景德傳燈錄

THE JINGDE RECORD OF THE TRANSMISSION OF THE LAMP — FASCICLE 27

In the seventh year of the Yongming era of the Qi dynasty, Emperor Wu considered the Master a heterodox deceiver and had him confined in the prison at Jiankang. Suddenly, one morning, people saw the Master walking into the marketplace; yet when the prison was inspected, he was still inside. The magistrate of Jiankang reported the matter to the emperor, who then invited the Master into the palace and had him dwell in the rear quarters, though the Master stayed outside in the flower garden.

Suddenly, one day, the Master put on a three-cloth cap, though no one knew where it had come from. Unexpectedly, Prince Wenhui of Yuzhang and the Crown Prince died one after the other. Emperor Wu consequently became disheartened, and the Qi dynasty had also entered its final days. Therefore, the Master was forbidden to come and go.

When Emperor Gaozu of the Liang dynasty ascended the throne, he issued an edict saying: “Although Duke Zhi’s traces are stained by the dust and defilements of the world, his spirit wanders in the realm of serene quiescence. Neither water nor fire can harm him, and neither tigers nor snakes can injure him. When he expounds the Buddha’s principle, his voice resounds through the heavens; when he discusses hidden matters, his insight penetrates to the immortals. How could one bind the mark of emptiness according to the ordinary sentiments of worldly people? That would truly be ignorance in the extreme. From this day onward, the Master shall no longer be restricted.”

One day the emperor asked the Master, “By what can this disciple’s afflictions and delusions be cured?”

The Master said, “Twelve.”

Those who understood regarded this as the causes and conditions serving as medicine to cure delusion.

The emperor further asked, “What is the purport of ‘twelve’?”

The Master said, “The purport slips out through written characters, seasons, hours, and moments.”

Those who understood took this to mean the written characters within the twelve hours.

The emperor further asked, “When will this disciple be able to purify his mind and cultivate?”

The Master said, “Bliss forbids it.”

Those who understood took this to mean that cultivation was used as a restraint, and that when bliss was reached, it ceased.

The Master also composed twenty-four Hymns of the Mahayana, which circulated throughout the world. In the winter of the thirteenth year of the Tianjian era, when the Master was about to pass away, he suddenly told the Sangha to move the monastery and take the Vajra image outside. He then secretly said to someone, “The bodhisattva is about to depart.” Before ten days had passed, the Master died without illness. His entire body was exceedingly fragrant and supple.

At the time of his death, the Master lit a torch and entrusted it to his distant relative Wu Qing, who lived in the rear residence. Qing reported the matter to the emperor. The emperor sighed and said, “The Great Master is no more. By giving me the torch, did he entrust this matter to me?” Thereupon, with reverence, the emperor had the Master buried on Solitary Dragon Hill at Zhongshan. He also established the Kaishan Vihara, ordered Lu Chui to compose an inscription to be placed at the Master’s tomb, and had Wang Jun engrave a stele to be erected at the monastery gate. Everywhere, images of the Master were painted and enshrined.

From the time the Master first manifested his extraordinary traces, he appeared to be fifty or sixty years old; yet even at his death he had not aged, and no one knew his true age. A practitioner named Yu Jie, who was ninety-three years old, said that he was the younger brother of the father of Zhi’s wife and was four years younger than Zhi. Calculated from this, the Master was about ninety-seven years old when he died. The emperor bestowed upon him the posthumous title Great Master Miaojue.

2. Mahasattva Shanhui.
The Master was a native of Yiwu County in Wuzhou. He was born into the household of Fu Xuanci on the eighth day of the fifth month in the fourth year of the Jianwu era of the Qi dynasty, a dingchou year. His original personal name was Xi, and he lived in Shuanglin Village. In the eleventh year of the Tianjian era of the Liang dynasty, at the age of sixteen, he married a daughter of the Liu family named Miaoguang. They had two sons, Pujian and Pucheng.

At the age of twenty-four, he went fishing with a fellow villager named Ji Ting. After catching fish, he submerged the basket in the water and prayed, “Those that wish to go may freely go; those that wish to remain may be kept.” Some people considered him foolish.

At that time, an Indian monk named Dharma said to him, “You and I made vows together in the presence of Vipashyin Buddha. Our robes and bowls are still in the Tushita Heaven. On what day shall we return?” He then had him go to the water’s edge and look at his reflection, where he saw the Mahasattva’s luminous aureole and jeweled canopy. The Mahasattva laughed and said, “Where there is a forge, there is much scrap iron; where there is a skilled physician, there are many patients. The work of liberating beings is urgent—why be concerned with one’s own pleasure?”

He then pointed toward the summit of Mount Song and said, “This place is suitable for dwelling.” The Mahasattva then went there to reside and composed a verse:

When anyone stole beans, grain, melons, or fruit, the Mahasattva filled the person’s basket and let him take them away.

By day, he worked; by night, he practiced the Way. The Master saw the three Tathagatas Shakyamuni, Kanakamuni, and Dipankara simultaneously emit light that shone upon his body. The Mahasattva said, “I have attained the Shurangama Samadhi. I must relinquish my fields, gardens, and home and establish a Great Unrestricted Assembly.” In the second year of the Datong era, the Mahasattva offered his wife and children for sale and received fifty thousand coins, with which he established the Dharma assembly.

At that time, Dharma Master Huiji heard the Dharma and awakened to understanding. He said, “I am the teacher of Maitreya’s manifested body.” The Mahasattva feared that this would delude the assembly and therefore rebuked him.

On the twenty-eighth day of the first month of the sixth year, his disciple Chuanwang delivered a letter to Emperor Gaozu of the Liang dynasty. The letter said:

“Beneath the twin sala trees, the Mahasattva Hui, who shall attain liberation in the future, respectfully informs the ruler of the realm that he is a bodhisattva who rescues the world. There are now myriad forms of goodness—higher, middle, and lower—which I hope all will receive and uphold.

“Those of the highest goodness take the dissolution of conditioned things as their foundation, non-attachment as their tenet, the forgetting of characteristics as their cause, and nirvana as their fruit.

“Those of middling goodness take the governance of the person as their foundation and the governance of the nation as their tenet; their fruit is the peaceful and joyful recompense of heaven and the human realm.

“Those of lower goodness nurture and protect sentient beings, abandon killing, and universally cause the common people to observe the six days of fasting.

“I have now heard that the emperor reveres the Dharma and has arranged myriad doctrinal discussions. As my aspiration has not yet been fulfilled, I have therefore sent my disciple Chuanwang to submit this message.”

Wang went to He Chang, the Director of the Imperial Music Bureau. Chang said, “Even National Preceptor Huiyue has been disregarded and left unrecognized. Xi is merely a common subject of the realm and is not even an elder. Being so lowly, how dare he submit a memorial?”

Wang burned his arm beside the imperial road. Chang then went to Tongtai Monastery and consulted Dharma Master He. He urged him to report the matter swiftly to the emperor. On the twenty-first day of the second month, the letter was presented. After reading it, the emperor issued an edict inviting the Mahasattva to come.

When he arrived, the emperor asked, “Whom have you served as your teacher until now?”

He replied, “Coming, there is nowhere one comes from; going, there is nowhere one goes. Serving a teacher is likewise so.”

Prince Zhaoming asked, “Why does the Mahasattva not discuss doctrine?”

He replied, “What a bodhisattva speaks is neither long nor short, neither broad nor narrow. What has bounds and what has no bounds are both suchness, the true principle. What is there to discuss?”

The emperor further asked, “What is the ultimate truth?”

He replied, “It ceases, yet is not annihilated.”

The emperor asked, “If it ceases yet is not annihilated, then it possesses form; if it possesses form, it is dull and obtuse. If so, the lay practitioner cannot avoid belonging to the ranks of ordinary people.”

He replied, “Encountering wealth, I do not hope to acquire it; encountering calamity, I do not hope to escape it.”

The emperor asked, “Does the lay practitioner understand propriety?”

He replied, “All dharmas—dharmas are neither existent nor nonexistent.”

The emperor said, “I wish to receive the purport of the lay practitioner’s coming.”

He replied, “All forms and appearances throughout the great trichiliocosm return to emptiness; the hundred rivers all flow into the sea; the immeasurable wondrous teachings do not lie outside true suchness. Why does the Tathagata alone surpass all the ninety-six paths within the three realms? Because he regards all sentient beings as his own children, as his own body. In all under heaven, without the Way there is no peace; without principle there is no joy.”

