Life of the Six Zen Partriaches from Bodhidharma to Hui Neng
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The Sino-American Buddhist Association
The Buddhist Text Translation Society
San Francisco
1977
Translated from Chinese by
The Buddhist Text Translation Society
Primary Translation: Bhikshuni Heng Yin
Reviewed By: Bhikshuni Hen Ch'ih
Edited By: Upasaka Kuo Chuo Rounds
Certified By: The Venerable Master Hua
Copyright c 1977 by the Sino-American Buddhist
Assn, Buddhist Text Translation Society
BEFORE HUI-NENG
THE FIVE PREVIOUS CHINESE PATRIARCHS
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/bodhidharma/first-five.html
PRESENTED BY:
the Wanderling
It wasn't easy being the Sixth Patriarch. Many wished to kill him and his disciples as well. For this reason, after the Great master obtained the Dharma, he went into hiding, dwelling among hunters for sixteen years. Even after establishing his Dharma platform at Nan Hua Temple, followers of other religions tried to kill him, and so the Great Master hid inside a big rock. He sat there in meditation, and although they set the mountain on fire, he was untouched by the flames. The rock can still be seen at Nan Hua Temple.
Hui-neng is counted as the Sixth Patriarch from the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma, who was the Twenty-eighth Indian Patriarch. "Bodhi" means Enlightenment and "Dharma" means law. When Bodhidharma set sail from India, fulfilling the prediction of Shakyamuni Buddha that Mahayana teaching would be transmitted to China during the time of the Twenty-eighth Patriarch, the Buddhadharma already existed in China, yet it was if it was not there at all. Although there were men who studied, there were few who lectured or recited the sutras and repentance ceremonies were seldom practiced. Cultivation was superficial. Scholars debated and argued, but none of them truly understood.
The principles in the Sutras must be cultivated, but at that time in China they were not cultivated because everyone feared suffering. Now, in America, it is just the same. People sit in meditation. However as soon as their legs begin to ache, they wince and fidget and then gently unbend them. People are just people and nobody likes to have aching legs.
While still in India, Patriarch Bodhidharma sent two of his disciples, Fo T'o and Yeh She, to China to transmit the Sudden Enlightenment Dharma door. But no one, not even Chinese Bhikshus would speak to them. So they went to Lu Mountain where they met the Great Master Yuan Kung, who lectured on mindfulness of the Buddha.
Master Yuan asked, "What Dharma do you transmit that causes people to pay you so little respect?"
Fo T'o and Yen She could not speak Chinese, so they used sign language instead. Raising their arms in the air, they said, "Watch! The hand makes a fist and the fist makes a hand. Is this not quick?"
Master Yuan replied, "Quick indeed."
"Bodhi (Enlightenment) and affliction," they said, "are just that quick." At that moment, Dharma Master Yuan became Enlightened, realizing that originally Bodhi and affliction are not different, for Bodhi is affliction and affliction is Bodhi. he made offerings to Fo T'o and Yeh She, and shortly thereafter, the two Indian Bhikshus died on the same day, in the same place. Their graves may still be seen at Lu Mountain. -
THE FIRST PATRIARCH
Patriarch Bodhidharma saw that the roots of Mahayana, the Great Vehicle Buddhadharma, were ripe in China. Fearing neither the distance nor the hardship of travel, he took the Dharma there. The Chinese called him "barbarian" because he talked in a way no one understood. When the children looked up at the bearded Bodhidharma, they ran away in terror. Adults feared that he was a kidnapper and so told their children to stay away from him.
Patriarch Bodhidharma went to Nan Ching where he listen to Dharma Master Shen Kuang explain the sutras. When Shen Kuang spoke, the heavens rained fragrant blossoms and a gold-petalled lotus rose from the earth for him to sit upon. However, only those with good roots, who had opened the five eyes and the six spiritual penetrations were able to see that. Now! Isn't that wonderful?
After listening to the Sutra, Bodhidharma asked, "Dharma Master, what are you doing?"
"I am explaining Sutras," Shen Kuang replied.
"Why are you explaining Sutras?"
"I am teaching people to end birth and death."
"Oh?" said Bodhidharma, "exactly how do you do that? In this Sutra which you explain, the words are black and the paper is white. How does this teach people to end birth and death?"
