Dhyana in the Buddhist Literature
by Truong Thi Thuy La | 2011 | 66,163 words
This page relates ‘(c): Hui-Neng and His Disciples’ of the study on Dhyana (‘meditation’ or ‘concentration’), according to Buddhism. Dhyana or Jhana represents a state of deep meditative absorption which is achieved by focusing the mind on a single object. Meditation practices constitute the very core of the Buddhist approach to life, having as its ultimate aim Enlightenment (the state of Nirvana).
3.4 (c): Hui-Neng and His Disciples
[Full title: 3.4: The Six Chinese Patriarchs (c): Hui-Neng and His Disciples]
During Hung-jen‘s time, there was a Cantonese woodcutter whose surname was Lo. He was so unlucky a person that his father died when he was only three years old, leaving his mother poor and miserable. Once he happened to hear someone reciting the Vajrachechdikā Sūtra while he was selling firewood in the market. He was deeply impressed by the words: “Thought should spring from a state of non-attachment,” and asked from where such teaching could be obtained. Hearing the name of the Patriarch Hung-jen, he immediately went to Hwang-may district to pay homage to the Patriarch. He was asked by Hung-jen where did he belong to and what did he expect to obtain from him? He replied, “I am a commoner in Linnan and I have travelled far to pay my respect to you. I request nothing but Buddhahood.” You are a native of Lin-nan, and moreover, you belong to the aborigines. How can you expect to be a Buddha?” said Hung-jen. He answered: “Although there are Northern people and Southern people, north and south make no difference to their Buddha-nature. An aborigine is different from Your Holiness physically, but there is no difference in our Buddha-nature.” Hung-jen then realized that the man is wise and ordered him to join the crowd work. [1]
For eight months, Hui-neng was employed in the lowest menial tasks, and then the time came for Hung-jen to choose his successor. In order to make sure of choosing wisely, Hung-jen asked his disciples to submit the stanzas to him for his consideration.
One of them, Shen-hsiu, who was also an instructor of the monastery, wrote the following, which was heartily admired by the others.
The body is like the sacred Bodhi Tree,
From dust ever keep it free,
The mind... a reflecting mirror,
Let not dust, be it cover.[2]
The 5th Patriarch knew that it was written by Shen-hsiu and said: “If they put its teaching into actual practice, they will be saved from the misery of being born in these realms of existence. The merit gained by one who practices it will be great indeed.” He then ordered all his disciples to recite it, so that they might realise the essence of mind.
When the Wood-cutter, who had been given the religious name of Hui-neng (63.8-713 A.D.), heard of this Stanza, he asked someone to read it to him, whereupon he replied with another which showed that his understanding of the Dhyāna doctrine was much superior to that of Shenghsiu.
It ran:
Where no Bodhi-tree,
There is no mirror,
Nothing, nothing at all,
Where will the dust corer? [3]
The 5th Patriarch saw it and said the author of this Stanza had also not yet realized the Essence of Mind; but next day the Patriarch came secretly to the room where the rice was pounded and asked Hui-neng to go to see him in third watch of the night for religious instruction. The Patriarch expounded the Vajrachechdikā Sūtra to Hui-neng, when he came to the sentence, “One should use one’s mind in such a way that it will be free from any attachment,” Hui-neng at once became completely enlightened, and realized that all things in the universe are the Essence of Mind itself.
Who would have thought that the Essence of Mind is intrinsically pure; who would have thought that the Essence of Mind is intrinsically free from becoming or annihilation; who would have thought that the Essence of Mind is intrinsically self-sufficient; who would have thought that all things are the manifestation of the Essence of Mind.[4]
The 5th Patriarch therefore handed over the robe and the gāthā of ‘Lamp of Dharma’ which ran:
Sentient beings who sow the seeds of enlightenment,
In the field of Causation will reap the fruit of Buddhahood. [5]
Inanimate objects void of Buddha-nature,
Sow not and reap not.[6]
The 5th Patriarch further said: “As the robe may give cause for dispute, you are the last one to inherit it.” [7]
As a matter of fact, Shen-hsiu was the legal heir of Hung-jen, the 5th Patriarch. There were ten disciples of Hung-jen, and Hui-neng was the 10th who occupied no important position at all. We therefore come to know that the Stanza of Shen-hsiu belonged to the realistic school of Laṅkāvatāra while the Stanza of Hui-neng under the teaching of unreality of the Prajñāparāmita. The 5th Patriarch had already said that both Shenhsiu and Hui-neng not realized the Essence of Mind. When the 5th Patriarch again expounded the meaning of Vajracchedikā Sūtra and then Hui-neng was thoroughly enlightened.
After Hung-jen’s death, the Dhyāna Sect was divided into two schools, Northern and Southern. Shen-hsiu, who had written the first stanza, founded a school in North and obtained royal patronage at the time, while Hui-neng also established a rival school in the South which spread as far as Japan and Korea.