The emperor remained silent. The Mahasattva took his leave and withdrew. On another day, the emperor was in the hall

Shouguang invited the Great Master to expound the Diamond Sutra. The Great Master ascended the seat, took up the text, and read the sutra, composing forty-nine verses. In the fifth year of Datong, he petitioned the emperor for permission to relinquish his house and dwell below Mount Song. A monastery was consequently built by the twin peach trees and named Shuanglin Monastery.
These trees were joined together and extended for several li, enveloped in mist and clouds, and a pair of cranes came to dwell there. In the second year of Taiqing, the Great Master vowed to abstain from food and to burn his body as an offering on the Buddha’s birthday. When the appointed day arrived, more than sixty monastics and laypeople saw that the Great Master was fasting in preparation for self-immolation. Three hundred people pierced their breasts, mixed their blood with incense, and implored the Great Master to remain in the world. Moved by compassion, the Great Master acceded to their plea. In the third year of Chengsheng, the Great Master again relinquished his home to aid sentient beings and make offerings to the Three Jewels. He composed this verse:
Relinquishing everything for all beings,
I reverently make offerings to the God among gods,
Hoping to bring down the rain of sweet dew
And pour it throughout the boundless realms.
In the second year of the Chen Tianjia era, the Great Master was on the summit of Mount Song, walking in practice around the interconnected trees, when he experienced seven Buddhas accompanying him. Shakyamuni led in front, and Vimalakirti followed behind. Only the World-Honored Shakyamuni repeatedly turned back to look at him and said, “You shall become my successor in the place of Buddhahood.” Golden clouds suddenly arose over the mountain and encircled it like a canopy.

It was therefore named Golden Cloud Mountain. At that time, Dharma Master Huihe died without illness, and Dhutanga Song of Lingyan Monastery on Mount Ke also entered cessation. Knowing this beforehand, the Great Master said, “Master Song is waiting for me in Tushita Heaven; I certainly cannot remain.” The trees, grasses, flowers, and leaves all around, which had been flourishing, suddenly withered.

On the twenty-fourth day of the fourth month in the jichou year of the Chen Taijian era, the Great Master told the assembly, “This body, in which all sufferings accumulate, is truly loathsome. You must carefully guard the three karmas and diligently practice the six paramitas. If you fall into hell, it will be difficult to escape afterward; therefore, you must constantly repent.” He further instructed, “After I die, you must not move my bed.

Seven days later, the venerable Faming will bring an image and a bell to enshrine and safeguard this place.”
A disciple asked, “After the Great Master passes away, what should be done with his body?”
The Great Master replied, “Take it to the mountaintop and cremate it.”
The disciple asked again, “What if this cannot be carried out as intended?”
The Great Master said, “Take care not to enclose it in a coffin. Merely pile stones to form an altar, place the body upon it, shield it from the wind on all sides, and cover it with gauze. Erect a stupa above and place an image of Maitreya below.”
They further asked, “When the Buddhas enter nirvana, they all speak of their merits. May we hear of the circumstances of the Master’s manifestation?”
He replied, “I came here from the fourth heaven to liberate you. I shall afterward succeed Shakyamuni Buddha. Puman Manjushri, Huiji Guanyin, and Hechang Ananda came together to assist me. The Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra says: ‘There is a bodhisattva who comes from Tushita Heaven, whose faculties are keen and swift, and who accords with prajna.’ That is this very body of mine.”
After saying this, he sat in the full lotus posture and passed away at the age of seventy-three. When they sought Master Faming, he indeed arrived carrying a woven image of Maitreya made from thread and a bell with nine apertures to enshrine and safeguard the place. In an instant, however, he suddenly disappeared.

More than ten ritual implements belonging to the Great Master remained there intact. On the seventeenth day of the sixth month in the jiashen year, the ninth year of the Later Jin Tianfu era, the Prince of Qian sent an envoy to open the Great Master’s stupa. Sixteen fragments of his sacred bones, golden in color, were recovered together with his ritual implements.

Longhua Monastery was then built on Mount Long, south of the prefectural city, to enshrine them, and the sacred bones were used to fashion an image.
3. Chan Master Huisi of Mount Heng.
The Master was a native of Wujin and his family name was Li. On the crown of his head was an ushnisha; he walked like an ox and gazed like an elephant. From childhood, he was known throughout his village for his benevolence and forbearance. He once dreamed of an Indian monk urging him to leave the secular life. He immediately departed from his parents and entered the Way. After receiving full ordination, he constantly practiced seated meditation, ate one meal a day, and recited the Lotus Sutra and other scriptures more than one thousand times. He also read the Sutra of the Wondrous and Supreme Samadhi and extolled the merits of dhyana, whereupon he resolved to seek spiritual companions.
At that time, Chan Master Huiwen had several hundred students. The Master went to receive his instruction and, day and night, gathered his mind and sat through the summer retreat. After twenty-one days, he attained the supernormal knowledge of former lives.

He therefore exerted himself even more intensely, but an obstruction arose: both his hands and feet became weak and feeble, and he could no longer walk. The Master reflected, “Illness arises from karma; the karma that brings about birth arises from the mind. If the source of mind does not arise, what can external conditions do, and what form can they assume?” At that moment, his karmic illness and his sense of the body both dissolved like snow and its shadow.

As he continued contemplating in this way, all inverted perceptions ceased, and he became as light and at ease as before.
When that summer retreat ended, he still felt that he had attained nothing. Deeply ashamed, the Master let himself fall back against a wall. Before his back touched it, he suddenly awakened to luminous emptiness.

In a single thought, he thoroughly perceived the supreme-vehicle gateway of the Lotus Samadhi, and all the insights he had long investigated through contemplation greatly increased. The fame of his conduct spread far and wide, and fellow practitioners came to him in ever-growing numbers. He encouraged them tirelessly, and as those responding to his teaching became increasingly numerous, he employed the various teachings of samadhi, wisdom, and the path of the Lesser Vehicle to guide them according to their capacities.

He caused them to cultivate loving-kindness and patience and to uphold the bodhisattva’s threefold collection of precepts. His robes were made entirely of coarse cloth, and in the cold season he merely added a lining of dried mugwort leaves.
During the Tianbao era of Northern Qi, the Master led his disciples southward. Encountering the turmoil involving Emperor Xiaoyuan of Liang, he temporarily stayed on Mount Dasu. Those who valued the Dharma more than life braved dangers to reach him and dwell in the mountain forests. The Master instructed the assembly, “The source of the Way is not distant, nor is the ocean of the nature far away. Seek only within yourselves; do not seek it from others. If you seek it, you will not find it, and even if you find something, it will not be real.” He then spoke this verse:
Swiftly awakening to the mind-source, the treasury opens;
Its wondrous efficacy manifestly reveals the true form.
Walking alone, sitting alone, ever majestic,
Hundreds of millions of transformation bodies, countless beyond measure.
The traces of the joined bats fill empty space;
When examined, not even the form of a minute mote is seen.
How laughable that this thing has nothing from which it arises;
Within the mouth, a radiant pearl shines dazzlingly bright.
Ordinarily, seeing and speaking are inconceivable;
With a single word, its name is raised at that very moment.
He also spoke this verse:
Heaven cannot cover it; earth cannot support it.
It neither comes nor goes and is without obstruction.
Neither long nor short, neither blue nor yellow,
It dwells neither within nor without nor in between.
Transcending the multitude and surpassing all, it is as mysterious as great space;
Pointing directly to the thing and transmitting mind, people fail to understand.
Apart from these, he answered questions as they were asked. For monastics and laypeople, the Master produced copies of the Prajnaparamita Sutra and the Lotus Sutra in gold lettering. The assembly then invited him to expound the two sutras, and the Master explained them according to their texts. He also instructed his disciple Zhikai to lecture in his stead. When Zhikai reached the passage, “The one mind is endowed with the myriad practices,” he had doubts and asked the Master to resolve them.
The Master said, “The point about which you doubt is merely the sequential meaning taught in the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra; it is not yet the perfect and sudden meaning of the Lotus Sutra. Formerly, during a summer retreat, within a single thought I swiftly brought forth all the dharmas I had previously perceived. I personally realized this and have not the slightest doubt.”
Zhikai then studied and practiced the Lotus teaching, and after twenty-one days he attained awakening. (Zhiyi was the Great Master Zhizhe.) On the twenty-third day of the sixth month in the first year of the Chen Guangda era, he departed Mount Dasu with more than forty monks and took a shortcut to the Southern Peak. He said, “I shall remain on this mountain for only ten years. Thereafter, I am certain to travel far away.