Dharma master Shen Kuang had nothing to say. How did he teach people to end birth and death? He fumed in silence. Then, even though heavenly maidens rained down flowers and the earth gave forth golden lotuses, Dharma master Shen Kuang. This is what I mean when I say that the Buddhadharma existed in China but it was if it were not there at all.
When angry, Dharma master Shen Kuang used his heavy iron beads to level opposition. In response to Bodhidharma's question, he reddened with anger and raged like a tidal wave smashing a mountain. As he whipped out his beads, he snapped, "You are slandering the Dharma!" and cracked Bodhidharma across the mouth, knocking loose two teeth. Bodhidharma neither moved nor spoke. He hadn't expected such a vicious reply.
There is a legend about the teeth of holy men. You must not ask about the principle, however, because it is too inconceivable. The legend says that if a sage's teeth fall to the ground, it won't rain for three years. Patriarch Bodhidharma thought, "If it doesn't rain for three years, people will starve! I have come to China to save living beings, not to kill them!" So Bodhidharma did not let his teeth fall to the ground. Instead, he swallowed them and disappeared down the road. Although he had been beaten and reviled, Bodhidharma could not go to the government and file suit against Dharma Master Shen Kuang. Those who have left home have to be patient. How much more must a patriarch forbear.
Bodhidharma then met a parrot imprisoned in a wicker cage. This bird was much more intelligent than the Dharma Master Shen Kuang. Recognizing Bodhidharma as the First Patriarch, the bird said.
Mind from the West.
Mind from the West.
Teach me a way
To escape from this cage.
Although Bodhidharma had received no response from people, this parrot recognized him. Hearing the birds plea for help, Bodhidharma whispered a secret expedient teaching to teach his bird how to end suffering. He said,
To escape the cage,
To escape the cage,
Put out both legs,
Close both eyes.
This is the way
To escape from the cage!
The parrot listened attentively and said, "All right! I understand," and stuck out his legs, closed his eyes, and waited.
When the bird's owner came home from work, he always played with his parrot. But this time when he looked in the cage he was shocked. The owner was on the verge of tears. he couldn't have been more upset if his son had died. He pulled opened the cage door and scooped up the bird, which lay still and quiet in his hand. The body had not yet chilled. The owner looked with disbelief at the little body. He peaked at it from left and right...it didn't even quiver. Slowly he open his hand...PHLLRTTPHLRTTPHLRTT! The bird broke loose from his hand and flew away!
Now, like the parrot, we are in a cage. How do you escape? You may say, "I am really free. If I want to eat, I eat; if I want to drink, I drink. I do not have to follow rules. I can do anything."
Don't think you are quite so clever. This is not freedom, it is just confusion. To be free, you must be free of birth and death, and then, if you wish to fly into space you can fly into space, and if you wish to drop into the earth, you can drop into the earth. If you can do this, you are truly independent. Like the parrot, you are free.
As I explain The Sixth Patriarch's Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra, I do not lecture well. This is not polite talk; it's true. Some lecture well, yet do not dare explain. After I have lectured, you of true eloquence may follow. When you opened your wisdom, you will understand.
In his anger, Dharma Master Shen Kuang knocked out two of Bodhidharma's teeth. he thought he had won a great victory because the Barbarian put forth no opposition. But not long after, the Ghost of Impermanence, wearing a high hat, paid a call on Dharma Master Shen Kuang:
"Your life ends today," said the ghost. "King Yama, the king of the dead, has sent me to escort you."
Master Shen Kuang said, "What? why must I die? When I speak the Dharma, flowers fall from the heavens and the earth bubbles forth golden lotuses, yet I still have not ended birth and death? Tell me, is there a person in this world who has ended birth and death?"
"There is," came the reply.
"Who?" asked Shen Kuang. "Tell me, and I'll follow him to study the Way."
"he is the black-faced Bhikshu whose teeth you knocked out. King Yama bows to him everyday."
"Please, Old Ghost, speak to King Yama on my behalf. I want to follow that Bhikshu. I am determined to end birth and death. Can't you allow me some more time?"
"All right," said the ghost. "Since you are sincere, King Yama will wait."
Dharma Master Shen Kuang was delighted. He was so quick to rush after Bodhidharma, that he forgot to thank the Ghost of Impermanence; in fact, he even forgot to put on his shoes. He ran until he met the parrot whom Bodhidharma had freed, and suddenly he understood, "Originally it is just this way! I need only act dead. I need only be a living dead person!"
