Continued from "Zen Characters: Six Patriarchs Huineng Dajian Zen Master (6)"
Last time, Hui Neng returned to Caoxi Baolin Temple accompanied by more than 1,000 monks and laymen including Master Yinzong, opening a new chapter of epiphany Zen.
1
Such a big move in Caoxi Baolin Temple this time attracted the attention of Shaozhou Thorn Shi Weixuan, but he didn't expect such an influential monk to appear in his own jurisdiction, of course he had to visit.
So Wei Xuan personally went to Caoxi Baolin Temple to see Huineng. Wei Xuan is also a person of understanding, although it is only a brief chat, he feels the difference of Huineng Zen method. Concise and straightforward, this is the first impression that Huineng Zen left on Wei Xuan.
On this occasion, Wei Xuan invited Huineng to the famous Dafan Temple in Shaozhou to explain the word to the majority of believers. Huineng did not shirk and propagated the Dharma on a larger platform, which was more conducive to the spread of Dongshan Zen Dharma. Let the Dongshan Zen method be passed on to the world, which is also Hongren's last entrustment to him.
During this period of teaching in the Dafan Temple, a large number of believers were gathered, whether officials, monks and laymen, Confucian scholars, or cultivators, they were all very interested in the "Dunjiao" preached by Huineng.
This direct-to-heart, non-formal way of practicing is concise and straightforward, and has no special requirements, not even chanting sutras or meditating. It was extremely adaptable and spreading, and soon gained a large number of fans.
And more importantly, this kind of meditation is not only simple, but also has a real effect on people from the level of psychological regulation. Having value in the present is the first foundation of existence.
At this rally, Huineng also talked about his own life, listening to the scriptures in the bazaar, seeking the law in the east mountain, preaching the law in the three watches, going south to avoid disasters, avoiding mountains and forests, etc., which were later sorted out by the disciples and became one of the main contents of the "Altar Sutra".
Huineng ended the statement of Dafan Temple, and after giving Wei Xuan and the others the precept of non-sympathy, he returned to Caoxi Baolin Temple. This statement in Dafan Temple had a huge impact, laying a solid foundation for Huineng to create a new peak of Chinese Zen Buddhism in Caoxi Baolin Temple in the future.
In a short period of time, more than 1,000 followers came to Baolin Temple to follow Huineng, and finally had a place in the world of Zen Buddhism. The prestige of Caoxi Baolin Temple became more and more loud, and the reputation of Nanchan's "Dunjiao" spread to the imperial capital.
2
In the first year of Shenlong in Tang Zhongzong, Shi Wu Zetian was the regent, and wanted to hire two high monks, Hui'an and Shenxiu, as national teachers and live in the palace, so that the emperor could study Zen with them in his spare time.
However, both Hui'an and Shenxiu refused to accept it, saying: "There is a Zen master named Huineng in the south, who is the inheritor of the five ancestors Hongren's secret teaching method, and he has obtained the true transmission of Hongren, and the Zen method is unfathomable. His Majesty should invite him to Beijing, and you can ask him for advice on the Dharma, and he is the best candidate for the national teacher. ”
Since he was recommended by the two masters at the same time, it would not be wrong to think about it, so Wu Zetian ordered Xue Jian, the chamberlain, to go to Caoxi Baolin Temple with an edict to welcome Huineng.
After listening to the edict and understanding Xue Jian's intentions, Huineng insisted on resigning and said to Xue Jian:
"The old monk is 67 years old this year, and he is not in good health and often gets sick. The journey of the capital is far away, and the south and the north are very different in terms of life and climate, and it is even more difficult for my old bones to adapt to it! ”
Then, no matter how Xue Jian persuaded him, Huineng refused, and only wished to die in the mountains and forests. Xue Jian saw that Huineng's appearance was indeed old and frail, and he was afraid that he would not be able to withstand the long journey, so he would no longer persuade him. So he said:
"In that case, I don't want to force it anymore. The Queen Mother and the Holy One are both obsessed with the Dharma, and I am very eager to become a Buddha and seek the Tao. Here I would like to ask the master a few questions, and please make them clear. ”
Huineng said: "Thank you to the envoy for success. About the Dharma, but it doesn't hurt to ask?"
3
Xue Jian said: "The great monks and great masters in the capital all said that if you want to comprehend the Buddha's path, you must meditate and practice meditation. I don't know what your Zen method is, Master?"
Huineng said: "The way of the Buddha should be comprehended from the heart, how can it be obtained by meditation? The Buddhist scriptures say that if the Buddha attained the Tao by sitting or lying down, it is all a fallacy and heresy. ”
"Why do you say that? Zen, nowhere to come from, nowhere to go. Unborn and imperishable, the Dharma is empty. There is no single way to attain true liberation, so is it between sitting and not sitting?"
