and others who were present were greatly surprised. Filled with admiration, they said to one another,
"How wonderful! No doubt we should not judge people by appearance. How can it be that for so long we have made a bodhisattva incarnate work for us?"
Seeing that the crowd was overwhelmed with amazement, the patriarch rubbed off the stanza with his shoe, lest jealous ones should do me injury. He expressed the opinion, which they took for granted, that the author of this stanza had also not yet realized the essence of mind.
Next day the patriarch came secretly to the room where the rice was pounded. Seeing that I was working there with a stone pestle, he said to me,
"A seeker of the Path risks his life for the dharma. Should he not do so?" Then he asked,"Is the rice ready?"
"Ready long ago," I replied, "only waiting for the sieve."
He knocked the mortar thrice with his stick and left.
Knowing what his message meant, in the third watch of the night I went to his room. Using the robe as a screen so that none could see us, he expounded the Diamond Sutra to me. When he came to the sentence, "One should use one's mind in such a way that it will be free from any attachment," I at once became thoroughly enlightened, and realized that all things in the universe are the essence of mind itself.
"Who would have thought," I said to the patriarch, "that the essence of mind is intrinsically pure! Who would have thought that the essence of mind is intrinsically free from becoming or annihilation! Who would have thought that the essence of mind is intrinsically self-sufficient! Who would have thought that the essence of mind is intrinsically free from change! Who would have thought that all things are the manifestation of the essence of mind!"
Knowing that I had realized the essence of mind, the patriarch said,
"For him who does not know his own mind there is no use learning Buddhism. On the other hand, if he knows his own mind and sees intuitively his own nature, he is a hero, a 'teacher of gods and men', 'Buddha'."
Thus, to the knowledge of no one, the dharma was transmitted to me at midnight, and consequently I became the inheritor of the teaching of the 'Sudden' School as well as of the robe and the begging bowl.
"You are now the sixth patriarch," said he. "Take good care of yourself, and deliver as many sentient beings as possible. Spread and preserve the teaching, and don't let it come to an end. Take note of my stanza:
Sentient beings who sow the seeds of enlightenment
In the field of causation will reap the fruit of buddhahood.
Inanimate objects void of Buddha-nature
Sow not and reap not.
He further said,
"When the patriarch Bodhidharma first came to China, most Chinese had no confidence in him, and so this robe was handed down as a testimony from one patriarch to another. As to the dharma, this is transmitted from heart to heart, and the recipient must realize it by his own efforts. From time immemorial it has been the practice for one buddha to pass to his successor the quintessence of the dharma, and for one patriarch to transmit to another the esoteric teaching from heart to heart. As the robe may give cause for dispute, you are the last one to inherit it. Should you hand it down to your successor, your life would be in imminent danger. Now leave this place as quickly as you can, lest someone should do you harm."
"Where should I go?" I asked.
"At Huai you stop and at Hui you seclude yourself," he replied.
Upon receiving the robe and the begging bowl in the middle of the night, I told the patriarch that, being a southerner, I did not know the mountain tracks, and that it was impossible for me to get to the mouth of the river (to catch a boat).
"You need not worry," said he. "I will go with you."
He then accompanied me to Kiukiang, and there ordered me into a boat. As he did the rowing himself, I asked him to sit down and let me handle the oar.
"It is only right for me to carry you across," he said, alluding to the sea of birth and death which one has to go across before the shore of Nirvana can be reached. To this I replied,
"While I am under illusion, it is for you to get me across; but after enlightenment, I should cross it by myself. (Although the term 'to go across' is the same, it is used differently in each case). As I happen to be born on the frontier, even my speaking is incorrect in pronunciation, (but in spite of this) I have had the honor to inherit the dharma from you. Since I am now enlightened, it is only right for me to cross the sea of birth and death myself by realizing my own essence of mind."
"Quite so, quite so," he agreed. "Beginning from you the dhyana school will become very popular. Three years after your departure from me I shall leave this world. You may start on your journey now. Go as fast as you can towards the south. Do not preach too soon, as Buddhism is not so easily spread."
After saying good-bye, I left him and walked towards the south. In about two months' time, I reached the Ta Yu Mountain. There I noticed that several hundred men were in pursuit of me with the intention of robbing me of my robe and begging bowl.
