On the High Seat of "The Treasure of the Law" The Sutra of the 6 th Patriarch, Hui Neng
(Translated by A.F.Price and Wong Mou-Lam)
[more Zen or Chan Buddhism]
Chapter 3. Questions and Answers
Chapter 7. Temperament and Circumstances
Chapter 8. The Sudden School and the Gradual School
Chapter 10. His Final Instructions
Chapter I. Autobiography
Once, when the Patriarch had arrived at 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. Whereupon, 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. Thereupon I asked the man the name
of the book he was reciting and was told that it was the Diamond Sutra.
I further enquired whence he came and why he recited this particular
sutra. He replied that he came from Tung Ch'an Monastery in the HuangMei
District of Ch'i Chou; that the Abbot in charge of this temple was Hung
Yen, the Fifth Patriarch; that there were about one thousand disciples
under him; and that when he 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 thereby reach Buddhahood
directly.
It must be due to my good karma in past lives that I heard
about this, and that I was given tentaels for the maintenance of my
mother by a man who advised me to go to HuangMei to interview the Fifth
Patriarch. After arrangements had been made for her, I left for Huang
Mei, which took me less than thirty days to reach.
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 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 myself 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 (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 ShenHsiu, 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 amount
to 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 Lankavatara Sutra 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 12 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 at once 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 be great indeed!" 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." "Whither should I go?" I asked. "AtHuai
you stop and atHui 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 (an
allusion 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
whither he should go thereafter, I told him to stop at Yuan and to take
up his abode in Meng. He paid homage and departed.
Sometime 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 therein 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 honor 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. He immediately 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 MahaParinirvana Sutra which you expound explains that Buddha-nature
is the only way. For example, in that Sutra King KaoKuei-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 areicchantika (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.
Thenceforth, 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 honor 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.
[more Zen or Chan Buddhism]