This passage is not easy to understand, if it is not in French, it is better understood by today's people to say this:
Truth does not exist by logical confirmation, but only by proof. That is to say: the phenomenon is the essence, and the essence that is detached from the phenomenon is "false", and it has become a limited cognition rather than the truth.
Take the headline post as an example: How can we increase the reading volume of the article? This question is a question that many people pay attention to, and there are often people who express their own opinions, and they are sure that what they say is correct.
Some people say that you should work on the title of your article because a good title can attract more clicks.
Some people also say that we should work the quality of the article, so that a good article can arouse feedback from readers and get more opportunities to show.
There are also people who say that articles should be published at the best time, and articles published during the peak period of Toutiao's use will naturally have more followers.
Some people even say that efforts should be made on the interactive area, and more interaction can attract more attention......
There are many more ways to do it, so I won't list them one by one. No matter what you think is the reason for the high number of readers, everyone has done the same thing, which is to show up and say, for example: for example, my so-and-so article is "popular" according to my statement.
As a matter of fact, the so-called "essence," "law," and "truth" that are derived from the phenomenon are all truthful, but none of them are truths. The truth is in this article of your "fire", which must exist but cannot be described in limited words. As long as it is described, it is incomplete, because only the "phenomenon" that is complete, not the "enlightenment" after detaching from the phenomenon.
Someone is definitely about to say, "Isn't my article popular because of its excellent quality?"
Definitely, but only "partially"! Tracing the reasons from the results is correct. Because the results are there, but not all right!
It's like: there is a billionaire who wrote a "memoir of success" and said, "That's how I made so much money", and there is a world champion who wrote a book, and that's how I became the number one in the world.
Any "secret" or "experience" that the successful person comes back to share is right because the results are there. But not all of them, any feelings are only limited, not "whole".
The "secret" is the summary and reflection of the successful person on the process. There are things that he thinks are very important, what he should say or want to say, and of course they ignore what he thinks is not important, what he shouldn't say or what he doesn't want to say.
Perhaps it is precisely because of a certain failure or detail that he does not want to say or should not say that is the key to success, or that any detail in his success process determines the final result, and no one is missing. Therefore, the "secret to success" he shows is not the whole thing, but only the selective part.
It is like a blind man touching an elephant, no matter what the blind person says about the elephant, it is the limited result of what they touch, of course it is true, so it is all right, but it is not the "real" elephant!
Therefore, success cannot be replicated, because those "secrets" are not the whole story, the truth is unspeakable, only in the "whole". Once you want to be independent, it becomes a limited cognition.
If you want to get the same success from the "secret" of successful people, it is what Huineng calls "doing evil ways". In fact, when I think about it, I am relieved, in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, so many successful people have written books and biographies, if success can be replicated, then what else in the world can not be successful? But most of you and I today are not "losers" who are struggling at the bottom?
So, how did the Buddha become a Buddha? Sitting and lying down may be one of them, but if you have to say that one method is the path to success, the path to Buddhahood, then it is "wrong view"!
4
Xue Jian was shocked when he heard this for the first time, and he wanted to know the essence of Huineng Zen Method, so he said:
"When I return to the capital, the Lord will inevitably ask the master about the Dharma, and ask the master to tell me, and then I will report to the saints of the two palaces and inform the cultivators in the capital. It's like a lamp that lights up a thousand lamps, making the darkness bright, and the light shines in all directions, endlessly. ”
Huineng did not directly say the so-called essence of Zen, but said on a case-by-case basis:
"Light is endless and endless, and endless and endless are relative concepts, and nature is that there is no distinction between light and darkness, light and darkness are mutually transformed, mutually existent, and born and die one after another. ”
The Tao does not matter whether it is light or dark, and it does not matter if it is endless. As long as it is said that the light is endless, then there must be an end, because light and darkness are relative: there is darkness in relation to light, and there is light in relation to darkness. They are not substantially different, they are just two terms that exist as dependent on each other.
For example, at 5 o'clock in the morning, the sky is "bright" compared to midnight, but compared with noon, it is "dark". In the same way, what is more and what is less, what is rich and what is poor? As long as it is a relative concept, it cannot be absolute.
Xue Jian was touched by Huineng's answer, but he had not yet fully comprehended it, so he continued to ask: "Light is like wisdom, darkness is like trouble, and cultivators use wisdom to get rid of troubles, just like light drives away darkness." If this is not the case, how can we be free from samsara and from birth and death?"