Among them there was a monk named Hui Ming, whose lay surname was Ch'en. He was a general of the fourth rank in lay life. His manner was rough and his temper hot. Of all the pursuers, he was the most vigilant in search of me. When he was about to overtake me, I threw the robe and begging bowl on a rock, saying,
"This robe is nothing but a symbol. What is the use of taking it away by force?"
I then hid myself. When he got to the rock, he tried to pick them up, but found he could not. Then he shouted out,
"Lay brother, lay brother, (for the patriarch had not yet formally joined the order) I come for the dharma, not for the robe."
Whereupon I came out from my hiding place and squatted on the rock. He made obeisance and said,
"Lay brother, preach to me, please."
"Since the object of your coming is the dharma," said I, "refrain from thinking of anything and keep your mind blank. I will then teach you."
When he had done this for a considerable time, I said,
"When you are thinking of neither good nor evil, what is at that particular moment, Venerable Sir, your real nature (literally, original face)?"
As soon as he heard this he at once became enlightened. But he further asked,
"Apart from those esoteric sayings and esoteric ideas handed down by the patriarch from generation to generation, are there any other esoteric teachings?"
"What I can tell you is not esoteric," I replied. "If you turn your light inwardly, you will find what is esoteric within you."
"In spite of my staying in Huang Mei," said he, "I did not realize my self-nature. Now thanks to your guidance, I know it as a water-drinker knows how hot or how cold the water is. Lay brother, you are now my teacher."
I replied,
"If that is so, then you and I are fellow disciples of the fifth patriarch. Take good care of yourself."
In answering his question where he should go after that, I told him to stop at Yuan and to take up his abode in Meng. He paid homage and departed.
Some time after I reached Ts'ao Ch'i. There the evildoers again persecuted me and I had to take refuge in Szu Hui, where I stayed with a party of hunters for a period as long as fifteen years.
Occasionally I preached to them in a way that befitted their understanding. They used to put me to watch their nets, but whenever I found living creatures in them I set them free. At meal times I put vegetables in the pan in which they cooked their meat. Some of them questioned me, and I explained to them that I would eat the vegetables only, after they had been cooked with the meat.
One day I bethought myself that I ought not to pass a secluded life all the time, and that it was high time for me to propagate the Law. Accordingly I left there and went to the Fa Hsin Temple in Canton.
At that time Bhikkhu Yin Tsung, master of the dharma, was lecturing on the Maha Parinirvana Sutra in the temple. It happened that one day, when a pennant was blown about by the wind, two Bhikkhus entered into a dispute as to what it was that was in motion, the wind or the pennant. As they could not settle their difference I submitted to them that it was neither, and that what actually moved was their own mind.
The whole assembly was startled by what I said, and bhikkhu Yin Tsang invited me to take a seat of honour and questioned me about various knotty points in the sutras.
Seeing that my answers were precise and accurate, and that they showed something more than book-knowledge, he said to me,
"Lay brother, you must be an extraordinary man, I was told long ago that the inheritor of the fifth patriarch's robe and dharma had come to the south. Very likely you are the man."
To this I politely assented. At once he made obeisance and asked me to show the assembly the robe and the begging bowl which I had inherited. He further asked what instructions I had when the fifth patriarch transmitted me the dharma.
"Apart from a discussion on the realization of the essence of mind," I replied, "he gave me no other instruction, nor did he refer to dhyana and emancipation."
"Why not?" he asked.
"Because that would mean two ways," I replied. "And there cannot be two ways in Buddhism. There is one way only."
He asked what was the only way. I replied,
"The Maha Parinirvana Sutra which you expound explains that buddha-nature is the only way. For example, in that sutra King Kao Kuei-Teh, a Bodhisattva, asked Buddha whether or not those who commit the four acts of gross misconduct [killing, stealing, carnality and lying ] or the five deadly sins [patricide, matricide, setting the Buddhist Order in discord, killing an Arhat, and causing blood to flow from the body of a buddha ], and those who are icchantika (heretics) etc., would eradicate their 'element of goodness' and their Buddha-nature.
Buddha replied, 'There are two kinds of 'element of goodness', the eternal and the non-eternal. Since buddha-nature is neither eternal nor non-eternal, therefore their 'element of goodness' is not eradicated. Now Buddhism is known as having no two ways. There are good ways and evil ways, but since Buddha-nature is neither, therefore Buddhism is known as having no two ways. From the point of view of ordinary folks, the component parts of a personality (skandhas) and factors of consciousness (dhatus) are two separate things: but enlightened men understand that they are not dual in nature. Buddha-nature is non-duality."