Bodhidharma walked on, ignoring the barefoot Dharma Master following behind. Arriving at Bear's Ear Mountain in Loyang, the Patriarch sat down to meditate facing a wall. For nine years, Patriarch Bodhidharma sat meditating and Dharma Master Shen Kuang knelt beside him, seeking the Dharma.
One day a great snow fell, and it rose in drifts as high as Shen Kuang's waist, and yet he continued to kneel. Finally Patriarch Bodhidharma asked him, "Why are you kneeling here in such deep snow?"
"I want to end birth and death," replied Shen kuang. "When I was lecturing Sutras I was unsuccessful. Please, Patriarch, transmit this dharma to me."
"What do you see falling from the sky?" asked Bodhidharma.
"Snow," said Shen Kuang.
"What color is it?" asked Bodhidharma.
"It's white of course."
"When red snow falls from the sky," said Bodhidharma, "I will transmit the Dharma to you. You knocked out two of my teeth, and I have been most compassionate in not taking revenge. Do you really expect me to give you the Dharma?" This was the test that the Patriarch Bodhidharna gave to Master Shen Kuang.
How did Shen kuang complete this test? Cultivators of the Way carry a knife to protect the substance of their precepts. A true cultivator would rather cut off his head than break a precept.
Shen Kuang drew his precept knife, and with one slice, cut off his arm and thus passed his test. His blood flowed on the new fallen snow. He scooped up a bucket full of crimson snow, dumped it before Bodhidharma, and said, "Patriarch do you see? The snow is red!"
Bodhidharma said, "So it is, so it is." He had tested Shen Kuang's sincerity, and now the Patriarch was extremely happy. "My coming to China has not been in vain...I have met a person who dares to use a true mind to cultivate the Way, even forsaking his arm in search of the Dharma."
The patriarch then spoke the Dharma door of "Using the mind to seal the mind." 1 It points straight to the mind to see the nature and realize Buddhahood. While hearing this dharma, Shen Kuang didn't think about the pain in his arm, and before that he had thought only making the snow turn red. But now once again produced discursive thought: "My arm really hurts!" he said. "My mind is in pain. Please Patriarch, quiet my mind."
"Find your mind," said Bodhidharma. "Show it to me and I will quiet it for you."
Dharma Master Shen Kuang searched for his mind he looked in the ten directions: north, east, south, west, in the intermediate points, and up and down. he also looked in the seven places that the Venerable Ananda looked when Shakyamuni Buddha asked him the same question in the Shuragama Sutra.2 That is.
1. He looked inside his body;
2. he looked outside his body;
3. he looked for it hidden somewhere in his sense organs.
4. He looked where there was light;
5. He looked at the place where conditions come together.
6. He looked in the middle, between the organs and their objects;
7. And, finally he looked in the place of non-attachment, which is no place.
At last Shen Kuang said to Bodhidharma, "I can't find my mind! Great Master, it is nowhere to be found."
"This is how well I have quieted your mind," said the Patriarch. At these words, Shen Kuang understood the meaning of the Dharma transmission, the wonderful, ineffable principle.
Ten thousand dharmas return to one;
Where does the one return?
Shen Kuang did not understand,
And ran after Bodhidharma;
Before him at Bear's Ear Mountain
Knelt nine years
Seeking Dharma to escape King Yama.
In a continuance of the Transmission of the Light, with the transmission of the Dharma, Shen Kuang received the name Hui K'o which means "Able Wisdom."
Master Hui K'o asked Bodhidharma, "In India, did you transmit the dharma to your disciples? Did you also give the robe and the bowl as certification?"
"I transmitted the Dharma in India," replied Bodhidharma, "but I did not use the robe and the bowl. Indian people are straight forward. When they attain the fruit, they know they must be certified. If no one certifies them, they do not say, 'I have attained the Way! I have given proof to Arhatship! I am a Bodhisattva!' They do not speak like this."
"Many people have the Great Vehicle Root Nature, but there are also many people who lie. Having cultivated without success, such people claim to have the way. Though they have not certified the fruit, they claim to be certified sages."