In a former life I once dwelt on this mountain.” When they reached Hengyang, they encountered a place of exceptionally beautiful springs and forests. The Master said, “This was an ancient monastery. I once lived here.” He had them excavate the site, and the old foundations were still there.

The Master also pointed beneath a mountain cavern and said, “I practiced seated meditation here and was beheaded by bandits.” When they searched, they immediately found a pile of dry bones.
From then onward, the Master’s propagation of the Way flourished ever more greatly. The ruler of Chen repeatedly consoled him and made offerings to him, honoring him as a Great Chan Master. When the Master was about to pass away, he told his disciples, “If there are ten people who do not cherish their own bodies and lives, who constantly practice the Lotus Samadhi, the Pratyutpanna Buddha-Recollection Samadhi, and the Vaipulya repentance, and who vow to attain realization of the Way, then I shall willingly provide whatever they require and make offerings to them. If there are no such people, I shall depart far away.”

At that time, the Sangha regarded the ascetic practice as difficult, so no one responded. The Master then bade farewell to the assembly and peacefully entered perfect quiescence. His junior disciple Vân Biện wept and wailed aloud. The Master opened his eyes and said, “You are an evil māra. I am about to depart; why do you disturb me and hinder me? Fool, go away!” Having said this, he passed away.

At that time, an extraordinary fragrance filled the room. The crown of the Master’s head remained warm, his body was soft, and his complexion was as usual. This occurred on the twenty-second day of the sixth month in the ninth year of the Thái Kiến era. He was sixty-four years old. His teachings were all transmitted orally and were not written down.

The Master composed the Forty-Two Gates in two fascicles and the Gate of the Practice Free from Contention in two fascicles. Five other works, including The Profound Meaning of the Commentary, The Practice of Peace and Bliss According to One’s Intent, Essentials of the Sequential Dhyānas, and The Gate of Contemplation of the Three Wisdoms, each in one fascicle, circulated in the world.

4. Meditation Master Trí Giả Trí Nghỉ of Tu Thiền Monastery on Mount Thiên Thai

The Master was from Hoa Dung in Kinh Châu. His family name was Trần, and his mother’s family name was Từ. While pregnant with him, his mother dreamed that clouds of five-colored incense smoke surrounded her. On the night of his birth, an extraordinary light like torchlight appeared throughout the region. As a child, he possessed unusual marks, and dirt did not cling to his skin.

At the age of seven, he entered Quả Nguyện Monastery. Hearing a monk recite the Lotus Sutra as far as the Universal Gate Chapter, he immediately recited along. Suddenly, he remembered the entire text of all seven fascicles as though he had memorized it only the day before.

At the age of fifteen, he bowed before a Buddha image and earnestly prayed to leave the household life. In a dazed state, as though in a dream, he saw a great mountain reaching the seashore. On its summit stood a monk who beckoned to him and then led him into a monastery, saying, “You will dwell here, and here you will die.”

At the age of eighteen, after both his parents had died, he relied upon a monk whose Dharma name contained the character Pháp and left the household life at Quả Nguyện Monastery. At the age of twenty, he received the full precepts.

In the first year of the Thiện Gia era of the Trần dynasty, the Master met Meditation Master Tuệ Tư on Mount Đại Tô in Quang Châu. Upon first seeing him, Tuệ Tư said, “Long ago, we listened together to the Lotus Sutra on Vulture Peak; now you have come here again.” He then instructed him in the Samantabhadra Bodhimaṇḍa and taught the Four Practices of Peace and Bliss.

The Master entered the three contemplations for twenty-one days. His body and mind became open and luminous, and samādhi and wisdom merged together. Subtle realization then arose inwardly, known only to himself. He reported the state of his awakening to Tuệ Tư. Tuệ Tư said, “Were it not you, you could not have realized this; were it not I, no one could recognize it. This is precisely the preliminary expedient of the Lotus Samādhi and the initial dhāraṇī of turning and retention. Even if a thousand or ten thousand masters of textual learning were brought here, they could not fully comprehend your discourse. You can transmit the lamp and spread the teaching. Do not be the last person and allow the seed of Buddhahood to be cut off.” Thus the Master received his seal of approval.

At the beginning of the Thái Kiến era, the Master bowed in gratitude and took his leave, then went to Kim Lăng to spread the teaching. Whenever he taught the Dharma, he did not establish written texts or require a prepared composition, but relied upon his power of eloquence and never grew weary by day or night.

In the seventh year of Thái Kiến, the year Ất Mùi, the Master bade farewell to his disciples and went into seclusion on Phật Lũng Peak of Mount Thiên Thai. Meditation Master Định Quang, who had previously lived on that peak, had told his disciples, “Before long, a spiritual friend will lead his assembly here.”

When the Master suddenly arrived, Định Quang asked, “Do you still remember how, years ago, I beckoned to you?” The Master then recalled the vision he had experienced while bowing before the Buddha image, and sorrow and joy mingled within him. Định Quang took him by the hand and led him back to his hermitage.

That night, they heard the sounds of bells and chimes in the sky. The Master asked, “What auspicious sign is this?” Định Quang replied, “These are the sounds of the gaṇḍī being struck to assemble the Sangha here. I have already occupied the golden ground of this place. The northern peak is silver ground; you will open the mountain there.”

Later, Emperor Tuyên Đế established Tu Thiền Monastery and allocated a portion of the tax revenue from Thủy Phong District to support the assembly.

When Emperor Dương Đế of the Tùy dynasty invited the Master to confer the bodhisattva precepts upon him, the Master bestowed on the emperor the Dharma name Tổng Trì, and the emperor conferred upon the Master the title Trí Giả.

The Master often said:

“The Lotus Sutra is the scripture of the One Vehicle. It opens up and expands beyond attachment to the teaching of the Conjured City, removes the stagnant sentiments associated with the thatched hut, opens the expedient gateway of provisional teachings, reveals the wondrous principle of truth, and gathers all the virtues of lesser practices into the one vast One Vehicle.”

He therefore set forth its profound meaning under the headings “Explaining the Title, Discerning the Essence, Clarifying the Tenet, Discussing the Function,” in order to analyze the five levels of the characteristics of the teaching.

As to the title, both Dharma and analogy are presented; hence it is called “The Wondrous Dharma of the One Vehicle.” This is the original nature of sentient beings, which is not stained by ignorance or afflictions, just as the lotus grows in mud while its essence remains perpetually pure. Therefore, this is taken as the title.

This sutra constantly opens the provisional to reveal the real, abandons the provisional to establish the real, and integrates the provisional into the real. It is like the lotus, which has the meanings of containing, opening, and falling away; the lotus also has the meaning of concealing, revealing, and bringing the fruit to maturity. This is also called extending the traces from the origin and revealing the origin through the traces.

The titles of sutras do not go beyond Dharma, analogy, and person. Whether single or compound, the seven kinds encompass all titles. “Wondrous Dharma Lotus Flower” is one compound title used to indicate the essence. The essence is the true characteristic, for all characteristics apart from the true characteristic have no essence.

The tenet is the cause and effect of the One Vehicle, because opening, revealing, awakening to, and entering the Buddha’s knowledge and vision are worthy of reverence. The function is active power, because it possesses the power to open, abandon, and integrate.

Only thereafter are the characteristics of the teaching analyzed. All that the Tathagata taught throughout his lifetime is comprehensively viewed in terms of the Five Periods and Eight Teachings.

The Five Periods are:

1. Immediately after attaining the Way, the Buddha taught the Avataṃsaka period for bodhisattvas of superior faculties.
2. For those of lesser faculties, he taught the Āgama period.
3. To suppress the biased and disparage the lesser, while praising the Great and the Perfect, he taught the Vaipulya period.
4. To open up the characteristics of phenomena and dispel attachments, he taught the Prajnaparamita period.
5. To integrate the provisional into the real, bestow predictions upon practitioners of the Three Vehicles, and teach that all sentient beings will attain Buddhahood, he taught the Lotus–Nirvana period.

– The Eight Teachings are the four teachings of methods of transformation—Sudden, Gradual, Secret, and Indeterminate—and the four teachings of the Dharma of transformation—Tripiṭaka, Shared, Distinct, and Perfect. These encompass all that the Tathagatas of the three times expound. Anything outside these is spoken by māras.

