Zen Buddhism from Bodhidharma to the east to spread the Dharma, through the second ancestor Hui Ke, the third ancestor Seng Can, the fourth ancestor Daoxin, the fifth ancestor Hongren five generations of patriarchs of the silent cultivation, to the sixth ancestor Hui Neng (638 ~ 713), finally branched out, towards prosperity.
Starting from the six patriarchs Huineng, the most important sect in the history of Chinese Buddhism and even in the history of Buddhism in the world, Chinese Zen Buddhism, can be regarded as truly on the stage of history, and Huineng is a key role in the "connection between the past and the next" of Chinese Zen Buddhism.
Since Buddhism was introduced to China during the reign of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, for nearly 2,000 years, there have been many sects of Buddhism in China, and there have been many eminent monks and great virtues of each school. However, in the history of Chinese Buddhism, if you want to select a figure who can definitely represent Chinese Buddhism, it is probably only Huineng.
From today onwards, I will tell you the stories of the Sixth Ancestor Huineng......
1. Selling firewood and hearing scriptures:
Master Huineng, in the twelfth year of Tang Zhenguan, was born in Xinzhou (now Xinxing County, Yunfu City, Guangdong Province) in 638 AD. The common surname is Lu, and his father's name is Lu Xingyu (603~640), originally from Fanyang, Hebei (now Dingxing, Hebei). was originally an official of the Tang Dynasty, but for some reason he was sent to Xinzhou, a remote place.
Guangdong at that time was very different from Guangdong now. In ancient times, the south of the Yangtze River was all "Nanban", not to mention a small county town in the "south of the south".
When Huineng was less than three years old, his father Lu Xingyao died. The mother did not remarry, but decided to raise Huineng alone. At that time and in that place, it was naturally very difficult for a widow to raise a three-year-old child alone. Soon, the family's little savings were gone.
As the saying goes, "the children of the poor are in charge of the family early", because the family has no income, when Huineng was six or seven years old, he went up to the mountains to collect firewood, and then carried it to the market to sell it in exchange for a meager income to supplement the family.
In this way, the poor life of "collecting firewood for a living" lasted for more than ten years, until the chance encounter that changed Huineng's life.
One day, Huineng still carried firewood to the market to sell it as usual. Huineng was selling firewood at his stall when a passing merchant chanted a sutra as he walked: "Therefore Su Bodhi, all Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas should have pure hearts......
When I heard this person read "There should be no place to live and his heart is born", Huineng's whole portrait was "struck by lightning", and there was an inexplicable throbbing, as if there was a kind of touch, but he couldn't say what it was.
He hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "May I ask what scripture you just read, and where did you get it?"
The man said, "The name I just recited is the Diamond Sutra, which was taught by Master Hongren of Huangmei Dongchan Temple. ”
The full name of the "Diamond Sutra" is "The Sutra of Being Able to Break the Vajra Prajnaparamita", also known as the "Vajra Prajnaparamita Sutra". It was first translated by the Later Qin Kumarosh in the fourth year of Hongshi (402), and five translations that were recognized by the public appeared one after another, but none of them were translated by Kumarosh.
The Diamond Sutra is of moderate length, and its Buddhist principles belong to the categories of "Middle Way" and "Madhyamaka". Because of the introduction of this scripture, Huineng is particularly valued by Chinese Zen Buddhism.
Two sentences from the Diamond Sutra can roughly express the main content of the Diamond Sutra:
"All appearances are vain. If you see things that are not like each other, you will see them as they are. ”
This is the fact that the Buddha was describing the world as it is:
The reflection of the external world in everyone's mind is not consistent, and what is in anyone's eyes is not what it is, but is a subjective reflection made after human cognition and judgment, and is the product of being polluted by human perception.
All human feelings are "images" projected by the external world in your "heart", not the original "free world", but the "world of consciousness" of people.
The "free world" objectively exists, but for people, only the "world of consciousness" is meaningful, because everyone is looking at the world with their own "heart", and it is precisely because of "heart" that they cannot see the "free world". Therefore, for each person, his "world of consciousness" is the unique "real world".
This way of knowing the world by "the Lord sees the world" is the root of not getting the truth of the world, and what should we do if we want to see the world as it is? The Buddha gave a specific method, that is, "the mind should be born without dwelling."
Therefore, the famous sayings in the Diamond Sutra, such as "All appearances are false", "Those who are reality are non-appearances", and "All the ways of doing are like dreams and bubbles, like dew and electricity", are all facts that the Buddha is saying that people cannot see through the essence, and "the mind should be born without dwelling" is the solution given by the Buddha.
When Hui Neng heard these words, "his heart was like an electric shock", and he seemed to be connected with the Buddha's heart, and felt the "truth" that he had never experienced before, but he couldn't say it concretely. So he had his new goal: to go to Dongshan and ask Hongren for a real question.
He grabbed the merchant and asked excitedly: "I want to go to Master Hongren to seek the Dharma, how far is Huangmei Dongchan Temple from here, and how many days can I get there?"
The merchant looked the young man in front of him up and down, and said: "It's rare that you have the ambition to seek the Dharma at a young age, but Dongchan Temple is far away from here, with two or three thousand miles of land, if you walk, I'm afraid you will have to walk for a month!"
It takes more than two months to go back and forth, not to mention how much time it will take to "seek the Fa". The family is already poor, if he leaves like this, who will support the old mother for so long? Thinking of this, Huineng's enthusiasm just now disappeared all of a sudden, and he frowned and pestle there. Although he is "eager to seek the law", he also has to take into account reality.