While the Patriarch was in China, he was poisoned six times. Dharma Master Bodhiiruci and Vinaya Master Kuang T'ung were jealous of him. They prepared a vegetarian meal which contained a invariably fatal drug, and offered it to the Patriarch. Although he knew it was poisoned, he ate it. Then he vomited the food on to a tray, and it was transformed into a pile of writhing snakes.
After this unsuccessful attempt, Bodhiruci tried again, using an even more potent poison. Again, Bodhidharma ate the food. Then he sat atop a huge boulder and spat out the poison. The boulder crumbled into a heap of dust. In four more attempts, jealous people tried without success to poison the Patriarch.
One day, the Great Master Bodhidharma said to Hui K'o, 'I came to China because I saw people with the Great Vehicle Root Nature. now I have transmitted the Dharma and am ready to complete the stillness." After his death the Patriarch's body was buried. there was nothing unusual about his funeral.
In Northern Wei (386-532 A.D.), however, an official called Sung Yun, met Bodhidharma on the road to Chung Nan Mountain in Ts'un Ling. When they met Bodhidharma was carrying one shoe in his hand. He said to Sung Yun, "The king of your country died today. Return quickly! There is work to be done."
The official asked, "Great Master, where are you going?"
"Back to India," the Great Master replied.
"Venerable One, to whom did you transmit your Dharma?"
"In China after forty years, it will be Hui-K'o.'"
Sung Yun returned to his country and reported the incident. "Recently, in Ts'un Ling, I met the Patriarch Bodhidharma who told me that the king of our country had died and instructed me to return back to the capital. When I arrived I found it exactly as he had said. How did he know?"
His countrymen scoffed, "Bodhidharma is already dead. How could you have met him on the road?" Then they rushed to the Patriarch's grave and found it empty, with nothing inside but one shoe.
Where did Bodhidharma go? No one knows. Perhaps he came to America. Wherever he wanders, no one can recognize him, because he can change and transform according to his convenience. When he came to China he said he was one hundred and fifty years old, and when he left he was still one hundred and fifty years old. No historical references can be found.
When Bodhidharma was about to enter Nirvana he said, "I came to China and transmitted my Dharma to three people. One received my marrow, one received my bones, and one received my flesh." After the transmission, the patriarch himself no longer had a body. Great Master Hui K'o received the marrow and Ch'an Master Tao Yu received the bones.
Bhikshuni Tsung Ch'ih would recite The Lotus Sutra from memory. After she died, a green lotus flower grew from her mouth. She received Bodhidharma's flesh. In the end, Bodhidharma had no body at all. So don't look for him in America; you won't find him. -
THE SECOND PATRIARCH
The Second Patriarch, Hui K'o of the Northern Ch'i (550-577 A.D.) whose family name was Chi, was formerly Shen Kuang. When he was born, his parents saw Wei T'ou Bodhisattva, the golden armored spiritual being, come to offer protection; thereupon they named their son "Shen Kuang" which means "spiritual light." Not only was the Patriarch intelligent, but he had an excellent memory as well, and his skills and powers of discrimination were so remarkable that he could read ten lines in the time it took an ordinary person to read one. In a gathering of one hundred people, all talking at once, he could clearly distinguish each conversation.
The Great Master, however, had great anger; he disagreed with everyone and was ready to fight. When Shen Kuang explained Sutras, as I have told you, he uses his iron beads to win his arguments. Later, after he knelt for nine years in quest of the Dharma, it was his great anger which enabled him to cut off his arm and feel no pain. It was also because of this anger that he later felt pain. Unafflicted by anger, he would have felt no pain. Pain is just an affliction and affliction is the cause of pain.
The Second Patriarch was forty years old when he left Bodhidharma. Having obtained the Dharma, he went into hiding because Bodhiruci and Vinaya Master Kuang T'ung, who had made six attempts on the life of Bodhidharma, also wished to kill his disciples. So although Hui K'o had great anger, he nevertheless obeyed his teacher and went into hiding for forty years. When he was eighty, he began to propagate the Buddhadharma, teaching and transforming living beings.