Once the doctrine has been made clear, without contemplative practice there is no means of restoring the nature. Therefore, relying upon the principle of the three truths in one mind, he set forth the three forms of calming and the three contemplations.

In each contemplation of mind, thought after thought is unobtainable. First is emptiness, next is provisional existence, and last is the Middle. One departs from the two extremes and contemplates the one mind, like the moon emerging from behind clouds. This is precisely the mode of practice of the Distinct Teaching.

He once said, “For destroying all delusions, nothing is stronger than Emptiness. For establishing all dharmas, nothing is stronger than the Provisional. For bringing all natures to consummation, nothing is greater than the Middle.” Therefore, when the one Middle is realized, all is the Middle; there is no provisional existence and no emptiness that does not contain the Middle. Emptiness and provisional existence are likewise so. This is the mode of practice of the Perfect Teaching, like the three eyes of Maheśvara Heaven: they are not horizontally aligned, yet each is distinct.

When the three contemplations are perfected, the Dharma body is no longer bare, and one thereby ceases to resemble the impoverished son. Because scholars of Thượng Lư were confused about cultivation and nature, or fell into one-sided attachments, the doctrine of the Six Identities was established to resolve this difficulty:

1. Identity with the Buddha in Principle: Sentient beings throughout the Dharma realm, down to tiny insects, all share the same wondrous nature. From beginningless time, they have constantly abided within the pure essence of awakening, perfectly interfused in the one principle and equal without distinction.

2. Identity with the Buddha in Name: Although the nature of principle is equal without distinction, beings follow the current and remain unaware in their daily activities. They must therefore rely upon provisional verbal teachings, be perfumed by hearing the name, then give rise to faith and awaken understanding.

3. Identity with the Buddha in Contemplative Practice: Having heard the name and awakened understanding, one must first rely upon the three contemplations to return to the source.

4. Identity with the Buddha in Resemblance: When the功 of contemplative practice has become profound, functions resembling the real arise.

5. Partial Identity with the True Buddha: When the three minds have opened and unfolded, one attains the functioning of true suchness, becoming increasingly sublime at each successive stage.

6. Ultimate Identity with the Buddha: When ignorance has been completely extinguished and the awakened mind has reached perfect culmination, one realizes that there is nowhere and nothing to be realized.

Each of these six stages is identical with the Buddha and fully possesses the Dharma body, reward body, and transformation body as its proper embodiment. According to one’s state, one abides in one of the Four Lands.

The Four Lands are:

1. The Land of Eternally Quiescent Light;
2. The Unobstructed Land of the True Characteristic;
3. The Land of Expedient Means with Residue;
4. The Land Where Purity and Defilement Are Shared in Common.

In truth, there is neither body nor land, neither superior nor inferior. It is only in response to differing capacities that bodies and lands are provisionally spoken of and distinctions of superiority and inferiority are made. Because the Master had attained the mutual interpenetration of body and land and the unobstructedness of provisional and real teachings, for thirty years he expounded the Dharma day and night, producing the four benefits of the Four Siddhantas.

The Master’s disciple Guanding recorded more than ten thousand words spoken by him each day. Collectively, these writings were called the Tiantai Teaching; separately, they were divided into various collections and categories. They were transmitted through many generations and flourished especially in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region.

On the seventeenth day of the eleventh month in the seventeenth year of the Sui Kaihuang era, the emperor sent an envoy to summon the Master to court. As he was about to depart, the Master told his disciples: “I am leaving now and will not return. You should build the Southern Monastery at Folong according to my intentions.” An attendant said: “Without the Master’s strength, how could we possibly complete it?” The Master said: “The emperor himself will build it. You will see the monastery, but I shall not.”

On the twenty-first day, the Master arrived at Shicheng Monastery in Yandong. When he reached the hundred-foot stone image, he would go no farther. On the twenty-fourth day, he summoned his attendant and said: “Avalokitesvara has come to receive me; before long the response will appear.” At that time, his disciple Zhilang asked: “We do not know where the Master will be reborn or what stage you have attained.” The Master said: “Had I not undertaken to lead the assembly, I would have purified the six faculties. But because I diminished my own attainment for the sake of benefiting others, I have reached only the fifth grade.”

He ordered that a brush be brought and wrote a verse on contemplation of the mind. After reciting the essential outlines of the Dharma gates, he sat in full lotus posture and entered parinirvana. He was sixty years old and had spent forty years in the monastic life. His disciples conveyed his remains to Folong Cliff.

In the ninth month of the first year of the Daye era, Emperor Yang of Sui made an imperial tour to Huaihai. He sent an envoy to escort the disciple Zhitao and bring the monastery’s inscribed plaque into the mountains, appointing a day for a memorial vegetarian offering. On the appointed day, the Sangha assembled and opened the stone chamber, but found only an empty coffin. At that gathering of one thousand monks, when the appointed hour arrived, there was one extra person. Everyone said that this was the Master’s transformation body, which had come to receive the imperial offering.

From the time the Master first studied the teachings of meditation until his final nirvana, he always wore a single patched robe, never removing it in winter or summer. He traveled to and from Mount Tiantai for twenty-two years and established twelve great sacred sites for the Way. Guoqing Monastery was the last of these; together with Yuquan Monastery in Jingzhou and others, they numbered thirty-six sites in all. He ordained more than fifteen thousand monks, wrote fifteen collections of scriptures, and sponsored more than eight hundred thousand Buddhist works, including Buddha images cast in bronze and gold, painted, and sculpted. His deeds were exceedingly extensive and are fully recorded in his original biography.

5. Great Master Sengqie of Sizhou

The world regarded him as a responsive transformation body of the Great Being Avalokitesvara. Tracing his origins, in the past, throughout asamkhyeyas of kalpas numerous as the sands of the Ganges, he had encountered Tathagata Avalokitesvara, heard the Way through the gateway of the Threefold Wisdom, and employed sound as Buddha-work. Because he had affinities with the people of this realm, he was known as the Great Master who came from India.

During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang, the Master came to Luoyang and Chang’an and traveled throughout the regions of Wu and Chu, teaching and transforming people. Holding a willow branch in his hand, he mingled with the ordinary populace. When someone asked his family name, he replied: “My surname is He.” When asked from what country he came, the Master answered: “From the country of He.”

The Master sought a place in the Sizhou region to build a monastery. One night, he lodged in the home of a family surnamed Ba within the prefecture, and they subsequently relinquished their house to be converted into a monastery. The Master said: “In ancient times, this was a Buddhist monastery.” He had the ground excavated, and an ancient stele was indeed discovered, identifying it as Xiangji Monastery, built long ago by Li Long of the Qi dynasty. They also unearthed a golden image, which the assembly called Tathagata Dipamkara. The Master said: “This is Buddha King Puguang.” The monastery was therefore named accordingly.

In the second year of the Jinglong era, Emperor Zhongzong sent an envoy with a carriage to bring the Master to court. The emperor revered him ever more deeply and invited him to reside at Jianfu Monastery. The emperor and all the civil and military officials called themselves his disciples. The Master ordained three men: Huiyan, Hui’an, and Muxoa. The emperor personally inscribed the monastery plaque with the words “Puguang Wang Monastery.”

On the third day of the third month in the third year of the Jinglong era, the Master entered parinirvana. The emperor ordered a stupa built for his burial at Jianfu Monastery, whereupon a foul odor suddenly spread throughout the city. The emperor prayed, promising to return the Master to Linhuai. As soon as he had spoken, an extraordinary fragrance filled the air.

The emperor asked Wanhui: “Who was Great Master Sengqie?” He replied: “He was simply a transformation body of Avalokitesvara.” During the Qianfu era, the emperor bestowed on him the title Great Master Zhengsheng. During the Taiping Xingguo era of the present dynasty, Emperor Taizong built a stupa for the Master that was magnificent and unsurpassed.

6. Dharma Cloud Duke Wanhui

He was a native of Guixiang in Guozhou, and his family name was Zhang. He was born on the fifth day of the fifth month in the sixth year of the Tang Zhenguan era. From childhood, he was carefree and unrestrained by ritual conventions and worldly customs, behaving as though mad; no one in his village could fathom him.