If you want to use wisdom to get rid of your afflictions, this is the primary view of human beings and heavens, and they are only the primary stage of riding a sheep cart or a deer cart. ”
There are two topics involved in this passage, one is that "afflictions are bodhi", just like the light and darkness mentioned above, the two are only relative existences, there is no absolute difference in nature, and each exists as the existence of the other. It's not really that there's something that has the nature of a defilement, and it's not really that there's something that's bodhi.
Buddhism divides the practice into five realms, called the "five vehicles", which are the human vehicle, the heavenly vehicle, the sound and hearing vehicle, the Yuanjue vehicle, and the bodhisattva vehicle.
"Ride" originally means transportation by means of transportation, and the different realms in the "Five Rides" are similar to these situations:
To ride is to take a canoe and cross a stream. The day ride is to drive a dinghy and cross a small river. The sound of the sound is to take a fishing boat and row across a large river. Yuan Juecheng is to manipulate a big boat and cross the river. The bodhisattva rides through the ark to the other side of the sea.
Therefore, Huineng said here that the sky and the sound are like riding sheep and deer, which is a relatively low level.
Huineng's meaning, wisdom is actually a relative statement, all classes are relative, as long as you admit that there are classes, then you fall into the promising, no matter at that level, it is Hinayana.
5
So Xue Jian took the opportunity to ask, "What is the view of the Mahayana realm?"
Hui Neng said eloquently: "Light and darkness are opposites in the eyes of ordinary people, each with its own nature, and it is completely opposite. All they see is the difference between the two. Enlightened people, on the other hand, have seen that there is no difference in the nature of the two, and that the reason why there is a difference is only the result of their relative existence. This nature of equality is Buddha-nature. ”
This true nature, the Buddha-nature, is neither diminished nor increased by any place or status. You won't get confused in the face of troubles, and you won't be empty when you enter meditation. It will not be interrupted and will not be eternal, it does not matter whether it comes or goes, it is not in the middle, it is not inside or outside, it does not arise or die, the essence and phenomena are the same, it is constant, this is the true meaning of the Tao, that is, the Mahayana Dharma. ”
Everything that exists because of relative concepts and definitions is a "positive law" and has birth and death. The nature of Buddhism, on the other hand, is that it is unbecoming, imperishable, undiminished, unimpure, and unclean. This is completely consistent with the "Tao" that Lao Tzu said.
Xue Jian still had some doubts about life and death, and continued to ask: "What the master said about immortality and immortality, there is also this saying in the outer way, is it the same thing?"
Huineng said: "What the outer Tao says is not born and does not perish, it is to use extinction to stop birth, and use life to show extinction, such extinction is not absolute extinction, and such life is not real birth." ”
"For example, in the spring, when the grass sprouts, we think it is growing, and in the winter, when the grass withers, we think it is extinguishing. If life is doomed, then when it is born, it can be said that it is moving towards destruction, and when it is destroyed, it can also be said that it is moving towards new life. To be born is to perish, and to perish is to perish. Therefore, the concept of birth and death or relative existence mentioned by the Outer Tao can be transformed into each other, and it is not absolute. ”
And what I mean by not being born and not dying is that there is no birth in the first place, and of course there is no need to perish, which is different from the saying of the outer way. ”
"For example, it is still that little grass, when it sprouts, it is not the initial beginning, and when it withers, it is not the final end, there is no absolute beginning and end, everything is only the process, but now, how can it be born and die?"
"If you want to comprehend Zen Buddhism, you must first give up all relative concepts such as good and evil, and get rid of the rational world of "duality" before you can enter the world of self-nature where "nature is one." At that time, nature will always be silent, and the magic will be endless. ”
6
Xue Jian received Huineng's instructions, suddenly enlightened, realized the Zen method, and after bidding farewell to the master, he returned to the palace and played what Huineng said truthfully.
On the third day of the ninth month of the first year of Shenlong, the imperial court issued an edict to thank Huineng, to the effect that:
"Huineng resigned and entered the palace due to old age and illness, and stayed in the people to practice Buddhism for me, which is to cultivate merit for the country. Xue Jian also brought back the essence of Zen taught by the master, which gave me an epiphany of endless wisdom, which is not only the result of my years of good deeds and virtues, but also the contribution of the master's birth. Today, I offer a grinding robe, 500 horses of silk, and a crystal bowl to thank the master for his favor. ”
On December 19 of the same year, Caoxi Baolin Temple was changed to Zhongxing Temple. On November 18 of the third year of Shenlong, he ordered Shaozhou Thorn History to re-add the ornament and give the amount of Faquan Temple. The former residence of Huineng Xinzhou is Guoen Temple.
To be continued......
Serial: "Zen Characters: The Six Patriarchs Huineng Dajian Zen Master (8)"