Hui-k'o eventually passed on the bowl and robe to his successor, the Third Patriarch, Seng-ts'an, signifying the Transmission of the Dharma. Hui-k'o, who had received the seal of approval from Bodhidharma himself sometime after the above arm severing episode, then went everywhere drinking and carousing around like a wildman and partaking in the offerings of the brothel districts. When people asked how he could do such a thing, being a Patriarch of the Zen school and all, he would respond with: "What business is it of yours?" (source)
Later, the disciples of Bodhiruci and Vinaya Master T'ung Kuang tried to kill Master Hui K'o, who feigned insanity to lessen the jealousy of his rivals. But he never ceased to save living beings who were ready to receive his teaching. Because so many people continued to trust the Second Patriarch, Bodhiruci's disciples were still jealous. They reported Hui K'o to the government, accusing him of being a weird inhuman creature. "He confuses the people who follow him," they charged; "he is not even human." The emperor ordered the district magistrate to arrest him, and Hui K'o was locked up and questioned:
"Are you human or are you a freak?" asked the Magistrate.
"I'm a freak," replied master Hui K'o.
The magistrate knew that the Patriarch was saying this to avoid jealousy, so he ordered him to tell the truth. "Speak clearly," he demanded, "what are you?"
The Great Master replied, "I'm a freak."
Governments can't allow strange freaks to roam the earth, and so Hui K'o was sentenced to die. Now, isn't that the way of the world?
The Patriarch wept when he told his disciples, "I must undergo retribution." He was a courageous man, certainly not one who would cry out of Fear of Death. he was sad that the Dharma had not been widely understood during his lifetime. "The Buddhadharma will not flourish until the time of the Fourth Patriarch," he announced, and then he faced the executioner.
"Come and kill me he said!" he said. The executioner raised his axe and swung it towards the master's neck. What do you think happened?
You are probably thinking, "He was a patriarch with great spiritual power. certainly the blade shattered and his neck was not even scratched." No. The axe cut off his head, and it didn't grow back. However, instead of blood, a milky white fluid flowed onto the chopping block.
You think, "Now really,this is just too far out." If you believe it that is fine. If you don't believe it that is fine too; just forget it. However, I will give you a simple explanation of why blood did not flow from the Patriarch's neck: When a sage enters the white yang realm his body becomes white because his body has completely transformed into yang, leaving no trace of yin. "I don't believe it," you say. Of course you don't. If you did, you would be just like the Second Patriarch.
When the executioner saw that the master did not bleed, he exclaimed, "Hey! He really is a freak! I chopped off his head, but what came out was not blood, but this milky white fluid. And his face looks exactly as it did when he was alive!" The emperor knew that he had executed a saint, because he remembered that the Twenty-fourth Indian Patriarch, Aryasimha, had also been beheaded and had not bled, but a white milky fluid had poured forth, because he had been without outflows. When one has no ignorance, one may attain to a state without outflows and enter the white yang realm.
You think, "But you just said the Patriarch Hui K'o had great anger. How could he have been without great ignorance?" You are certainly more clever than I, for I did not think of this question. But now that you have brought it up, I will answer it. His was not petty anger like yours and mine which explodes like firecrackers, "Pop! Pop! Pop." His anger was wisdom and because of it his body became yang. Great patience, great knowledge, great courage, great wisdom: That's what his temper was made of.
Realizing that Hui K'o was a Bodhisattva in the flesh, the Emperor felt great shame. "A Bodhisattva came to our country," he said, "and instead of offering him protection, we kill him." Then the Emperor had all the officials take refuge with this strange Bhikshu. Thus, even though the Second Patriarch had already been executed, he still excepted these disciples. -
THE THIRD PATRIARCH
The Third Patriarch, Seng Ts'an of the Sui Dynasty, was of unknown family and origin. When he first came to visit the Second Patriarch, his body was covered with repulsive sores like those of a leper.
"Where are you from?" asked the Second Patriarch. "What are you doing here?"
"I have come here to take refuge with the High master and to study and cultivate the Buddhadharma," answered Seng Ts'an.
"You have a loathsome disease and your body is filthy. How can you study the Buddhadharma?"
Master hui K'o was clever, but Dhyana Master Seng Ts'an was even more clever. "I am a sick man and you are a high master," he said, "but in our true minds where is the difference?"
Thereupon, the Second patriarch transmitted the Dharma to Seng Ts'an saying, "This robe and bowl have been passed on from Bodhidharma. They certify that you have received the Dharma Seal. In order to protect it, you must go into hiding, because Bodhiruci's follower's will try to harm you. Be very careful and let no one know that you have received the transmission."
