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.
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)
