September 9, 2021, is the anniversary of the death of Chairman Mao Zedong, the third day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, and the anniversary of the death of the six ancestors of Zen Buddhism. Mao Zedong once praised the two great men of Guangdong, one was Sun Yat-sen and the other was Huineng. According to Mao's secretary, Link, he admired Huineng and often took the Six Ancestral Sutras with him.
In 1956, Mao Zedong said to the leaders of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee: "You have a Huineng in Guangdong Province, do you know?" Huineng contributed greatly to philosophy, pushing the theory of idealism to its peak, a thousand years before Berkeley, and you should take a good look at the Tantra. An illiterate peasant was able to come up with profound theories and create Buddhism with Chinese characteristics. ”
Link, Mao's secretary, recalled that Mao zedong also talked about the place of Huineng's ideas in the history of Buddhism. He said that Huineng advocated that Buddha-nature exists for everyone, and that the creation of the study of enlightenment and enlightenment of Buddhahood on the one hand simplifies the cumbersome Buddhism, and on the other hand, it also sinifies the Buddhism imported from India. Therefore, he is regarded as the true founder of Zen Buddhism.
As soon as you hear the scriptures, your heart becomes enlightened
Master Huineng's father, named Lu Xingyao, was demoted to Xinzhou in Lingnan. Tang Zhenguan was born in the twelfth year of Huineng, and after losing his father at the age of three, he was raised by his mother, and because of his family's poverty, he cut firewood for a living.
One day, Huineng delivered firewood to the guest house, heard an elder reciting the Diamond Sutra to "should have no dwelling and give birth to his heart", as soon as he heard the scriptures, his heart became enlightened, and he learned that the Five Patriarchs Hirohito had taught the Dharma in Huangmei, and often advised the Taoist believers to recite this sutra. Huineng was determined to seek the Fa, so he arranged his mother and came to Huangmei, Hubei Province, to worship the Five Ancestors.
The Five Patriarchs asked: Who is Ru and what do they desire? Huineng answered: Lingnan people, but seek to be a Buddha. Seeing that he was a thin woodcutter, illiterate, the Five Patriarchs said: You are a beast, how can you become a Buddha? Huineng answered: Although people have a north and a south, Buddha-nature does not have a north and a south. Hearing this, Wuzu already knew it in his heart, but he still ordered Huineng to go to the backyard to chop wood and rice.
After eight months of diligent and earnest rice, one day, the five ancestors told the disciples to write a poem based on their respective practice experiences, and if they could understand the Buddha's intentions, they would teach the mantle. Shen Xiu was the most outstanding of the Five Ancestors, and all the disciples sat and waited for Shen Xiu to hand over his homework. After much contemplation, he left a curtain on the wall:
The body is a Bodhi tree, and the heart is like a mirror table.
Always wipe diligently, do not cause dust.
The Five Patriarchs had people recite this mantra, saying that practicing according to this practice would save one from falling into the path of evil and would be of great benefit. But for Shen Xiu, the Five Patriarchs instructed him not to see his nature, but only to go outside the door and not to enter the door, so that he could make a new song.
Rice ripe for a long time is still in the sift
Two days later, when Huineng was scooping rice, he heard someone chanting Shenxiu's koo, and after knowing the origin of the matter, Huineng came to the wall. The Jiangzhou official Zhang Ri used it here to figure out the concubine, and Huineng said that he also had a concubine, and asked him to write it. Zhang Riyong said: Even you dare to be a? Huineng Zhengse Path: If you want to learn the supreme bodhisattva, you should not be lighter than the beginner, and the lower people have the upper wisdom. Zhang Ri listened to it, that is, he knew that he had met extraordinary people.
Bodhi has no tree, and Spiegel is not a platform.
Originally there was nothing, where to stir up dust.
As soon as Huineng's came out, the public was stunned. When the five ancestors heard about it, they said, "I have not seen sex, and I used the sole of my shoe to erase the song written on the wall.
The next day, Wuzu quietly came to the mill, and seeing that Huineng was still scooping rice as usual, he asked: Is the rice cooked? Huineng replied: The rice has been cooked for a long time, and it is still in the siev.
