Epitaph for Huineng, the Sixth Grand Master, by Wang Wei (701-761 A.D.) as a stone tablet inscription (from The Wisdom of Huineng, Chinese Buddhist Philosopher: The Platform Sutra and Other Translations, by Dongwei Chu) He does not have anything to abandon Because he has arrived at the source. He does not reside in emptiness For he knows that emptiness is also empty. Away from action and non-action, He lets Nature run its course and follows its eternal principles. He lives with the hundred dharmas without possessing them, And he takes care of the ten thousand things without being fatigued. The oarsman at sea in search of the precious pearl May never find the thing he is looking for. The goddess that showered Buddhas disciples with flowers Could become a sravaka or a pratyekabuddha. Thus it is known that the Dharma is not produced. It is to be perceived by the mind. The perception of the mind is fickle but the Dharma is constant. Huineng the perfect man of the world has testified to this. He has attained passionless purity, yet he is not indulged in it. He liberates sentient beings, yet he is not insentient. Such is the chan master from Caoxi! The master is from the Lu clan Of such-and-such a county Of such-and-such a prefecture. Since names are illusory, The master does not belong to a clan with a name. Since the Dharma does not have a center and a border, The master does not belong to the land of China. When he was a child, His good habits were seen in the games he played And his sharp roots were recognized in his childs heart. Without a selfish love of his body, He sweated and stank in the farm fields. He lived in barbarian country, Where he looked for meaning. At a certain age, He went to attend Master Hongren in Huangmei, Where he exerted himself. He was quite comfortable with the labor of getting water from the well And pounding rice in the mortar room. Regularly he looked into his own mind And was enlightened while working among the weeds. Every time the Fifth Grand Master was seated on the platform, Around him were gathered a courtyardful of students. Amid the audience, There were the roots of the three vehicles to hear the Dharma from one voice. Huineng silently committed everything to heart. Once, he did not notice that the lecture had stopped And for a while he remained motionless. He retreated from the congregation and examined himself. He had had attained anatman, the annihilation of the ego. While the desire of the thirsty deer who took a mirage for water was still there, And the ambition of the flying bird was not dropped, The aftertastes of a delicious meal still lingered on the tongue And the rags were still on the body, Everyone else said, Now I am at home with the teaching, And I can gauge the oceans and look into the skies. This is the so-called the acquisition of the Yellow Emperors pearl And from now on I am worthy of receiving the imprint of the King of the Dharma. Master Huineng understood he alone got it But he was humble and kept silence. Why is it necessary to speak the intention of Heaven? Who dare compare with the holy and the saintly? Confucius once said to one student of another, Si! Neither you nor I can compare with Hui! When the Fifth Grand Master was dying, He bestowed upon Huineng the robe and the Dharma That had been inherited from his predecessor. He said, A thing shall not be unique in its goodness And a person shall not excel alone. After I die, please carry it on. Therefore, with his inherited treasures Master Huineng went into hiding Somewhere in a strange land. All the living things constituted his Pure Land And he dwelt among the common folks. Worldly affairs constituted the liberation door And he engaged himself in agriculture and business with troublesome companions. Thus he spent sixteen years. Master Yinzong in Nanhai was explaining The Nirvana Sutra, And Huineng was in the audience. The Master asked him about the drift of the sutra and the true vehicle, There was nothing he could not answer. The Master asked a few more questions and said in astonishment, This very person is the reincarnation of a bodhisattva, Who has the eyes of a mortal. Let me open your eyes of wisdom. Then, the master, accompanied by his disciples, went to Huinengs room, Where they bowed to him And the master performed the religious ritual of hair-cutting for him. From then on, the rain of Dharma was everywhere, Cleaning up alien dusts. Huineng taught forbearance. He said, With forbearance one is not subject to life and death And therefore is able to annihilate ones ego And develop the initial mind for enlightenment. He became head of a Buddhist sect. He was imperturbable and nothing could enter him. He was wise and was attached to nothing. His great body moved in all the ten directions. The original bodhi transcended the three periods of time: The past, the present and the future. While his roots and sensations did not perish, He said no to all phenomena and emptiness as well. He made wishes, yet none for himself. He was a mortal but he was a saint. He moved his feet and found himself in bodhimandala, The place of enlightenment. This mind and this heart together went to the ocean of bhutatathata, The true nature of the manifest world. In The Lotus Sutra, The merchant was fatigued and stopped halfway at the magic city, And the undoubting prodigal son directly opened the treasures. Without planting the roots of virtue, One can hardly enter into the spirit of sudden enlightenment. When one is deranged he sees flowers in the air. It is not the fault of the sun of wisdom. Grand Master Huineng often sighed, To give alms of seven treasures that equal the sands of the Ganges, And to cultivate deeds for countless eons of time That all ink