One day, he instructed his household to sweep and clean everything carefully, saying that an honored guest was coming. That day, Tripitaka Master Xuanzang, returning from India, came to visit him. Wanhui asked about the landscapes and conditions of India with such clarity that it seemed he had seen them himself. Xuanzang bowed, circumambulated him, and called him a bodhisattva.

He had an elder brother, Wannian, who had long been away campaigning against Liao in the east. Their mother, Lady Cheng, longed for news of him. Wanhui said that this was very easy, bade farewell to his mother, and departed. By evening he had returned. When a letter subsequently arrived, everyone in the village was astonished.

At Longxing Monastery there was a young sramana named Daming who delighted in bantering with him. Wanhui often visited Master Ming’s quarters. Ming Chongyan, a Remonstrance Grandee from the Liaodong region who possessed many extraordinary abilities, once came to the monastery. Seeing divine soldiers standing guard on both sides around Wanhui, he was greatly alarmed. The next morning, he asked Master Ming about him, then respectfully presented Wanhui with gold, bowed, and departed.

In the fourth year of the Xianheng era, Emperor Gaozong summoned Wanhui to the palace. At that time, there was a monk from Fufeng named Meng Xiang, who manifested many miraculous signs. Earlier, while in the palace, he had repeatedly said: “Hui is coming! Hui is coming!” When Wanhui arrived, he then said: “When decline comes, one must depart.” Ten days later, Meng Xiang died.

On the eighth day of the twelfth month in the second year of the Jingyun era, the xinhai year, Wanhui passed away in Fengquan Ward in Chang’an at the age of eighty. At that time, an extraordinary fragrance filled the air, and his body remained soft and supple. The emperor posthumously appointed him Minister over the Masses and Duke of Guo, and his funeral was conducted according to official rites. On the fifteenth day of the first month in the third year of the Jingyun era, he was buried at Xiangji Monastery west of the capital.

7. Chan Master Fenggan of Tiantai

No one knew where the Master came from. He lived at Guoqing Monastery on Mount Tiantai. He shaved his head and beard and wore garments of plain cloth. Whenever anyone asked him about Buddhist principles, he would reply only with the two words: “According to circumstances.” He once recited a Song of the Way and lured a tiger through the monastery gate, terrifying the Sangha.

In the monastery kitchen were two ascetics: one was Hanshanzi and the other was Shide. The two attended to the fires and cooking. Throughout the day, whenever they met, they conversed with each other, but even those who secretly listened could understand nothing. People at that time called them madmen, yet they were especially intimate with the Master.

One day, Hanshan asked: “If an ancient mirror is not polished, how can it shine?”

The Master replied: “An icy lake holds no image; monkeys and apes grasp at the moon in the water.”

Hanshan asked: “This means it does not shine. I again ask the Master to speak.”

The Master said: “The myriad virtues do not come from the future. What would you have me say?”

Hanshan and Shide both bowed in reverence.

The Master once went alone to Mount Wutai on pilgrimage. Suddenly he encountered an old man and asked: “Are you Manjusri?”

The old man replied: “Could there be two Manjusris?”

The Master bowed. Before he raised his head, the old man disappeared. Later, the Master returned to Mount Tiantai and passed away.

Earlier, when Lord Lüqiu Yin was about to take office governing Danqiu, he suddenly suffered a severe headache that no medicine could cure. The Master came and said: “This poor monk has come from Tiantai to pay his respects to Your Excellency.” Lüqiu told him of his illness. The Master immediately poured water from a pure vessel and sprayed it upon him, whereupon he was cured at once.

Astonished, Lüqiu asked him to say whether this was an omen of peace or danger. The Master said: “When you reach the place of your appointment, remember to pay your respects to the venerable Manjusri and Samantabhadra.”

He asked: “Where are these two bodhisattvas?”

The Master replied: “They are Hanshan and Shide, who tend the fires and wash the dishes at Guoqing Monastery.”

Lüqiu bowed in gratitude and then set out in search of the monastery.

He asked, “Does this monastery have the Chan Master Fenggan? Who are Hanshan and Shide?” A monk named Daoqiao said:

“Fenggan’s former quarters are behind the sutra repository. No one lives there now. As for Hanshan and Shide, the two of them can be found working in the kitchen.”

When Lüqiu entered the Master’s room, he saw only tiger tracks. He again asked Daoqiao, “What practices did Fenggan perform here?”

Daoqiao said, “He merely hulled rice as an offering to the Sangha, and in his leisure time he chanted verses.”

He then entered the kitchen to seek out and question Hanshan and Shide. Their story will be continued in the following section.

8. Hanshanzi of Mount Tiantai

He originally had no surname. Seventy li west of Shifeng County were two rocky caves, Han and Ming. Because he lived in Han Cave, he received the name Hanshan.

His face was gaunt and withered, and his clothes were ragged. He fashioned a cap from flowers and leaves and wore wooden clogs. Whenever he came to Guoqing Monastery, Shide would give him the vegetables left over by the assembly. Sometimes he wandered aimlessly beneath the corridors; at other times he howled, gazed up into the sky, and shouted. When the monastery’s monks drove him away with staves, he would turn around, clap his hands, laugh loudly, and depart. Although his words flashed like lightning, they contained profound meaning.

One day Fenggan told him, “If you travel with me to Mount Wutai, then you are of the same kind as I am. If you do not go, you are not of the same kind.”

Hanshan replied, “I will not go.”

Fenggan said, “You are not of the same kind as I am.”

Hanshan then asked, “Why are you going to Mount Wutai?”

Fenggan said, “I am going to pay homage to Manjusri.”

Hanshan replied, “You are not of the same kind as I am.”

After Fenggan had passed away, Lord Lüqiu entered the mountain and found Hanshan and Shide gathered around a fire, talking and laughing. Without realizing it, Lüqiu bowed down before them, whereupon the two cried out loudly. The monastery’s monks were astonished and asked, “Why does the great official bow to madmen?”

Hanshan took Lüqiu by the hand and said, “Fenggan is too talkative.” Only after a long while did he let go. From then on, Hanshan and Shide left the monastic community hand in hand and never returned to the monastery.

Lüqiu later went to Han Cave to pay homage to them and respectfully offer clothing and medicine. The two men shouted loudly, “Thief! Thief!” Then they drew themselves in and fled into the mountain cave. They said only, “Tell everyone that they should strive diligently!” Suddenly, the cave closed.

Grieving over their disappearance, Lüqiu ordered the monk Daoqiao to search for their remaining writings. In the forest he found many leaves inscribed with verses, as well as writings on the walls of houses in country villages. Altogether, more than three hundred poems were collected and circulated widely among the people. Chan Master Benji of Caoshan wrote a commentary on them entitled Responses to the Poems of Hanshanzi.

9. Shide of Mount Tiantai

His name and surname are unknown. Chan Master Fenggan, while walking in meditation through the mountains, reached Chicheng and heard a child crying beside the road. Going toward the sound, he found a little boy several years old. At first he was called the Oxherd Boy. When questioned, the boy replied that he had been abandoned there by a fox. Fenggan therefore named him Shide, “Picked Up,” and brought him back to Guoqing Monastery. He entrusted him to the monk serving as cook and instructed, “If anyone comes looking for him, return him.”

Later, the monk Lingsi took him in and assigned him to prepare food and tend the incense and lamps. Suddenly, one day, Shide leaped onto the dais, sat beside the platter before the Buddha image, and began to eat. Moreover, before the image of the elder Kaundinya, he called him “a Hinayana sravaka who has attained only the lesser fruit.” The monks drove him away.

Lingsi became angry and told the venerable elders that he would no longer take responsibility for Shide. He then sent him into the kitchen to wash dishes. Each day, after the meal was finished, Shide gathered the leftovers and filled a bamboo tube with them. When Hanshan came, he would carry the tube away on his head.

One day, while Shide was sweeping the ground, the monastery superintendent asked, “Your name is Shide because Fenggan picked you up and brought you here. But what, after all, are your true name and surname? Where are you from?”

Shide set down his broom, folded his hands across his chest, and stood there. The superintendent did not understand. Hanshan then beat his chest and said, “Blue sky! Blue sky!”

Shide immediately asked, “What are you doing?”

Hanshan replied, “Have you not heard it said: ‘When someone in the eastern household dies, the western household grieves’?”

The two then danced about, weeping and laughing, and departed together.

There was a shrine to the guardian deity of the monastery. Each day, after the kitchen monks had eaten, they would set out food for the crows. Shide struck the deity’s image with his staff and rebuked it, saying, “You cannot even protect your own food; how can you protect the monastery?”