The five ancestors tapped their canes three times before leaving, Huineng understood the spirit, and that night the three came to see the five ancestors, and the five ancestors immediately explained the Diamond Sutra to him. When it comes to the phrase "he should have no dwelling but his mind," Huineng realized that all laws are not separated from his own nature, and said:
What period of self-nature, the essence of self-purity;
What period of self-nature, the original does not give birth to and perish;
What stage of self-identity, this self-footing;
What period of self-nature, the original does not waver;
What period of self-nature, can give birth to ten thousand laws.
The wind does not move The benevolent heart is moved
After the Five Patriarchs gave Huineng the Seal, they immediately granted him a mantle and gave him a song:
There are sentient beings who sow seeds, and the fruits of the earth are still alive.
Heartless and seedless, asexual and lifeless.
Fearing that Huineng would be hated for his mantle, Wuzu ordered him to leave immediately and send him to Jiujiangyi. On the ferry, the five ancestors wanted to shake the bridge himself, and Huineng asked the five ancestors to sit down, and said at the moment: Confused by the master, enlightened self-degree. Wuzu told him that in three years he would die. Go all the way south, don't rush out to spread the Dharma. The master then obeyed the master's instructions and went into hiding and lived in the hunter's team for fifteen years.
On the eighth day of the first month of the first year of Gaozong Yifeng, Master Huineng went to the Nanhai Fasheng Temple, just as Master Yinzong was lecturing on the Nirvana Sutra. Hearing the two monks argue about the issue of the wind blowing and moving, one is moving, the other is moving, and the argument is not settled.
The master walked up to the second monk and said the words: It is not the wind that moves, it is not the flag that moves, but the benevolent one is moved.
Master Yinzong felt that the person who came was not an ordinary person, so he invited him to the Zen Hall to inquire about the righteousness of the wind banner, and Master Huineng had the reason to say: "The movement of the flag comes from the eye consciousness, the wind movement comes from the consciousness, and the two consciousnesses come from the mind." If the mind is ignorant, how can the wind flag see it? ”
Master Yinzong asked, "The practitioner must be a very human being, and if he has heard of Huang Meiyi's coming from the south, is the walker a member of the Five Ancestors?" The master has nothing to hide, and directly describes the cause of the Fa. On the fifteenth day of the first month, all the famous virtues will be met, and the Indochine Master will shave his ordination and worship Master Huineng as his teacher.
Cao Xi opened the mountain to perform Dafa
After Receiving the Full Ordination, Master Huineng spread the Dharma in the Lingnan area. He advocated the method of enlightenment, and advocated "not establishing words, teaching others, pointing directly to the human heart, and seeing nature to become a Buddha", using popular and simple practice methods to replace cumbersome righteous studies, which became popular and became the orthodox system of Zen Buddhism.
The Six Patriarchs said in the Tantra Prajnaparamita: "When there is no difference in the Buddha-nature of knowing a fool and a homo sapiens, it is only because of the difference in enlightenment, so there is foolishness and wisdom... Ordinary people are Buddhas, and troubles are bodhisattvas; pre-thoughts are ordinary people, and later enlightenment is Buddhas; pre-thoughts are defilements, and after thinking out of bounds is Bodhi... Those who have realized this Dhamma are those who have no thoughts, those who have no intention of attaining nothingness, who do not have delusions, who use their true nature, who contemplate with wisdom, who do not give up on all the Dhamma, that is, who see the nature and become the Buddha's path... If you do not think about all things, when you stop thinking, it is the Law, that is, the name is seen. Good knowledge! Those who have realized the Dharma without mindfulness have all the Dharmas; those who have realized the Dharma without mindfulness see the realm of the Buddhas; those who have realized the Dharma without mindfulness have attained the status of Buddhas. ”
This is no different from the teachings of the Ranga Sutra, the Prajnaparamita Sutra, and the Great Wisdom Theory, and it is also very consistent with the views of Dharma Guru and Huike. The emphasis on "not taking or giving up" and "all the laws" and opposing the side-view of "not thinking about everything" is a practice that integrates pranayama teachings into daily actions, and contains an enterprising spirit.
From this spiritual point of view, it is not only meditation that can be regarded as Zen, but all times of walking and sitting and lying down can experience the state of Zen: although everything is fickle, the true Dharma is like being close to people, and the feet are all dojos, which is really "ready-made".