on the planet combined is insufficient to record Is not as good as spontaneous turn of the Wheel, Nor as good as uninhibited compassion, Which nurtures caturyoni － the four forms of birth － And protects the three kinds of existence. And then, marga and prapta, The right way and its keeping, Were everywhere And word was spread far and wide. The well-dressed rich individuals were ready To experience any hardship to see the saint, And foreigners with their painted bodies And pierced earlobes Spent years at sea, in order to see The grace of the dragon-elephant In the person of the master, forgetting The dangerous mouths of sharks and killer whales. Some stood outside the preaching floor and listened. Some sat cross-legged in front of the platform inside. In a wood of candanas, there was no other tree. The only flower that was favored was the zhanpu, And no other was smelt. Most of the pilgrims had substantial progress And dissociated themselves from illusions and paranoia. From thousands of miles away, Their Majesties longed to see him in earnest, Thinking of a red-carpet welcome and bowing to him. Zetian the Empress Dowager and Emperor Xiaohe himself wrote to him, Requesting him to go to court. The chan master had a heart like that of Zimou, Duke of Wei, Who in as bad a shape as he was Did not forget his king. But Master Huiyuans feet never went beyond The Tiger Brook in front of the monastery. On that excuse, he did not accept the royal invitation. Then Their Majesties sent him a robe of a hundred patches And money and silk in plenty. The generous Emperor gave a precious robe To the man of illusions And the Empress Dowager out of previous karma Gave money to an incarnate Buddha. In all generations, valuable things have been symbolic Of appreciation of virtue. Until one day of a certain month of a certain year, Master Huineng said to his disciples: I am on my way. All of a sudden, The room smelt of an unusual scent And a white rainbow came down to the ground. After having his meal, he was squarely seated. Then he bathed himself and Changed his clothes. In the snap of fingers, Gone was the Master. The water flew and the lamp flickered. The golden body withered. The fuel ran out and the fire went out. The mountains slid, and the rivers went dry. The birds cried and the monkeys wailed. The witnesses screamed, His eyes are closed. All provinces mourned and the world felt its loss. On a certain day of a certain month, The saint was relocated to a certain place in Caoxi. Without consultation with a geomancer, An auspicious lot was chosen. And it became a forest of good deeds and merits, Where perched the white cranes. Alackaday! What a simple perfect soul the Master had! What pure innocent gifts! A hundred blessings were shown in his countenance And all the profundity of thought gathered in his mind. Whether he moved about or had his rest, He was fulfilling his sacred obligations. Therefore, People under the five skies came one after another And the hundred Yue tribes kowtowed to him. Long snakes and big serpents Gave up the use of their venom. Halberds and arrows lost their edge. All hunting and fishing ceased. Pests and the poisonous Dan birds reformed themselves. One after another People stopped eating meat And went vegetarian like the sangha. One after another They dropped the fish net And donned clothes for the rice fields. The promotion of the Dharma of the Buddha was A great help to the Emperors In the edification of the people. The Sixth Grand Master in his old age had a disciple By the name of Shenhui, Who was enlightened in middle age. Shenhui produced a magnanimity From the soul of a mortal, and sharp wisdom From his diligent learning. One of the last students, He was the best, Which delighted the master. What the deceased master envisioned Was like the wish of the dragon Who donated his pearl. People did not recognize the pearl And sulked over what they deemed A piece of jade in their hands. Shenhui trusts my understanding of the great master And the following verses are written at his request: 1 By origin There was none of the five components of being: Nor were there the six sensations. By a reverse calculation, People fail to understand the right way. Perched on the lotus seat The master took his leave. . Bereaved of his body and his mind, Who else do we have to tell right from wrong, good from evil? 2 The Perfect Man has a big vision And in his merits he is comparable to the Buddha. If there is no desire to discard ones possessions How can one access emptiness? He is not attached to the three realms: Earth, atmosphere and heaven. He is not lured by the eight temptations called eight winds. By virtue of his sharp intelligence, He understood the essence of the belief. 3 Lost in side ways, one cannot hear the right teachings. Huineng stooped among the evil kind And promoted good actions. He taught forbearance and non-complaining. He taught the cultivation of compassion and the giving up of hunting. One of the lotus flowers in the world, He is the Sixth Grand Master. 4 The warehouse of treasures is opened And the Pearl in the Garment revealed. The origin is constant But the illusory tracts vary. It is my Way To go beyond motion and stay motionless, To be separated from company and Not to be bound by company, Does the Way lie with me? 5 The Way is in the four forms of birth And it results in six kinds of destiny. The wisdom of the Buddha has leaks And the chapters of books have no meaning. There are the hundred and eight parables For the sixty-two sentient species. Out of them, there is nothing to get, And thus shall one live.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 09:00:24 +0000
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