Author has already mentioned in the previous sub-chapter that Huineng was called upon by the 5th Patriarch in his room in the mid-night for religious instructions. The 5th Patriarch expounded the Vajracchedikā Sūtra to Hui-neng. When he came to the sentence, “One should use one’s mind in such a way that it will be free from many attachments,” Hui-neng at once became completely enlightened, and realized that all things in the universe are the essence of Mind itself. The 5th Patriarch therefore handed over to Hui-neng the robe and the begging bowl. On the same night, the 5th Patriarch accompanied Hui-neng to Chiu kiang, and there ordered him into a boat. Inside the boat, Hui-neng said to the Patriarch: “While I am under illusion, it is for you to get me across; but after enlightenment, I should cross it by myself.” After three days of the 5th Patriarch returning home he told all his disciples that the robe and the Dharma have gone to the south. As soon as the Patriarch declared this, there were several hundreds of people in pursuit of Hui-neng with the intention of robe bing him of his robe and the begging bowl. Among them there was a monk named Hui-ming who was a general in the army. When Hui-ming was about to overtake Hui-neng, the latter threw the robe and the begging bowl on a rock and hid himself in the jungle. When Hui-ming got to the rock, he tried to pick them up, but found that he could not. Then he shouted, “My fellow-brother, my fellow brother, I come for the Dharma, not for the robe.” Whereupon Hui-neng came out and squatted on the rock. Huiming made obeisance and said: “Fellow-brother, preach to me, please.” Hui-neng said: “When you are thinking of neither good nor evil, what is it at that particular time, Venerable Sir, your real nature?” [8] As soon as Hui-ming heard this he at once became enlightened.
Hui-neng the 6th Patriarch who preached the Dharma doctrine at Tsao-hsi used to ask disciples to recite Namo Mahāprajñāparāmitra as an initiation to the order. Because he straightly preached the idea that ‘the Mind is Buddha and seeing your own nature is becoming Buddha.’
One day, the 6th Patriarch told all his disciples that the Dhyāna School of Bodhidharma will spread itself all over the world. He asked all disciples to take note of the Stanza:
Buddha-seeds latent in our mind. [9]
Will sprout upon the coming of the all-pervading rain. [10]
The ‘Flower’ of the doctrine having been intuitively grasped,
One is bound to reap the fruit of Enlightenment. [11]
Our Buddha-nature is self-possessed and is always complete; it is, however, hidden by the veil of illusions caused by our ignorance. Now because of the expounding of Mind-Dharma, this veil will be torn as soon as we are disentangled from sense-organs, sense-data and consciousness.
When this disentanglement is complete, our wisdom will manifest itself instantaneously, hence the ‘instantaneous enlightenment’ as taught by the Ch’an Sect.
Hui-neng passed away in the first year of Kai-yuan period of the emperor Hsuan-tsirng‘s reign of the T’ang dynasty (713 A.D.). Emperor Hsientsung conferred on him the posthumous title “Ta Chien Ch’an Ssu” or “the Great Mirror Dhyāna Master” and wrote the epigraph. ‘Harmonious spirit shines forth divinely,” on the pagoda where Hui-neng was buried. There are 33 persons who under Hui-neng‘s guidance have attained the great truth of Dhyāna. Among them Hsin–ssu of Ch’ing-yuan and Huaijen of Nan-yueh are the most prominent.
There was Dhyāna Master named Fa-hai, a disciple of Hui-neng. He was a native of Chu-kiang of Shao-chow in Kuang-tung province. In his first interview with the 6th Patriarch, he asked the meaning of the wellknown saying, ‘What mind is, Buddha is.’ The Patriarch replied: “To let not a passing thought rise up again is ‘Mind.’ To let not the coming thought be annihilated is Buddha. To manifest all kinds of phenomena is ‘Mind.’ To be free from all forms is Buddha.” [12] After hearing this, Fa-hai at once became enlightened.
Among Hui-neng’s numerous disciples, Hsing-ssu, Huai-jang, Shen-hui, Hsuan-Chueh and Hui-chung were known as the five great masters of the school.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Ibid., pp. 30-1.
[2]:
[3]:
The stanza is given in this form in all the later texts of the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch. In this connection we may mention two texts from the Sung period: the Kōshō ji text, so called from the monastery where it was discovered in Kyoto (edited by Suzuki and Kōda under the title Kōshōji bon rokuso dankyō) and the Daiō-ji text, found in the temple of Daijō-ji in Kaga (now Kanazawa) and published by Komazawa University in the Tokyo.
[5]:
All sentient beings have inherent in them the seed of Buddhahood. I now expound the Dharma of Mind-ground and if they avail themselves of it as a cause, the seeds sown by them in this ground will sprout and bear fruit.
[6]:
Inanimate objects which are devoid of sentience do not possess the seed of Buddhahood. Since they have no nature of their own, they cannot attain enlightenment. They are in fact creatures of the mind.
[7]:
See Dhyāna Buddhism in China: Its History and Teaching, p. 32.
[8]:
Ibid., pp. 33-4.
[9]:
Mind is self-provided with the seed of Buddhahood which will sprout when there exists a concurrent cause that is the expounding of Dharma.
[10]:
Dharma is likened to the pervading rain which causes the seed to grow.
[11]:
When one instantaneously has an intuitive experience of the flower of wisdom, one is bound to attain the fruit of enlightenment, or Buddhahood.
[12]:
See Chou Hsiang-Kuang 1960, p. 36.