Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (9 page)

The Fourth Ancestor was Great Teacher Dayi Daoxin. Originally, his family came from Henei. Later, they moved to Guangqi County in Shanzhou. From the time of his birth, Daoxin displayed highly unusual abilities. When young, he honored all of the various empty gates of liberation, studying them in his home. Upon becoming a successor to the ancestral teaching, he composed his mind and sat upright each night, never lying down in a bed for the next sixty years.

In the thirteenth year of the Daye Era of the Sui dynasty [617], Daoxin and his disciples traveled to Ji Province [modern Jian City in Jiangxi Province]. There they came upon a town under the siege of bandits. The siege continued for seventy days without letup and the population was terrified. Daoxin took pity on the population and taught them to recite the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra. When the bandits looked at the parapets of the city wall, they thought they saw phantom soldiers, and said to each other, “There are extraordinary people in this city. We shouldn’t attack it.” The bandits gradually went away. In the year Jia Shen [624] of the reign of Tang Wu De, Daoxin returned to Shanchun, where he resided on Potou Mountain. Students gathered there to study with him.

One day, as Daoxin was walking to Huangmei County, he encountered a young child on the road. The child was unusual looking and fine featured.

Daoxin asked the boy, “What is your name?”

The boy answered, “I have a name, but it isn’t a permanent name.”

Daoxin said, “What name is it?”

The boy answered, “Buddha.”
²³

Daoxin said, “You don’t have a name?”

The boy said, “It’s empty, so I don’t possess it.”

Daoxin stared at this young Dharma vessel. He then sent his attendant to call on the boy’s mother and requested that she allow him to enter the priesthood.

When the boy’s mother realized the great affinity the boy had for the Dharma, she didn’t oppose it. So Daoxin made the boy his disciple, eventually passing to him the ancestral robe and Dharma transmission.

The planted flowers have life’s nature,
In fertile earth they bloom and live,
Due to the Great Function and Affinity,
They flourish and live, unborn.

One day Daoxin said to the assembled monks, “During the Wu De Era I took a trip to Mt. Lu. I climbed to the very top of the mountain and then looked toward Mt. Potou. There was a layer of purple clouds over the mountain like a cover, but underneath them were several streams of white clouds stretching in six directions. Do you understand the meaning of this?”

The monks were silent. Then Hongren said, “Does it not mean that after the master is gone there will be a branching of the Buddha Dharma?”

Daoxin said, “Good.”

In the year Gui Mao [643], the emperor Tai Zong, hearing about Daoxin’s reputation, invited the master to the capital city. Daoxin declined the invitation. Three times the emperor invited the master and three times he declined. On the fourth occasion, the emperor said to his emissary, “This time if he doesn’t come, bring back his head.”

When the emissary delivered the emperor’s edict to the mountain, Daoxin simply exposed and stretched his neck to allow his head to be cut off, and stood there in a dignified manner. This shocked the emissary. When he reported this situation, the emperor changed his intention and honored Daoxin. He presented the master with valuable silk and venerated him as an example. On the fourth day of the ninth month in the year Xin Hai of the Yong Wei Era of the Gao Zong reigning period [651], Daoxin suddenly admonished his disciples, saying, “All of the myriad dharmas of the world are to be dropped away. Each of you, protect this understanding and carry it into the future.”

Upon saying this, the master sat peacefully and passed away. He was seventy-two years of age. His stupa was built on the mountain where he taught. On the eighth day of the fourth month of the following year, the door of his stupa opened spontaneously and revealed the master sitting inside as though alive. Thereafter, his disciples dared not close the door. The emperor Dai Zong gave Daoxin the posthumous name Zen Master Dayi [“Great Healer”]. His stupa was named “Compassionate Cloud.”

Fifth Generation

DAMAN HONGREN

DAMAN HONGREN (601–74) was the disciple and Dharma heir of Dayi Daoxin. His stature and recognition during his own lifetime was probably much greater than the meager historical records we have of him indicate. He was the Fifth Ancestor of the traditional Chinese Zen lineage, and his students spread throughout China, exerting enormous influence on the religious fabric of the society. Hongren’s students established three prominent Zen lineages, including the dominant “Southern school” that later encompassed the well-known “five houses” of Zen. Hongren’s influence on Zen’s historical development is difficult to overstate.

During Hongren’s lifetime the phrase “East Mountain school” came into existence to characterize his teachings and those of his teacher, Daoxin. Although acknowledged as one of the “Lankavatara masters,” Hongren followed Daoxin’s example and did not limit his teaching to the Lankavatara Sutra. Instead, he incorporated more diverse currents of Buddhist teaching into the Zen tradition. In particular, he is believed to have included portions of the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, especially the Heart and Diamond sutras, as cornerstones of his teaching and practice. But as in the case of the Zen masters who preceded him, few details are certain about Hongren’s life and his precise methods of teaching. Also, accounts of Hongren’s life are colored by the factional splits that came about in later times. Some sources, possibly influenced by arguments between “Northern” and “Southern” Zen schools that occurred in the eighth century, state that Hongren became learned in practices of both “gradual” and “sudden” enlightenment.

A classical Zen text entitled
Discourse on the Highest Vehicle
, attributed to Hongren
,
emphasizes the idea of “maintaining the original true mind” that “naturally cuts off the arising of delusion.”
²⁴
The maintenance of this original undefiled mind is described as the “primogenitor of the twelve divisions
²⁵
of scripture and the buddhas of the three worlds.”

According to tradition, Hongren left home at the age of seven (some sources say twelve or fourteen) and lived at East Mountain Temple on Twin Peaks, where Daoxin served as abbot. Upon Daoxin’s death at the age of seventy-two, Hongren assumed the abbacy. He then moved East Mountain Temple approximately ten kilometers east to the flanks of Mt. Pingmu. Soon, Hongren’s fame eclipsed that of his teacher.

The account of Hongren’s life that appears in the
Wudeng Huiyuan
and other lamp records offers an example of the fanciful stories passed on about the early generations of Zen masters in China.

The Fifth Ancestor in the East [China], Hongren, was a person from Huangmei County in Qizhou. In his previous life he was a Taoist who planted trees on Twin Peaks. [At that time] he inquired of the Fourth Ancestor, saying, “Can you please explain the Dharma to me?”

The Fourth Ancestor said, “You are already old. If I were to explain it to you, you couldn’t use it to save beings. But if you come here again in your next life I’ll be waiting for you.”

The old man then left. Walking to the bank of a river, he saw a young woman washing clothes. Bowing, he said, “May I pass the night in this place?”

The young woman said, “I have a father and an elder brother, you can go ask them.”

The old man said, “You answer me, then I can be on my way.”

The young woman nodded her assent, and at this the old man turned and left.

The young woman was a daughter of the Zhou family, and later, after she returned home, she was found to be pregnant. Her father and brother were furious at this news and drove her out of the house. She had no place to live, so during the day she made a living by making garments and at night she would find a guest house to dwell in. Later she gave birth to a son. Regarding him as unlucky, she threw him into the pool of embryonic fluid on the floor and wouldn’t care for him. The next day she was startled to see that the child had removed himself from the fluid and his body was now clean and unblemished. She then undertook to raise the child. When he was a little older he would follow his mother as she begged for food. Villagers called him “No-Name Child.” One day the mother and son encountered a wise man. He said, “This child lacks only seven marks [of the distinguishing marks of a Buddha]. Only the Tathagata surpasses him.” Later the child met Great Teacher Daoxin and, becoming his heir, taught people by expounding the Dharma at Mt. Potou.