The Third Patriarch also feigned insanity while he taught living beings. During the persecution of Buddhism by the Emperor Wu of the Norther Chou dynasty (reigned from 561-577 A.D.), the Patriarch fled into the mountains. While he hid there, the tigers, wolves, leopards, and other fierce animals all disappeared.
After transmitting the Dharma to the Fourth Patriarch, Thai Hsin, Master Seng Ts'an invited a thousand Bhikshus to a great vegetarian feast. After they had eaten, he said, "You think that to sit in a full lotus is the best way to die. Watch! I'll demonstrate my independence over birth and death!" The Master left the dining hall, followed by the thousand bhikshus. he halted by the trunk of a tree, and after pausing for a moment, he leapt up and grabbed a big branch. Then while swinging from the tree by one hand he entered Nirvana. No one knew his name or his birthplace.
Someone is afraid and thinks, "The First Patriarch was poisoned, the Second Patriarch was beheaded, the Third Patriarch died hanging from a tree. I certainly do not want to be a patriarch. It's much too dangerous." With this attitude, even if you wanted to be a patriarch you could not. As long as you fear death, as long as you fear anything at all, you cannot even be a patriarch's disciple. Patriarchs are not afraid of suffering. They are not afraid of life and they are not afraid of death. Making no distinctions between life and death, they roam among people, teaching and transforming them. Like Fo T'o and Yeh She, they know that affliction is just Bodhi and birth and death is Nirvana. So, tell me now, who is not afraid of birth and death? If there is such a one, I will make him a patriarch. -
THE FOURTH PATRIARCH
The Fourth Patriarch's name was Thai Hsin, sometimes refered to as Tao Hsin in Zen literature as well. While very young, Master Thai Hsin, or Tao Hsin as the case may be, left home under Master Seng Ts'an and for sixty years he sat in Dhyana concentration, without lying down to rest. Although he seldom opened his eyes, he wasn't asleep. He was working at cultivation. When he did open his eyes, everyone shook with terror. Why? No one knew. Such was the magnitude of his awesome virtue.
Hearing of the master's great virtue, in the seventeenth year of the Chen Kuan Reign of the T'ang Dynasty (643 A.D.), the emperor sent a messenger to invite him to the place to receive offerings. Unlike we common people, we would attempt to wedge ourselves into the court without being asked, the Great Master, the Fourth Patriarch, refused the invitation saying, "I am too old and the journey would be tiring. Eating on the road would be too difficult. I cannot undergo such hardship."
When the messenger delivered the Patriarch's reply, the Emperor said, "Go back and tell him that the Emperor says that no matter how old he is or how difficult the journey, I have ordered him to come to the palace."
The messenger returned to the patriarch and said, "Master, regardless of your health, you must come to the Emperor's court. We will carry you back if necessary!" At that time, since there were no airplanes or cars, travel was difficult.
"No, I cannot go," replied the Patriarch. "I am too old and ill. Take my head if you must, but my heart will not go."
The messenger thought, "There is nothing to do but to go back without him. I cannot take his head to the Emperor. This Bhikshu is very strange; he is hardly human."
The messenger then hurried back to the Emperor. "Your Excellency, you may have the Master's head but his heart will not move!"
"Very well, go get his head," replied the Emperor. He put a knife in a box and gave it to the messenger saying, "Slice off his head, but under no circumstances should you harm this Bhikshu."
The messenger understood. he returned to the Fourth Patriarch. "Venerable master, if you refuse to come, the Emperor has ordered me to cut off your head," he said.
Patriarch Thai Hsin said, "If in this life my head gets to see the Emperor, that will be a great glory, you may remove my head now." The messenger took out the knife and prepared to cut off his head. The Great Master closed his eyes and waited calmly for about ten minutes. Maybe it was ten minutes, maybe it was nine or eleven. Don't become attached. It is certainly not determined exactly how long he waited. But nothing happened, and finally Master Thai Hsin got angry, just like the Second Patriarch, and shouted, "Hey! Why don't you slice off my head."
"The Emperor had no intention of harming you," the messenger quickly replied. "He was just bluffing."
The Patriarch heard this and laughed aloud. Then he said, "Now you know there is still a person in the world who does not fear death."
