Master Huineng's corporeal relics Huineng is the sixth ancestor of Zen Buddhism in China. The common surname is Lu. He was born in Fanyang (today's Zhuoxian County), Hebei Province in the past. His father was exiled to Xinzhou, Lingnan (today's east of Xinxing County, Guangdong Province). Huineng was born in the 12th year of Zhenguan, Tang Dynasty (638), and he became a native of Xinzhou, Guangdong Province. Huineng lost his father when he was young, and later moved to the South China Sea. His family was poor, and he supported his mother by selling firewood. One day, in the city, I heard that someone in the inn recited the Vajra Sutra, which was quite understandable. I asked where the Sutra came from. The guest told me that he had received it from Zen Master Feng Maoshan Hongren in Huangmeidong. Because of this, he has the ambition to find a teacher. In Xianhengchu (670), he settled down his mother and headed north. When I arrived at Caoxi in Shaozhou, I met Liu Zhilue, a villager, and led his nun, Endless Zang Nie, to ask for words with Nirvana Sutra. Huineng said: Although I can't read, I still understand its meaning. Nee said: How can I interpret meaning since I can't read? Huineng said: The wonderful principles of all Buddhas are not related to words. When the nun heard his words, she was very surprised, so she told the village elders and came to salute them. She invited Huineng to live in the local Baolin Ancient Temple and called him Lu Walker.
Huineng soon lived in Baolin Temple, and then went to Lechang West Grottoes to learn Zen from Zen Master Zhiyuan. Zhiyuan persuaded him to go to Huangmei East Temple (east of Huangmei Twin Peaks, also known as Dongshan) to learn from Hongren. Huineng arrived at Huangmei East Mountain in the third year of Xianheng's reign (672). When Hongren saw him, he asked, "Where did the hermit come from? What did he want?"? Huineng said: The disciples are Lingnan people, who only want to be Buddhas! Hongren said: You are a Lingnan person, and also a Liao (the name of the southern minorities in the Central Plains at that time). How can you be a Buddha?! Huineng said: People have north and south, but does Buddha nature have north and south? The Buddhist nature of a monk is no different from that of a monk; Monks can become Buddhas, and disciples can become Buddhas. Hongren ordered him to follow the crowd and pound rice in the mill house.
Huineng spent eight months in the Dui room. At that time, the number of Dongshan Buddhist monks reached 700. It is said that one day Hongren, in order to test the depth of the public's Zen understanding, prepared to pay for the clothing method and ordered each person to make a Ket presentation. At that time, the god showed himself as the leader of the crowd, making a verse saying: 'The body is a bodhi tree, and the heart is like a mirror stand. Always wipe it away, and don't let it cause dust.' At that time, the whole temple was recited. After looking at it, Hongren said to the public: If future generations can practice according to this, they will also win. He urged the public to recite it. Huineng heard the monk recite this verse in the bucket room. He thought it was not true, so he changed it into a verse and asked someone to write it on the wall. Ket says: 'Bodhi is not a tree, and the mirror is not a platform; There was nothing at all (this sentence is a popular record, and this sentence in the Dunhuang version of the Tanjing is called 'Buddhist nature is pure'), where is it causing dust When people saw this verse, they were surprised. When Hongren saw it, he called Huineng at night to try his Zen accomplishments, spread them to his alms and sent him to Jiujiang Ferry. Before leaving, he told him to go south for a while and wait for the time to change. Therefore, after returning to Caoxi, Guangdong, Huineng secluded between Sihui and Huaiji (today's Huaiji County, Guangxi), and after more than ten years, went to the Faxing Temple in Guangzhou; When Dharma Master Yuanyinzong talked about Nirvana Sutra, two monks argued about the wind flag, one said it was moving, and the other said it was moving. Huineng then chimed in and said, "It's not the wind or the flags, it's your heart!"! Everyone was surprised. Yinzong then extended him to the throne to ask Shenyi, Huineng answered, and his words were reasonable. The Yinzong asked, "I have heard for a long time that the Yellow Plum Clothes are coming from the south, is it a traveler?"? Huineng showed his almanac, and Yinzong was delighted to praise that he gathered people to shave Huineng's hair under the Bodhi tree in the Dharma Temple. He also asked a lawyer named De Zhiguang to give him the precept of having feet (according to the Dharma Temple, which is now Guangxiao Temple in Guangzhou. There are many historic sites in the Temple, such as Yifa Tower, Bodhi Tree, Fengfan Hall and Hall of Six Ancestors). Two months later, Huineng was at the foot of the Bodhi tree in the temple, opening the door of Zen for the public and saying the Prajna Paramita Dharma.