Master Liuzu laid the theoretical foundation for the rapid development of Zen Buddhism in China, and had a great influence on the establishment of the door court by the later Zen masters of various schools, and it was from the beginning of the Six Ancestors that Zen Buddhism gradually began to perform various sects, and eventually "a flower bloomed five leaves, and the result was natural".
Sit in peace and become immortal in the flesh
Liu Zuhui was able to promote the Fa in Caoxi for decades, and when he was about to perish in his later years, he chose to return to his hometown of Xinzhou, Guangdong.
Inside the Guo'en Temple in Xinzhou, the master said that he had already done so, and said, "Ru waits for a good stay." After I perished, Mo Zuo wept bitterly and wept in sorrow, was questioned by others, dressed in filial piety, and was not my disciple, nor was he the Fa-rectification. But to know one's own mind, to see one's own nature, to be motionless, to be still, to be born and to die, to be to come, to be nothing, to be nothing, to be abode, to be Fear that Ru and other hearts are confused, will not be my intentions, now tell Ru again, so that Ru can see sex. After I have perished, I practice according to this, as if I were in the day. If you disobey my teachings, even if I am alive, it will not be beneficial. ”
Repeat:
The vultures do not cultivate good, and the soaring does not create evil.
Silence is broken, and the heart is wandering.
The ancestor meditated into concentration, sat and died, and the life expectancy was seventy and six, leaving Vajra not to damage the real body. Later, the Six Patriarchs were welcomed back from Xinzhou to The Caoxi Baolin Temple, which is also known to us today as the Shaoguan Nanhua Zen Temple.
Master Huineng was the first bodhisattva in the flesh that appeared in the history of our country, and now more than a thousand years have passed, the climate in Guangdong is hot and the environment is humid, but the true body of the six ancestors is still sitting upright for future generations to admire.
A classic that will be passed on to future generations
In Buddhism, only the Buddha's words are called "sutras", but the Six Ancestral Sutras are the only exceptions, which shows the status of this sutra in Buddhism.
The Six Ancestral Tantras are the only Zen works in Buddhism written by Chinese monks and collectively called "Sutras" by Buddhist circles and academic circles, based on the teachings of their disciples Fahai and other Zen masters, based on their words and deeds.
The Six Ancestral Tantras can be divided into three parts, the first part is to introduce the deeds of their own dharma transmission at the Great Brahma Temple, and to teach the "Mahabharata Paramita"; the second part introduces the "Non-Reciprocal Precepts" after the Six Patriarchs returned to Caoxi Mountain; the third part is the Q&A between the Six Patriarchs and their disciples. Its central proposition is that Buddha-nature is inherent, seeing nature becomes a Buddha, "The Dharma is in the world, not leaving the worldly awareness", rich in content, popular in writing, in a way that penetrates the hearts of the people, expounds the idea that everyone has Buddha-nature, that is, the mind is a Buddha, and enlightenment becomes a Buddha.
Wei Gong asked again, "How do you practice at home?" Willing to be a professor. The Master said, "I have nothing to praise with the masses." But if we practice according to this, we are always no different from me; if we do not practice according to this, what is the benefit of shaving our homes in the Tao? Eulogy:
The mind is at peace with the precepts, and the practice of meditation is used to practice straight.
Grace is filial piety to parents, righteousness is compassion for each other,
Let the inferiority be harmonious, and endure the evil without guilt.
If you can drill the wood to make a fire, the silt will give birth to a red lotus.
Bitter mouth is good medicine, and the opposite ear must be faithful,
Reform will give birth to wisdom, protect the short heart of the unwise.
Daily use is always beneficial, enlightenment is not by giving money,
Bodhi seeks only from the heart, and He Lao seeks out the mysteries.
I have heard that according to this practice, the West is only in the present.
The Six Patriarchs have been saying for thirty-seven years in their lifetime, forty-three people have attained the Dharma, and the number of transcendent people who have attained enlightenment is unknown. On the occasion of the anniversary of the death of the Six Ancestors, let us read the Six Ancestors Sutra again, contemplate with wisdom, and achieve Prajnaparamita!
Picture and text 丨 Synthesized from Hangzhou Lingyin Temple, Sanshui released
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