The "public case" below is featured prominently in Dark Luminosity as well as Fear In Enlightenment and Zen. The case has been abstracted from a number of sources through time that somewhere along the line derived it from the original source, the Ching-te Ch'uan Teng-lu.
There once was a sage named Niu-T'ou Fa-Yung (Gozu Hoyu, 594-657) who lived in a lonely temple high in the mountains. One day he was visited by the Patriarch Thai Hsin (T'ao Hisn).
As the two were talking a wild animal roared close by, Thai Hsin, a fully Enlightened monk, jumped. "I see it is still with you," said the Fa-Yung...refering, of course, to the instinctive "passion" of fright.
Shortly afterwards, while he was unobserved for a moment, Thai Hsin inscribed the Chinese character for the Buddha on the rock Fa-Yung was accustomed to sit. When the sage returned to sit down he saw the sacred Name and hesitated to sit.
"I see," said Thai Hsin, "it (fear) is still with you."
The family name of the Fourth Patriarch was Ssu Ma and his personal name was Hsin. Ssu Ma was an honorable ancestral name. Both Emperor Ssu Ma of the Chin dynasty and the historian and skilled writer Ssu Ma Ch'ien of the Han dynasty had this name. When the Patriarch became a Bhikshu he took the new name Thai Hsin. He lived seventy-two years, sixty of which were spent without lying down even once to sleep. The Fourth Patriarch's realm of accomplishment was inconceivable.
While Thai Hsin was cultivating, a nearby city was besieged by bandits for more than a hundred days, depriving its inhabitants of water and supplies. Seeing the lives of the people in danger, Master Thai Hsin left his mountain retreat to rescue the city dwellers. He taught them all to recite "Mahaprajna-paramita." After they recited for a time, the bandits fled and water reappeared into the wells. This is the response based on the Way which Master Thai Hsin evoked as a result of his superior cultivation.
When the Fourth Patriarch decided to build a temple, he looked with his Buddha eye and saw Broken head Mountain surrounded by a purple cloud of energy. Observing this auspicious sign, the master went there to dwell, changing its inauspicious name, "Broken Head," to "Double Peak" Mountain.
The master used expedient dharmas to teach living beings how to discard their bad habits. These stubborn living beings, however, often discard what was good and continued doing evil. But the Master persisted and by using all kinds of skill-in-means caused these stubborn living beings to realize their mistakes. He propagated the Dharma for more than forty years, transforming living beings greater in number than seedlings of rice, stalks of hemp, shoots of bamboo, or blades of grass.
One day the Fourth Patriarch said to his disciple Dharma Master Yuan I, "You should build me a Stupa. I am going to leave."
In the second year of Yung Hui, of the T'ang dynasty (651 A.D.), on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth lunar month, Patriarch Thai Hsin, who had never been ill, sat down and entered Nirvana. His disciples locked his flesh body securely in the stone stupa. A year later the iron locks fell away and the Stupa opened by itself. Looking in, everybody saw the body of the Fourth Patriarch still sitting in full lotus, appearing the same as he had alive. The Master's body had not decayed, but the flesh had dried out. The Fifth Patriarch, Hung jen, wrapped the body with lacquered cloth and gilded it. This "true body" still exists today. -
THE FIFTH PATRIARCH
The Fifth Patriarch, Hung Jen, also lived during the T'ang dynasty. His family name was Chou. He lived in Huang Mei County near Double Peak Mountain. When he was seven, he went to the temple on the mountain to attend upon the Fourth Patriarch. The Great Master Hung Jen cleaned the lamps and censer before the buddha images; he swept the floor, carried water, split firewood, and worked in the kitchen. At age thirteen he took ten novice precepts and studied under the Fourth Patriarch for over sixty years.
The Fifth Patriarch was eight feet tall and had an extraordinary appearance. When others treated him badly, he remained silent and unmoved. because he did not rise to discrimination, he never spoke of "right" or "wrong", and when fellow bhikshus bullied him, he never fought back. His calm, quiet manner indicated that he realized a state of peace.
Even after working hard all day, the Master didn't rest. Instead of sleeping, he sat in meditation, uniting body and mind in powerful Samadhi.