Before long, Huineng went back to the Baolin Temple in Caoxi, where Yinzong and Taoism sent off thousands of people. At that time, Wei Qu, the governor of Shaozhou, admired his style and led his colleagues to the mountain to invite Huineng to enter the city. He made a public statement in the lecture hall of the Dafan Temple and taught Wuxiangjie. There are more than 1000 monks, nuns, Taoists, and laymen. Fahai, a disciple of the sect, catalogues his French and adds it to the later French. This is the "Dharma Pot Sutra" (there are four copies of the "Dharma Pot Sutra" in circulation today: one is the Dunhuang version, the other is the Huixin version, the third is the Deyi version, and the fourth is the Zongbao version. Refer to the article "Dharma Pot Sutra" in this book). Since then, Huineng has spoken in the Baolin Temple of Caoxi for more than 30 years. In the meantime, Zhongzong once invited Hui'an and Shenxiu to provide for them in the palace and asked about Zen Buddhism. Both teachers said that there was a Zen master Neng in the south who was secretly influenced by the clothing method of the Enduring Master. In the first year of Shenlong (705), Zhongzong sent Xue Jian, his entourage, to Caoxi to summon him to Beijing. He has been in the mountains for a long time. He is old and windy, but he does not leave. Xue Jian pleaded for an explanation and took the record back to report his fate. Zhongzong gave a collar of Mona's cassock and 500 pieces of silk for support. He ordered Baolin to be renamed as Zhongxing Temple, which was rebuilt by Shaozhou Governor, granted Faquan Temple, and named Huineng Xinzhou's former residence as Guoen Temple. In the first year of Yanhe era (712), Huineng returned to Xinzhou to live, and ordered the people at the gate to build a tower of gratitude. He died in Guoen Temple in Xinzhou in the second year of his life (713), and lived 76 years. The disciples welcomed his body back to Caoxi that year. During the Xianzong period (806-820), the posthumous title of Zen Master Dajian was given, and Liu Zongyuan, the governor of Liuzhou, wrote the Parallel Preface to the Monument of Zen Master Dajian, the sixth ancestor of Caoxi. In the tenth year of Yuanhe (815), Liu Yuxi wrote the Second Stele of Master Caoxi at the request of the monk Daolin of Caoxi. From the sixth generation of Damo to Huineng, he is generally called the sixth ancestor master.
Huineng's body is still intact. His disciple Fang Bian has painted it with a piece of wood. The image is vivid and lifelike. It is now in Nanhua Temple (the ancient Baolin Temple) in Caoxi, Guangdong Province.
For more than a hundred years since the beginning of Dharma, Chinese Zen has been confirmed by the Lenga Sutra, so it is also called the Lenga Sect. Daoxin, the third disciple of Dharma, began to use the Vajra Sutra and other sutras as examples. When he arrived at Huineng, he replaced the Lengja Sutra with the simple Vajra Sutra. The purpose was to get rid of the ideological shackles of name and appearance, and go straight to enlightenment.
Huineng Ben and Shenxiu are the first disciples of Hongren Sect. However, due to different views on Zen, it was later divided into two sects, the South and the North. The Northern Zen Buddhism was widely spread in the northern aristocratic class, while the Southern Zen Buddhism was first introduced in the Lingnan area. Later, in the 18th year of Kaiyuan era (730), the Huineng disciple Shenhui strongly criticized the Northern Sect Zen as "learning from others is the key, and the method is gradual" at the right and wrong meeting of the Northern Sect in Dingnan, Luoyang. As a result, the influence of the Northern Sect gradually declined.
Huineng's Zen thought can be found in the "Dharma Treasure Jar Sutra" compiled by his disciple Fahai. Later, this scripture was once adapted by the Shenhui Department as the basis for the lineage, so it was mixed with the later statement. But on the whole, it can be seen that Huineng advocated leaving the literal meaning and clarifying the heart. He said that this realm is "like people drinking water, knowing the temperature". He also said: "The mind is vast, it can go around the Dharma world freely, and there is no stagnation in the mind and body, that is, Prajna.". All prajna wisdom is born from self nature, not from outside. If you know your own nature, you will reach the Buddha's land once you realize it.
Huineng's Zen is based on calming wisdom. He thought that wisdom is the body of wisdom, and wisdom is the use of wisdom, just like the light, where there is a light, there is light, and the light is the body of light, which is the so-called view of integration of wisdom and wisdom. He also believes that awareness is inherent and worry is absent. The direct evidence of awareness is insight. He said that one's own mind should neither cling to good or evil, nor sink into emptiness and keep quiet. That is, one must learn widely and learn much, know one's own heart, and reach all Buddhist principles. Therefore, he does not regard sitting and keeping his heart in check as Zen. He can also experience the realm of Zen by living in the cloud of sitting and lying in all times. This is different from the teaching of Beizong, which teaches people to sit still and look at the mind. They think that the state of mind is divided into two parts in that way, and wisdom cannot be generated from the nature of the mind. He teaches people to start with nothing but meditation.
Huineng emphasizes that 'seeing the purity of one's own nature, cultivating oneself as a Dharma body, practicing Buddhism and becoming a Buddha'. Therefore, he had another view on the Pure Land Dharma of the time when the monks and laymen read that Buddha wished to live in the West. He said to Governor Wei: 'There are two kinds of people, and there are no different ways. There are different understandings and diseases. Charming chanting Buddha seeks to live there, and understands people's self purification. Therefore, the Buddhist saying, follow the heart, that is, the Buddha earth is pure. Anyone who is ignorant of his own nature and does not know the pure land in his body would like to go east and west. Understand that people are just like others. Therefore, the Buddha's saying is: Be happy wherever you live. If you want to do ten good deeds, why would you rather die? '
Huineng has many disciples. Both Jingde Zhuandeng Record and Zhuanfa Zhengzong Record contain 43 successors. The Magic Pot Sutra says there are ten disciples, and the Zutang Collection lists eight. But the most famous ones in later generations are Qingyuan Xingsi, Nanyue Huairang, Heze Shenhui, Nanyang Huizhong and Yongjia Xuanjue. After they got the law, they all became one family. Among them, Qingyuan and Nanyue are the most popular; The data transmission in the lower Nanyue Mountains has evolved into two schools, Linji and Weiyang; The lower data transmission of Qingyuan is divided into three schools: Cao Dong, Yunmen and Fayan, forming the five schools of Zen.
In addition, Jingcang (675-746), a famous disciple of the Sixth Patriarch, was not included in the Monk's Biography and the Record of Passing Lanterns, but was found in the epigraph of Jinshi. (Lin Ziqing)