Bhikkhu Yin Tsung was highly pleased with my answer. Putting his two palms together as a sign of respect, he said,
"My interpretation of the sutra is as worthless as a heap of debris, while your discourse is as valuable as genuine gold." Subsequently he conducted the ceremony of hair-cutting for me (i.e., the ceremony of initiation into the order) and asked me to accept him as my pupil.
From then on, under the bodhi-tree I preached the teaching of the Tung Shan school (the school of the fourth and the fifth patriarchs, who lived in Tung Shan).
Since the time when the dharma was transmitted to me in Tung Shan, I have gone through many hardships and my life often seemed to be hanging by a thread. Today, I have had the honour of meeting you in this assembly, and I must ascribe this to our good connection in previous kalpas (cyclic periods), as well as to our common accumulated merits in making offerings to various buddhas in our past reincarnations; otherwise, we should have had no chance of hearing the above teaching of the 'sudden' school, and thereby laying the foundation of our future success in understanding the dharma.
This teaching was handed down from the past Patriarchs, and it is not a system of my own invention. Those who wish to hear the teaching should first purify their own mind, and after hearing it they should each clear up their own doubts in the same way as the sages did in the past."
At the end of the address, the assembly felt rejoiced, made obeisance and departed.
H.H. The Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng
(638 - 713)
His Holiness Hui Neng, who became the great Sixth Patriarch of Ch'an (Japanese Zen) was a poor illiterate peasant boy from Hsin Chou of Kwangtung. One day, after he had delivered firewood to a shop, he overheard a man reciting the following line from the "Diamond Sutra" - "Depending upon nothing, you must find your own mind." Instantly, Hui Neng became enlightened. The full verse said: "All Bodhisattvas (Compassionate Ones) should develop a pure mind which clings to nothing whatsoever; and so he should establish it."
The man who recited this sutra encouraged Hui Neng to meet the Fifth Zen Patriarch, Hung Jen, at the Tung Chian Monastery in the Huang Mei District of Chi Chou. Hui Neng said to the Fifth Patriarch: "I am a commoner from Hsin Chou Kwangtung (today, near Canton in the south of China). I have traveled far to pay you respect, and I ask for nothing but Buddhahood." "You are a native of Kwangtung, a barbarian? How can you expect to be a Buddha?" asked the Patriarch. "Although there are northern men and southern men, north and south make no difference to their Buddha Nature. A barbarian is different from Your Holiness physically, but there is no difference in our Buddha Nature." Master Hung Jen immediately accepted Hui Neng as his disciple, but he had to hide this fact from the very educated northern monks at the monastery. At the time of the Fifth Patriarch, Ch'an was still influenced by Indian Buddhism, which did not emphasize direct awakening, but the importance of study and metaphysical debates. To protect Hui Neng, the Patriarch sent him to the kitchen to split firewood and pound rice for eight months.
One day the Fifth Patriarch told his monks to express their wisdom in a poem. Whoever had true realization of his original nature (Buddha Nature) would be ordained the Sixth Patriarch. The head monk, Shen Hsiu, was the most learned, and wrote the following:
"The body is the wisdom-tree,
The mind is a bright mirror in a stand;
Take care to wipe it all the time,
And allow no dust to cling."
The poem was praised, but The Fifth Patriarch knew that Shen Hsiu had not yet found his original nature, on the other hand, Hui Neng couldn't even write, so someone had to write down his poem, which read:
"Fundamentally no wisdom-tree exists,
Nor the stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is empty from the beginning,
Where can the dust alight?"
The Fifth Patriarch pretended that he wasn't impressed with this poem either, but in the middle of the night he summoned Hui Neng. The Fifth Patriarch gave him the insignia of his office, the Patriarch's robe and bowl. Hui Neng was told to leave for the South and to hide his enlightenment and understanding until the proper time arrives for him to propagate the Dharma.