Master Hung Jen lived in the woods of P'ing Mao Mountain slightly east of double peak mountain, so his teaching is called the East Mountain Dharma Door. Once, like his master the Fourth Patriarch, he saw a horde of bandits besieging a nearby city. Their leader, a Mongol named K'e Ta Ha Na Lu, and his followers had so tightly cut off the communications that even the birds couldn't fly in or out. the Fifth patriarch went down P'ing Mao Mountain toward the city. When the bandits saw him, they were terrified, for they saw not only the Patriarch, but also a retinue of golden-armored Vajra King Bodhisattvas armed with jeweled weapons, manifesting awesome virtue and brightness. The thieves retreated, the siege broken.
How was the Great Master able to command these Vajra King Bodhisattvas? The Fifth Patriarch had cultivated and recited the Shurangama Mantra. The Shurangama sutra says that if you are constantly mindful of the Shurangama Mantra, eighty-four thousand vajra store Bodhisattvas will protect you from all danger.
In the fifth year of the Hsien Ch'ing reign of the T'ang dynasty (660 A.D.), the Emperor invited Great Master Hung jen to the palace. The Master also declined. Finally, the Emperor sent a variety of gifts, including rare medicinal herbs, as an offering to the Great Master, the Fifth Patriarch.
In the Fifth year of the Hsien Ch'ing reign of the T'ang dynasty (674 A.D.), the Fifth Patriarch said to his disciples, "Build me a Stupa. I am going to leave." In the second month of the fourteenth day he asked, "Is the Stupa ready?" Master Hsuan chi replied that it was. The Patriarch said, "For many years I have taught living beings. I have taken across those I must take across and have transmitted my Dharma to Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch. Now in addition , you ten should become Dharma hosts, and establish Bodhimandas to preserve and spread the teaching among living beings."
The ten he addressed were: Dharma Master Shen Hsiu, Chih Hsien, I Fang, Chih Te, Shuan Chi, Lao An, Fa Ju, Hui Tsang, Hsuan yao, and also Upasaka Liu Chu Pu, who had dealt with correspondence and accounting. The Fifth Patriarch sent each of these ten people to a different place to teach and transform living beings.
Shortly thereafter, he sat very still and his energy dispersed as he entered Nirvana. During the seventy-four years of his life, the Fifth Patriarch Hung jen had accepted many disciples, and he transmitted the Dharma to the Great Master Hui Neng. -
THE SIXTH PARTRIACH
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 no-thing, 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 no-thing 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 (source). 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.
NOTE: For more on Hui Neng and Shen Hsiu's two stanzas and the stanza competition please go to TRANSLATION NOTES
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 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.
D.T. Suzuki writes in An Introduction to Zen Buddhism:
Zen in not a system of Dhyana as practiced in India and by other Buddhist schools in China. Dhyana is generally understood to be a kind of meditation or contemplation directed toward some fixed thought; in Hinayana Buddhism it was a thought of transiency, while in the Mahayana it was more often the doctrine of emptiness. When the mind has been so trained as to be able to realize a state of perfect void in which there is not a trace of consciousness left, even the sense of being unconscious having departed; in other words, when all forms of mental activity are swept away clean from the field of consciousness, leaving the mind like the sky devoid of every speck of cloud, a mere broad expense of blue, Dhyana is said to have reached its perfection. This may be called ecstasy or trance, or the First Jhana, but it is not Zen. In Zen there must be not just Kensho, but Satori. There must be a general mental upheaval which destroys the old accumulations of intellection and lays down the foundation for new life; there must be the awakening of a new sense which will review the old things from a hitherto undreamed-of angle of observation. In Dhyana there are none of these things, for it is merely a quieting exercise of mind. As such Dhyana doubtless has its own merit, but Zen must be not identified with it. (source)
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. (see) -
This is a great material to study Ch'an's history and Patriarchs' teachings.
Many ppl get the wrong idea that the goal of practicing Ch'an is to be enlightened. Actually, enlightenment is not hard, given the right teacher and method. For example, most of An-Hsiang ChÂ’anÂ’s practitioners can be enlightened within 10 years. The faster ones would only take one to two years. Currently, the fastest record is three months. But how much time it takes is not important.
Enlightenment is only the entry level requirement for ChÂ’an practitioners. The real practice starts after enlightenment. To make it short, enlightenment is only a realization of our true mind, while Buddhahood is the fulfillment of enlightenment. Thus also the goal of practicing ChÂ’an.