Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (10 page)

The following text, from
Records of the Lankavatara Masters,
is a rare example of Hongren’s direct teaching that is recorded in the historical records.

A monk asked Zen master Hongren, “Why can’t the study of Buddhadharma take place in cities where there are many people, instead of at places deep in the mountains?”

Hongren answered, “The timbers needed to make a great building originally come from secluded mountain valleys. They can’t be grown where many people are congregated. Since they are far from large numbers of people they can’t be chopped or harmed by axes and are able to grow into great building material, later to be used to make supporting girders and beams. So in studying Dharma, one should find refuge for the spirit in remote mountain valleys, escaping far from the troubles of the dusty world. People should nourish their nature in the deep mountains, staying away from the affairs of the world for a long time. When not always seeing common affairs the mind will naturally become at ease. Studying Zen in this way is like planting a tree, with the result that later it can bear fruit.”

During this era the great teacher Hongren only sat peacefully in an upright position and did not compile writings. He only taught Zen principles by speaking about them, quietly passing on the teaching to other persons.

The Record of the Lankavatara Masters
cites ten disciples who inherited and passed on Hongren’s teaching. That text quotes him to say, “Of the countless students I have taught, many have passed away. There are only ten remaining who will transmit my teaching.” Among the names Hongren then recited are Huineng, Shenxiu, and Zhixian, founders of the Southern, Northern, and Sichuan schools of Zen, respectively.

NIUTOU FARONG

ACCORDING TO TRADITION, Niutou Farong (594–657) was a student of the fourth Chinese ancestor, Dayi Daoxin. He founded the Oxhead Zen school on Mt. Niutou (near modern Nanjing City). Later Chinese historians would not acknowledge Niutou’s lineage as one of the principal traditional schools of Chinese Zen, perhaps because he is not known with certainty to have received Dharma transmission from Daoxin, or due to confusion about the origin of his school. Nevertheless, the Oxhead school flourished during the seventh and eighth centuries and continued up until the early years of the Song dynasty (around the end of the tenth century).

The Oxhead school’s narrower interpretation of Bodhidharma’s Zen is distinct from the East Mountain school of the Fifth Ancestor, Daman Hongren. The Oxhead school is not known to have employed the chanting of sutras or to have emphasized the precepts. The modern scholar Yin Hsun attributes a classical Zen text known as the
Discourse on Cutting Off Perception
to the Oxhead school, pointing out that it is akin linguistically to the period when Niutou lived, and that its theme closely follows Bodhidharma’s teachings.

The Oxhead school denied the possibility of objective knowledge more clearly than other Buddhist schools of the era. The fifth-generation Oxhead monk Xuanxu said, “Understanding is not understanding. Doubt is no-doubt.” The school also adhered to the Buddhist notion that the world is a creation of the mind. It expressed this theory in the “Wei Ming Lun” (“Only-Mind Doctrine”).

Originally located in the area of ancient Jinling (modern Nanjing), the main temples of the school moved south during the eighth century to escape political upheavals. The fifth-generation Oxhead monk Faqin established a temple on Mt. Jing near Hangzhou in 742 that played an important role in Zen’s historical development in both China and Japan.

The traditional story of the enlightenment of the Oxhead school’s founder, Niutou Farong, is recounted in the
Wudeng Huiyuan:

Zen master Farong of Mt. Niutou came from Yanling in Run Province. His surname was Wei. By the age of nineteen he was versed in the classic Confucian histories, but later he read the Nirvana Sutra and thereupon penetrated the truth.

One day he exclaimed, “Confucianism is a doctrine of worldly affairs, but it isn’t a teaching of the highest truth. When I read the Nirvana Sutra, I finally found a vessel for leaving the world behind.”

Thereupon Niutou concealed himself on Mao Mountain, where he studied under a teacher and was ordained as a monk. Later, as he sat in meditation in a rock grotto north of Secluded Perch Temple on Mt. Niutou, a hundred birds with flowers in their beaks came to pay homage to him.

During the Zhen Guan era [627–49], the Fourth Ancestor, Zen master Daoxin, saw a strange celestial sign in the distance and realized that an unusual person must be living on Niutou Mountain. He personally climbed the mountain to find the person and pay him a visit.

Seeing a temple monk, he asked, “Is there a monk here?”

The monk responded, “Who among those who’ve ‘left home’ is not a monk?”

Daoxin responded, “What one is a [real] monk?”

The temple monk couldn’t reply.

Then another monk from the temple said, “About ten miles from here in the mountains there’s a hermit. His name is Farong. When he sees people coming he doesn’t get up, nor does he pay attention to common courtesy. Is he the one you’re looking for?”

Daoxin then traveled into the mountains. There he found Niutou sitting upright in meditation, completely self-absorbed, paying no attention to Daoxin whatsoever.

Daoxin asked him, “What are you doing?”

Farong responded, “Perceiving mind.”

Daoxin said, “Who is it who is perceiving mind? And what is ‘mind’?”

Farong had no answer. Standing up, he bowed.

Later, he asked, “Where does Your Worthiness reside?”

Daoxin said, “This poor monk has no permanent home. Sometimes I live here, sometimes I live there.”

Farong said, “Perhaps you know the master Daoxin.”

Daoxin replied, “What would you ask him?”

Farong said, “I’ve respected his virtue for some time now. I would like to pay my respects to him.”

Daoxin said, “I am Zen master Daoxin.”

Farong said, “Why have you come here?”

Daoxin said, “I’ve come here especially to pay you a visit. Do you have someplace we can take a rest?”

Farong pointed and said, “Over there I have a small cottage.”

He then led Daoxin to a cottage that was surrounded by wild beasts such as tigers and wolves. Daoxin put both of his hands up in the air as if he were scared.

Farong said, “Are you still like this?”

Daoxin said, “What is ‘this’?”

Farong couldn’t answer.

Later, Daoxin wrote the word “Buddha” on Farong’s meditation seat.

When Farong saw this he was horrified.

Daoxin said, “Are you still like this?”

Farong didn’t understand, so he bowed and asked Daoxin to explain his meaning.

Daoxin said, “The hundred thousand gates of the Buddhadharma, they all return to this mind. The source of the countless exquisite sublime practices is this mind. All of the precepts and monastic rules, Zen meditation, Dharma gates of knowledge, and wisdom and every sort of miraculous manifestation are your natural possession, not separate from your mind. Every type of nuisance and karmic impediment is fundamentally empty and without real existence. All causes and effects are but illusions. There are no three worlds that are to be cast off.
²⁶
There is no bodhi that can be attained.
²⁷
The original nature and appearance of what is human and what is nonhuman does not differ. The great way is empty and vast, without a single thought. If you have attained this Dharma, where nothing whatsoever is lacking, what difference is there between yourself and Buddha? When there is not a single teaching left, then you are just left to abide in your own nature; with no need to worry about your behavior; no need to practice cleansing austerities; but just living a life without desires; with a mind without anger, without cares; completely at ease and without impediment; acting according to your own will; without needing to take on any good or evil affairs; just walking, abiding, sitting, and lying down; with whatever meets your eye being nothing other than the essential source; and all of it is but the sublime function of Buddha; blissful and without care. This is called ‘Buddha.’”

According to tradition, after Farong received this teaching from Daoxin and fully attained the way of Zen, birds no longer left flowers for him. Farong’s enlightenment left no special sign by which it could be recognized.

Beyond this traditional story, a few dialogues involving Zen teacher Niutou are preserved in the classical records.