That night the deity appeared in a dream to the monastery’s monks and said, “Shide struck me.” In the morning, when they questioned one another, the monks discovered that their dreams agreed. The entire monastery reported the matter to the prefectural authorities. The commandery then issued a decree stating, “This worthy one secretly manifests the response-body of a bodhisattva.” With solemn banners and pennants, they bestowed upon him the title “Worthy Shide.”

At that time Daoqiao compiled the writings and poems of Hanshan and appended Shide’s verses to the collection. Only a few are cited here; the rest may be found in a separate fascicle.

10. Venerable Budai of Fenghua County, Mingzhou

His family name is not clearly known. He called himself Qici. He was stout, with a high forehead and a large belly. His speech was unpredictable, and he slept wherever he happened to be. He always carried a cloth sack suspended from a staff. All the necessities for sustaining his body were thrown into the sack.

Whenever he entered villages or marketplaces, he begged for whatever he encountered. Whether meat, fish, wine, or vinegar, he put everything into his mouth, saving a little to place in his sack. People of the time called him Changtingzi, or Master Budai.

The Master once sat in the snow, yet the snow did not cling to his body. Those who saw this considered it wondrous. Sometimes he approached people and begged for goods, which he then sold. When he foretold whether events would be auspicious or inauspicious, his predictions were invariably accurate.

When rain was about to fall, he would put on wet straw sandals and walk along the road. When fine weather was coming, he would carry wooden clogs onto a bridge, pull up his trousers, and sleep. The people used these signs to know what the weather would be.

Once a monk was walking ahead of the Master. The Master struck him once on the back. The monk looked around, and the Master said, “Give me one coin.”

The monk replied, “If you can speak a word, I will give you one coin.”

The Master set down his sack, folded his hands across his chest, and stood there.

Venerable Bailu asked, “What is Budai?”

The Master immediately set down his cloth sack.

Bailu asked again, “What is Budai’s activity?”

The Master shouldered his sack and walked away.

Previously, the venerable monk at Baofu had asked, “What is the great meaning of the Buddha-Dharma?”

The Master set down his sack and stood with his hands folded across his chest.

Baofu asked, “Is that all, or is there a matter beyond?”

The Master shouldered his sack and departed.

The Master was standing in the middle of a crossroads when a monk asked, “Venerable, what are you doing there?”

The Master said, “Waiting for someone.”

The monk replied, “He has come! He has come!”

The Master said, “You are not that person.”

The monk asked, “What is that person like?”

The Master said, “Give me one coin.”

The Master had a song that said:

This very mind, mind, mind is Buddha;
The worlds of the ten directions are the most numinous thing.
Its wondrous functioning, vertical and horizontal, cherishes living beings;
Nothing whatsoever equals the true mind.

Soaring freely, doing nothing,
Ultimately at ease is the one who has left home.
If one truly sees the Great Way before one’s eyes,
Not seeing even the slightest thing is also most wondrous.

How could the myriad dharmas differ? How could the mind differ?
Why labor wearily to seek meaning in the sutras?
The Mind-King has originally severed knowing and understanding;
The wise know only the station of no-more-learning.

There is neither sage nor ordinary being; it is simply thus.
With nowhere to discriminate, holy sentiments stand alone.
The priceless pearl of mind is originally perfect and pure;
Whatever is an anomalous appearance is called empty delusion.

Those able to propagate the Way understand it clearly;
Immeasurably lofty sentiments are called the spirit of the Way.
Clad in brocade, as though taking the road back to the old homeland,
Do not grieve at the places where there are no sravakas.

He also had a verse that said:

In the third month of the second year of the Zhenming era of Later Liang, the bingzi year, when the Master was about to pass away, he sat upright upon a large rock in the eastern corridor of Yuelin Monastery and spoke this verse:

Maitreya, the true Maitreya,
Divides his body into hundreds of thousands of millions.
Constantly he reveals himself to people,
Yet the people of the time do not recognize him.

After speaking the verse, he peacefully passed away. Later, people in another prefecture saw the Master still walking along with his cloth sack upon his shoulder. Thereupon, the fourfold assembly vied with one another to paint his image. Today, in the great hall of Yuelin Monastery, in the eastern building, the Master’s whole body may still be seen.

11. Miscellaneous Presentation of Substitute Sayings and Alternative Sayings from Various Regions

1.

The Obstructing Māra King led his retinue and remained beside Vajrasama Bodhisattva for a thousand years, seeking the place from which he arose but unable to find it. Suddenly, one day, he caught sight of him and asked, “Where do you abide? For a thousand years, I have led my retinue in seeking the place from which you arise, but we have been unable to find it.” Vajrasama replied, “I do not depend upon abiding in order to abide, nor do I depend upon non-abiding in order to abide. Thus do I abide.”

2. A non-Buddhist asked the Buddha, “I do not ask about speech, nor do I ask about non-speech.” The Blessed One remained silent for a long while. The non-Buddhist then bowed and said, “Excellent, Blessed One! With great loving-kindness and great compassion, you have parted the clouds of delusion for me and enabled me to enter.” After the non-Buddhist had departed, Ānanda asked the Buddha, “What realization did the non-Buddhist attain that he could say he had entered?” The Buddha said, “It is like a fine horse in the world that runs as soon as it sees the shadow of the whip.”

3. The Kinnara King performed the music of non-arising as an offering to the Blessed One. The king commanded sentient and insentient beings alike to follow him. If even a single thing failed to follow the king, it could not reach the Buddha’s presence. Again, King Anuttarapāda entered the Samādhi of Great Quiescence. The king commanded sentient and insentient beings alike to accord with him. If even a single thing failed to accord with the king, he could not enter the Samādhi of Great Quiescence.

4. The king of Kashmir came before the Venerable Siṃha with a sword in hand and asked, “Master, have you attained the emptiness of the skandhas?” The Master replied, “I have attained the emptiness of the skandhas.” The king asked, “Having attained the emptiness of the skandhas, have you transcended birth and death?” The Master said, “I have transcended birth and death.” The king asked, “Having transcended birth and death, may I have your head?” The Master said, “Even this body does not belong to me, much less the head.” The king then cut it off. A stream of white milk spurted from the Master’s neck, and the hair on the king’s arms fell out of its own accord.

5. An attendant at the Four Provinces Stupa was locking the door when someone asked, “Since he is the Great Master of the three realms, why is he still locked in by his disciple?” The attendant was unable to answer.

6. Someone asked a monk, “I hear that Your Reverence can lecture on the Treatises of Zhao. Is that so?” He replied, “I would not presume.” The man asked, “Does Zhao teach that things do not change or move?” He replied, “Yes.” The man then threw a teacup to the ground, where it shattered, and asked, “Did this change and move, or did it not change and move?” The monk was unable to answer.

7. Luopu’s attendant said to the Master, “Dharma Master Zhao composed four treatises that are truly extraordinary.” Luopu said, “Although Zhao was truly extraordinary, he still had no need to see the Patriarch.” The attendant was unable to answer.

8. Two monks dwelling in hermitages used to visit one another every day. Suddenly, they did not meet for an entire week. One day, they encountered each other while ascending the mountain. The hermitage master from higher on the mountain asked, “For quite some time, I have not seen you here.” The hermitage master from lower on the mountain said, “I have simply been in my hermitage making a seamless stupa.” The upper hermitage master said, “I also wish to make a seamless stupa. I have come to borrow your mold.” He replied, “Why did you not say so earlier? Someone else has already borrowed it.”

9. An old woman sent someone with money to invite an elder monk to open and expound the sutra treasury. The elder accepted her offering, stepped down from his meditation seat, walked around it once, and said, “Tell the old woman that the sutra treasury has been opened.” The messenger returned and repeated this to her. The old woman said, “I invited him to open the entire treasury. Why did he open only half of it?”

10. An elder monk sent someone to convey these words to Chan Master Si: “Why do you not descend the mountain to teach and transform sentient beings? What are you doing gazing up at the Milky Way?” Si said loudly, “The Buddhas of the three times have all been swallowed in a single mouthful by me. What sentient beings remain to be taught and transformed?”