The merchant was a warm-hearted person, and he saw that Huineng had difficulties, so he said: "You and I are fated, if the little brother wants to go to Dongchan Temple to seek the Dharma, if there is anything that needs help, just say, I will try my best to help." ”
Huineng didn't hide it, so he told the merchant about his family's predicament, and the merchant immediately took out ten taels of silver and handed it to Huineng, saying: "With this ingot of silver, presumably the old mother's food and clothing should be able to deal with it." ”
During the Tang Zhenguan period, one tael of silver could buy about 20 stone of grain, one stone was 120 catties, and 20 stones were 2,400 catties. The purchasing power of these ten taels of silver is quite amazing!
This can solve Huineng's worries, Huineng took the silver and hurriedly thanked him, and the merchant waved his hand and said: "Don't thank me, if you can get the Fa as soon as possible and benefit the public, it will be a great merit, I am just doing it with my hands." ”
It can be seen from the chanting of the merchant that this merchant is not an ordinary businessman, and his generosity is the first method of the "Six Perfections": charity.
Huineng asked some more information about Dongchan Temple and Hongren, and after saying goodbye to the merchants, he went home and settled down with his mother and embarked on the road of seeking the Dharma.
2. The Path of Seeking the Dharma:
Huineng went all the way north, first arrived in Shaozhou (now Shaoguan City), met a man named Liu Zhiluo, the two met strangely, but they were like-minded and became friends.
Later, Liu Zhiluo invited Huineng to stop by his house to rest temporarily, so Huineng followed Liu Zhiluo to Caoxi Village, Shaozhou, where he lived, and temporarily lived in Liu Zhiluo's house.
Liu Zhiluo has an aunt who is a monk and a nun, called Endless Zang, who usually likes to study and recite the "Nirvana Sutra". After listening to her recite for a period of time, plus her own understanding of the "Diamond Sutra", she interpreted the scriptures with the scriptures, and basically understood the general idea of the "Nirvana Sutra".
There are three main translations of the Nirvana Sutra, but the translation by Tan Wuyu in the first ten years of the Northern Liang Xuan Dynasty (421) is the most complete and has the greatest impact on the development of Chinese Buddhism, so the generally referred to the Nirvana Sutra refers to this translation.
The main idea of "all living beings have Buddha nature" in the Nirvana Sutra makes it possible for everyone to become a Buddha, which is one of the most fundamental ideas of Chinese Zen Buddhism, and it is also the signature of Zen Buddhism. It was during this period of temporary residence that Huineng gained a deeper understanding of the Nirvana Sutra.
Because when Liu Zhiluo introduced Huineng to his family, he said that he was also a fan of Buddhism and had a lot of experience in the "Diamond Sutra". So Hentai Zang asked Huineng for some doubts in the scriptures.
But when Hentai Zang showed Hui Neng the scriptures he didn't understand, Hui Neng said: "I have gone up to the mountains to collect firewood since I was a child, and I have never studied, and I don't know most of the words in the scriptures. But being illiterate does not affect my understanding of the true meaning of the scriptures, and if there is anything you don't understand, just ask. ”
Hearing Hui Neng say this, he was very strange: "Since you don't know the words of the scriptures, how can you explain the meaning of the scriptures?"
Huineng said: "The wonderful principles of the Buddhas are not about words. It's like this fruit in my hand, although I can't name it or how it grows, it doesn't affect my taste. ”
Huineng's words made Endless Zangni surprised and paused:
"There is an essential difference between the words and the original meaning, no matter how it is depicted, it is not. No matter how it is described, it is "the book is not exhaustive, and the words are not exhaustive"! Language and words are only carriers, not original intentions, and the more we cling to words, the farther away we are from the truth. ”
In two short sentences, Hentai Zang knows that Huineng is very human, and he should be allowed to help more people. So he found those people in the township who spoke with weight, and said to them: "That Huineng who temporarily lives in my house is a rare talent, if you want to ask the Fa and seek the Tao, you can find him." ”
Endless Zang is also a prestigious person in the township on weekdays, she said so, that must be true. So the villagers came to worship Huineng and ask for the law.
People come and go, and the place where Huineng temporarily lives can no longer cope with it, so everyone is thinking about finding a place to live for Huineng. It just so happened that there was a Baolin Temple in the village that had been abandoned for many years, so everyone contributed money and effort to take care of the Baolin Temple, and it was used as a place for Huineng to live and speak.
Because Hui Neng has tasted the realm of enlightenment, he looks at everything in his eyes from a higher perspective, and what he says is always straight to the heart and unpretentious, but it is better than those ornate words or profound scriptures. In this way, more and more people came to Huineng to explain the law, and it didn't take long for Baoling Temple to flourish.
But Huineng knew in his heart that these were not what he wanted, and he always cared about Dongchan Temple in his heart, and always wanted to ask Hongren the question in his heart.
"I just have some understanding, but I am not really enlightened, and the road of seeking the Tao should not stop halfway!" Huineng was so vigilant to himself, so he left Caoxi Village and embarked on the road of seeking the Dharma again.
Looking back at Caoxi Village, which was gradually blurring, Huineng secretly decided: I will definitely come back.
Huineng passed through Lechang County and heard that there was a monk named Zhiyuan who was practicing in Xishan. So he went to Xishan and found Zen Master Zhiyuan who was sitting in meditation in a stone room.
Huineng stepped forward to ask Zen Master Zhiyuan for Zen Buddhism, and Zen Master Zhiyuan said to him: "Look at your appearance, talented, really very human, I have nothing to teach you." However, I heard that the monk Bodhidharma in the Western Regions brought profound Buddhism, and now Huangmei Hongren is his true disciple, and you should go there. ”
Hui Neng was going to find Hongren, but when he heard Zen Master Zhiyuan say this, where did he still have any doubts, he didn't stop any way along the way, and went straight to Huangmei.