The monks were jealous and ignorant, believed that the transmission was material, and decided to get back the robe and the bowl. After pursuing Hui Neng for 2 months, they found him on top of a mountain and wanted to kill him. Their leader was Hui Ming, whose lay surname was Chen. Of all the monks who pursued Hui Neng, he was the most skillful. Hui Ming had been a general of the fourth rank, and was hot tempered and rough mannered. When Hui Neng was about to be overtaken, he threw the robe and the begging bowl on a rock, quickly hid, and then said, "This robe is nothing but a symbol. What is the use of taking it away by force?" When Hui Ming arrived at the rock, he tried to pick up the robe and bowl, but was unable to do so. He cried out, "Lay Brother, Lay Brother, " (for Hui Neng had not yet formally joined the monastic order), "I come for the Dharma, not for the robe. " Hui Neng emerged from his hiding place and sat down on the rock. Hui Ming made obeisance and begged him to teach. Hui Neng said, "Since the object of your coming is the Dharma, refrain from thinking of anything and keep your mind empty. I will then teach you." They meditated together for a considerable time, then Hui Neng asked Hui Ming, "When you are thinking of neither good nor evil, at this particular moment, what is your original nature (Buddha Nature)?" As soon as Hui Ming heard this, he instantly became enlightened. Hui Ming then further asked, "Apart from those esoteric sayings and esoteric ideas handed down by the Fifth Patriarch from generation to generation, are there any other esoteric teachings?" Hui Neng replied, "What I can tell you is not esoteric. If you turn your light inwardly*, you will find what is esoteric within you."
Hui Neng's statement was used as a koan (question) from then on - "what did your original face look like before you were born? " Koans represent truths that can't be understood by logic. Hui Neng's koan cuts through concepts and speculations about one's nature. It is shocking to discover that there is no concept which can fit such a question. The shock shakes one's assumptions, and that begins the waking up process. As in his first poem, Hui Neng's original face is empty:
"When you hear me speak of emptiness, don't become attached to it, especially don't become attached to any idea of it. Merely 'sitting' still with your mind vacant, you fall into notional emptiness.
The boundless emptiness of the sky embraces the 'ten thousand things' of every shape and form - the sun, moon and stars; mountains and rivers; bushes and trees; bad people and good; good teachings and bad; heavens and hells. All these are included in emptiness.
The emptiness of your original nature (Buddha Nature) is just like that. It too embraces everything. To this aspect the word 'great ' applies. All and everything is included in your own original nature."
Hui Neng later became The Sixth Patriarch, the founder of the Dhyana (Ch'an) School of Sudden Awaking, which emphasized that sudden enlightenment was possible, given the right teacher and method. The Sixth Patriarch's teaching emphasize non-duality and oneness of everything. Hui Neng became the most famous Ch'an (Zen) master in Chinese history. After his death, his works were collected and classified as the only Chinese Buddhist sutra, called The Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra. His new school of Sudden Awaking is the only major surviving Dhyana School of Chinese Buddhism. Later, Hui Neng's disciples spread the Dharma all over Asia. Hui Neng defined Sitting Ch'an as: "In the midst of all good and evil, not a thought is aroused in the mind - this is called Sitting. Seeing into one's original nature, not being moved at all - this is called Ch'an. He taught that Sitting Ch'an should be practiced at all times, not just during formal sitting. He stressed it is the attitude of mind that is important, and not the physical posture, because truth can be found standing, walking, or lying down. In Japanese Sitting Ch'an was called Zazen.
*The most important point in the teaching of the Dhyana (Meditation, or Ch'an) School lies in Introspection, which means the turning of one's own 'light' to reflect inwardly. To illustrate, let us take the analogy of a lamp. We know that the light of a lamp, when surrounded by a shade, will reflect inwardly with its radiance centering on itself, whereas the rays of a naked flame with diffuse and shine outwardly. Now when we are engrossed with criticizing others, as is our wont, we hardly turn our thoughts on ourselves, and hence scarcely know anything about ourselves. Contrary to this, the followers of the Dhyana School turn their attention completely within and reflect exclusively on their own 'real nature,' known in Chinese as one's original face.'
Lest our readers should overlook this important passage, let it be noted that in China alone thousands of Buddhists have attained enlightenment by acting on this wise saying of the Sixth Patriarch.
By Dih Ping Tsze. Edited by the Wanderling. Some information was drawn from The Diamond Sutra and The Sutra of Hui Neng, Translated by A.F. Price and Wong, Mou-Lam, Shambhala Publications, Inc.,1985.