11. Mountain Master Xiu of Longji asked Cuiyan, “The four Gandharva Kings performed exceedingly delightful music as an offering to the Blessed One. At that very moment, Mount Sumeru trembled, the great ocean surged with waves, Kāśyapa danced, the bodhisattvas attained patient acceptance of the unarisen, and the unmoving śrāvakas still clung to self. Leaving that aside—what was the essential meaning of Kāśyapa’s dancing?” Cuiyan replied, “Because Kāśyapa had been a musician in a past life, his habitual tendencies had not yet ended in this life.” The Mountain Master asked, “Then were the trembling of Mount Sumeru and the surging of the great ocean also habitual tendencies that had not yet ended?” Cuiyan was unable to answer.

12. A monk attended upon an elder throughout an entire summer retreat but received no instruction whatsoever. The monk lamented, “The whole summer has passed in vain without my hearing the Buddha-Dharma. It would be enough if I could hear even the two words ‘true cause.’” The elder then said, “Ācārya, do not be hasty. If we discuss the true cause, there is not even a single word.” Having spoken, he clicked his teeth three times and said, “Just now, I spoke like that for no reason.” A monk in the adjoining room heard this and said, “A whole pot of soup has been fouled by twelve lumps of rat dung.”

13. Dharma Master Sengzhao suffered persecution under the ruler of Qin. When he was about to be executed, he uttered this verse:

14. A monk asked an elder, “A lion uses its full strength to catch a rabbit and also uses its full strength to catch an elephant. I do not yet understand—what is this full strength?” The elder said, “Strength that does not deceive.”

15. Minister Li Ao saw an elder sitting alone and asked, “What are you doing, sitting upright in the chamber of images?” The elder said, “The Dharma-body is still and quiescent, neither coming nor going.”

16. A Daoist was sitting with his back against the Buddha hall. A monk said, “Daoist, do not turn your back toward the Buddha.” The Daoist said, “Does Your Reverence’s teaching not speak of the Middle Way? The Buddha’s body pervades the Dharma realm; in what direction could I sit?” The monk was unable to answer.

17. Chanyue wrote in a poem:

When Chan practitioners meet, they merely snap their fingers;
How many people can understand this mind?

Master Dasui used this line to ask Chanyue, “What is this mind?” Chanyue was unable to answer.

18. A monk at the Monastery of the Six Supernormal Powers in Taizhou wished to cross the river by boat. Someone asked, “Since these are the Six Supernormal Powers, why must you still rely on a boat?” He was unable to answer.

19. A dead fish was floating on the surface of the water. Someone asked a monk, “Do fish not depend upon water for their lives?” The monk replied, “They do.” The man asked, “Then why did it die in the water?” The monk was unable to answer.

20. A monk asked Master Qin of Yuntai, “What is the true word?” Qin said, “Namo Buddhāya.”

21. The ruler of Jiangnan asked an elder, “I have a water buffalo that travels a thousand li without trampling a single inch of grass. I do not yet know where to set it free.”

22. When Master Nanquan passed into transformation, Censor Lu Huan came to offer condolences. The monastery superintendent asked, “Why do you not weep for our late master?” The Censor said, “If you can say something, I, Huan, will weep.” The superintendent was unable to say anything.

23. Feng Yanji, a minister of Jiangnan, was touring Mount Zhong with several monks. When they reached the One-Person Spring, someone asked, “How can a one-person spring suffice for so many people?” A monk replied, “The teaching allows no deficiency.” Yanji did not accept this answer and said, “Who is deficient?”

24. A female benefactor entered a monastery and donated money according to the ages of the monks in the Sangha. A monk said, “A share must first be set aside for the Holy Monk.” The woman asked, “How old is the Holy Monk?” The monk was unable to answer.

25. Fadeng asked a newly arrived monk, “From where have you recently come?” He replied, “From Mount Lu.” The Master raised an incense box and asked, “Does Mount Lu have this?” The monk was unable to answer.

26. A monk asked Yangshan, “What is the meaning of ‘drawing the full-moon bow and biting firmly upon the arrowhead’?” Yangshan said, “Bite firmly upon the arrowhead.” The monk was about to open his mouth when Yangshan said, “Even if you opened your mouth for a donkey’s year, you still would not understand.” The monk was unable to answer.

27. A practitioner followed a Dharma master into the Buddha hall. The practitioner turned toward the Buddha and spat. The Dharma master said, “Practitioner, move elsewhere for a moment. Why do you spit before the Buddha?” The practitioner said, “Bring me a place where there is no Buddha, and I shall spit there.” The Dharma master was unable to answer.

28. Mountain Master Hanshan of Yantai came to inspect the grounds of Yuantong Monastery. The head seat asked, “Yuantong has no road. How did the Mountain Master manage to come here?”

29.

A monk entered the underworld and saw Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. Ksitigarbha asked him, “What practice did you cultivate during your lifetime?” The monk said, “I recited the Lotus Sutra.” The Bodhisattva said, “Stop, stop! There is no need to say more. My Dharma is wondrous and difficult to fathom; now, will you speak or not?” The monk could not answer.

30. Venerable Nhu of Quy Tong asked a monk, “What sutra are you reading?” The monk replied, “The Ratnakuta Sutra.” Nhu asked, “Since you are a sramana, why are you reading the Ratnakuta?” The monk could not answer.

31. Lord Liu Vu Doan, on the occasion of rain, asked Venerable Tien of Van Cu, “Where does the rain come from?” He replied, “It comes from the place of Your Lordship’s question.” Lord Doan rejoiced and praised him. Van Cu then asked Lord Doan, “Where have you come from?” He could not answer. A venerable elder answered in his stead, “What was just said?”

32. Long ago, three monks went wandering and intended to pay their respects to Venerable Kinh Son. They encountered an old woman harvesting rice.

One monk asked, “Which road leads to Kinh Son?” The old woman said, “Go straight ahead.” The monk asked, “The water ahead is deep; can it be crossed?” The old woman replied, “Your feet will not get wet.” The monk then asked, “Why is the rice above the bank flourishing, while the rice below it is weak?” The old woman replied, “All the rice below the bank has been pinched by crabs.” The monk said, “It is very fragrant.” She replied, “Do not lose your breath.” The monk then asked, “Where do you live?” She replied, “Right within there.” The three masters then entered her shop.

The old woman brewed a pot of tea, set three cups upon a tray, stood up, and said, “Whichever venerable has spiritual powers may drink the tea.” The three could not answer and did not dare pour the tea. The old woman said, “Watch this old woman display her spiritual powers!” Thereupon, she immediately picked up the cups, poured the tea, and offered it to them.

33. Venerable Phap Nhan said to a child, “Through the son, one knows the father. What is your father’s name?” The child could not answer.

Phap Nhan asked a monk, “If you are a filial son, you must be able to give a turning word. Now tell me: what words can be obtained by bringing together what follows below?” The monk could not answer.

34. A monk asked a lecturer on the Amitabha Sutra, “The waters, birds, trees, and forests all know how to be mindful of the Buddha, mindful of the Dharma, and mindful of the Sangha. How do you expound this?” The lecturer said, “Dharma Master Co said, ‘A true friend does not wait to be invited, just as a mother comes to her infant.’” The monk asked, “What is a true friend who does not wait to be invited?”

35. Vuong Dien Ban of Tuyen Chau entered Chieu Khanh Monastery and, seeing the abbot’s door closed, asked the attendant Dien, “Does anyone dare say that the Great Master is in there?” Dien said, “Does anyone dare say that the Great Master is not in there?”

36. A monk related: When the Buddha was teaching the Dharma, a woman came to inquire after him and then entered samadhi before the Buddha. At that time, Manjusri approached and snapped his fingers, but could not cause the woman to emerge from samadhi. The Buddha said, “Even a hundred thousand Manjusris could not cause this woman to emerge from samadhi. In the region below, only Bodhisattva Vong Minh can cause her to emerge from samadhi.” A moment later, Bodhisattva Vong Minh arrived, greeted the Buddha, then went before the woman and snapped his fingers once. The woman immediately arose from samadhi.

37. Master Chi Cong said, “Every day, you hold incense and kindle fire, unaware that the body itself is the bodhimanda.” Master Huyen Sa said, “Every day, you hold incense and kindle fire, unaware of the true bodhimanda.”

38. The monastery rector of Van Nham wandered to the stone chamber and then returned. Van Nham asked, “When you entered the stone chamber, did you merely look at that and then return?” The rector could not answer. Master Dong Son answered in his stead, “Someone had already occupied the place within.” Van Nham asked, “Then why did you go there?” Dong Son said, “One cannot cut off human feeling.”

39. After the assembly at Diem Quan, a monk serving as rector was about to die, and a ghostly messenger came to seize him. The monk said, “I have been serving as rector and have had no leisure to practice. Could you wait seven days?” The ghostly messenger replied, “I shall return and report to the king. If he permits it, I will come back in seven days; if not, I will return immediately.” Having said this, he departed, and only seven days later did he return in search of the monk. Later, someone related this story to a monk and asked, “When such a time comes, how could one devise another expedient?” — After the assembly at Dong Son, a venerable elder went to Van Nham and returned. Dong Son asked, “Why did you go to Van Nham?” He replied, “I do not understand.”

40. When Lam Te saw a monk approaching, he immediately raised his whisk. The monk bowed. The master struck him. Another monk came. The master raised his whisk. That monk did not look at it. The master struck him as well. Yet another monk came for an interview. The master raised his whisk. The monk said, “Thank you, Venerable, for your instruction.” The master struck him as well.

41. The King of Man escorted Venerable Huyen Sa aboard a boat. Huyen Sa tapped the boat and said, “Great King, how can you get out of that place?” The king said, “How long have you been within it?” — A monk asked a venerable elder, “Who is the person in the secret chamber?” The venerable elder replied, “Would it be any different if I did not answer?”

42. Venerable Phap Nhan asked a monk who lectured on the Treatise on the Hundred Dharmas, “In the Hundred Dharmas, essence and function are both displayed; in the clarifying gateways, subject and object are both presented. The lecturer is the subject, and the Dharma seat is the object. How can you speak of presenting both?”

43. A monk cited the teaching, saying, “Manjusri suddenly gave rise to views of Buddha and views of Dharma, and through the Buddha’s majestic spiritual power was confined between the two Iron-Ring Mountains.”

The rector of Dai Ninh Monastery in Hong Chau submitted a written request inviting the second seat to open the Dharma hall. Someone asked, “Why did you not invite the first seat?”

44. While Master Dong Son was traveling on foot, he met an official who said, “This disciple intends to write a commentary on the Third Patriarch’s ‘Inscription on Faith in Mind.’” Dong Son said, “As soon as right and wrong arise in confusion, the mind is lost. How could you write a commentary on it?”

45. On an occasion when Venerable Phap Nhan’s leg was hurting, a monk came to inquire after him. The master said, “It is not that when the person has not yet arrived, one cannot move; but by the time the person arrives, one cannot move.” He further asked, “If this is spoken of as the Buddha-Dharma, what words could those of middling and lesser faculties obtain?” The monk said, “Venerable, you are fortunate still to have a comparison.” The master did not approve.

46. Venerable Cuu Phong entered a city in Giang Tay. Someone asked, “When you enter to teach and transform others, what do you take as your eyes?” Cuu Phong said, “The sun and moon have never been in disorder.”

47. A monk asked Master Long Nha, “How can ceaseless rushing about be stopped at once?” Long Nha said, “Only when, like a filial child, you have lost your parents.”

A monk asked Long Nha, “Throughout the twelve hours of the day, how should one exert oneself?” Long Nha said, “Only as a person without hands who wishes to make a fist.”

48. Master Co Son said, “You must understand this matter as you would the edge of a sword.” A monk asked, “This student is a dead corpse; what is the sword?” Co Son said, “Drag that corpse out.” The monk voiced his assent, immediately returned to the Sangha hall, made his preparations, and departed. That evening, upon hearing that he had left, Co Son said, “Excellent was that staff!”

49. A hermitage master, seeing a monk approach, immediately held up a fire-blowing tube and asked, “Do you understand?” The monk replied, “I do not understand.” The hermitage master said, “For thirty years, I have used it without exhausting it.” The monk immediately asked, “Before those thirty years, what did you use?”

50. Venerable Chieu Khanh held up a bowl bag and asked, “Tell me directly: how many coins is it worth?” — Venerable Van Mon put his hand into the mouth of a wooden lion and said, “Even if you bite me to death, we will still rescue one another.”

51. A lecturer was reciting the name of Amitabha. His young novice loudly called, “Venerable!” When the master turned his head, the novice said nothing. This happened four times. The venerable then shouted, “You have called me three or four times—what is the matter?” The novice said, “You have called him for so many years, yet when I call you only a few times, you immediately give rise to karma.”

52. Pursued by a hawk, a dove flew straight ahead in terror and alighted trembling upon the railing of the Buddha hall. Someone asked a monk, “All sentient beings within the Buddha’s shadow always obtain peace and happiness. Why, after seeing the Buddha, did the dove still tremble in fear?”

53. Chan Master Ngo Khong asked Lecturer Trung, “What sutra do you expound?” He replied, “I expound the Lotus Sutra.” Ngo Khong said, “If there is any place where the sutra says”

When I expound the Lotus Dharma, the Jeweled Stupa will appear to bear witness. When the Venerable One expounds it, who will bear witness?
54. A monk asked an old adept: “The spirit and soul return, coming and going, to eat mulberries from my home garden. What are the mulberries from my home garden?”
55. An official asked a monk: “What is your name?” He replied: “My name is Avici.” The official asked: “If I were suddenly to bring you a bowl of sand, what would you do, Venerable?” He replied: “Thank you, official, for your offering.”
56. In Guangnan there was a monk living in a hermitage. The ruler of the realm went hunting. Someone informed the hermitage master: “The king has arrived; please rise.” He replied: “Not only would I not rise for the king; even if the Buddha came, I would not rise.” The king asked: “Is not the Buddha your teacher?” He replied: “He is.” The king asked: “When you see your teacher, why do you not rise?”
57. A monk took leave of Master Zhaozhou. Zhaozhou said: “Do not remain where there is a Buddha. Where there is no Buddha, hasten past. Even three thousand miles away, when you meet someone, do not bring it up.”
58. Before the Sizhou Stupa, a monk was making prostrations. Someone asked: “Venerable, you make prostrations every day; have you seen the Great Sage?”
59. A monk asked Master Yuantong: “As soon as a single mote of dust arises, the great earth is gathered within it. Do you see the meditation seat?” Yuantong asked: “What do you call dust?” He also asked Master Fadeng: “What is called the meditation seat?”
60. Master Xuanejue heard a cuckoo calling and asked a monk: “What sound is that?” He replied: “The call of a cuckoo.” The Master said: “If you wish to avoid inviting the karma of Avici, do not disparage the Tathagata’s wheel of the true Dharma.”
61. A monk from Baofu came to Master Dizang. Master Dizang asked: “What is the Buddhadharma like there?” He replied: “My master Baofu sometimes instructs the assembly, saying: ‘I fill your eyes completely and make you look, yet you cannot see; I fill your ears completely and make you listen intently, yet you cannot hear; I fill your mind completely and make you discern, yet you cannot distinguish anything.’” Dizang said: “I ask you: If your eyes were not completely filled, what would you see? If your ears were not completely filled, what would you hear? If your mind were not completely filled, what would you discern?”
62. On Hongtang Bridge in Fuzhou, many monks were seated in rows. An official asked: “Is there still a Buddha among them?”
63. Someone asked a monk: “Why does one who is unconditioned and without affairs still suffer the calamity of golden shackles and a golden lock?”
64. An old adept asked a monk: “Where have you come from?” He replied: “I have come from Mount Niutou, where I paid homage to the Patriarch.” The old adept asked: “Did you actually see the Patriarch?”
65. After a monk and a young boy had finished reciting a sutra, the monk told the boy to put the sutra into its case. The boy asked: “Where should I put the sutra I recited—the thought in my mind?”
66. A monk wrote a commentary on the Dao De Jing. Someone asked: “I have long heard of the Venerable One’s commentary on the Dao De Jing.” He replied: “I dare not claim such a thing.” The person asked: “What is the Illustrious Sovereign?”
67. Master Yunmen asked a monk: “Where have you come from?” He replied: “I have come from Jiangxi.” Yunmen asked: “Has the old adept Yisui in Jiangxi stopped talking in his sleep yet?” The monk could not answer.
Later, a monk asked Master Fayan: “I do not understand Yunmen’s meaning.” Fayan said: “The mighty Yunmen was exposed by that monk.”
68. While a well was being dug, sand blocked the eye of the spring. Master Fayan asked a monk: “The eye of the spring cannot flow because it is blocked by sand. What, then, obstructs the Eye of the Way so that it cannot penetrate?” The monk could not answer. (The Master answered on his behalf: “It is obstructed by the eye.”)