The Way of Zen - Alan Watts [47]
The Fifth Patriarch–and here we begin to enter a more reliable chapter of history-was Hung–jan (601–675). At his first meeting with Hung-jan the Patriarch asked:
“What is your name [hsing]?”
“I have a nature [hsing],” replied Hung-jan punning, “but it’s no usual nature.”
“What is this name?” inquired the Patriarch, missing the pun.
“It’s Buddha nature.”
“You have no name, then?”
“That’s because it’s an empty nature.”20
Hung-jan was apparently the first of the Patriarchs to have any large following, for it is said that he presided over a group of some five hundred monks in a monastery on the Yellow Plum Mountain (Wang-mei Shan) at the eastern end of modern Hupeh. He is, however, much overshadowed by his immediate successor, Hui-neng (637–713), whose life and teaching mark the definitive beginning of a truly Chinese Zen–of Zen as it flourished during what was later called “the epoch of Zen activity,” the latter two hundred years of the T’ang dynasty, from about 700 to 906.
One must not overlook Hui-neng’s contemporaries, for he lived at a time which was most creative for Chinese Buddhism as a whole. The great translator and traveler Hsüan-tsang had returned from India in 645, and was expounding the vijnaptimatra (“representation-only”) doctrines of the Yogacara in Ch’ang-an. His former student Fa-tsang (643–712) was developing the important school of the Hua-yen (Japanese, Kegon) based on the Avatamsaka Sutra, and which later provided Zen with a formal philosophy. Nor must we forget that not so long before these two men, Chih-k’ai (538–597) had written his remarkable treatise on the Mahayana Method of Cessation and Contemplation,21 containing the fundamental teaching of the T’ien-t’ai School, which is in many ways close to Zen. Much of Chih-k’ai’s treatise foreshadows in both content and terminology the doctrines of Hui-neng and some of his immediate successors.
Hui-neng is said to have had his first awakening when, almost as a boy, he happened to overhear someone reading the Vajracchedika. He set out almost at once for Hung-jan’s monastery at Wang-mei to have his understanding confirmed and to receive further instruction. We should note (for future reference) that his original satori occurred spontaneously, without the benefit of a master, and that his biography represents him as an illiterate peasant from the neighborhood of Canton. Apparently Hung-jan immediately recognized the depth of his insight, but fearing that his humble origins might make him unacceptable in a community of scholarly monks, the Patriarch put him to work in the kitchen compound.
Some time later, the Patriarch announced that he was looking for a successor to whom he might transmit his office, together with the robe and begging bowl (said to have been handed down from the Buddha) which were its insignia. This honor was to be conferred upon the person who submitted the best poem, expressing his understanding of Buddhism. The chief monk of the community was then a certain Shen-hsiu, and all the others naturally assumed that the office would go to him and so made no attempt to compete.
Shen-hsiu, however, was in doubt as to his own understanding, and decided to submit his poem anonymously, claiming authorship only if the Patriarch approved of it. During the night, then, he posted the following lines in the corridor near the Patriarch’s quarters:
The body is the Bodhi Tree;
The mind like a bright mirror standing.
Take care to wipe it all the time,
And allow no dust to cling.l
The following morning, the Patriarch read the poem and ordered incense to be burned before it, saying that all who put it into practice would be enabled to realize their true nature. But when Shen-hsiu came to him in private and claimed authorship, the Patriarch declared that his understanding was still far from perfect.
On the following day, another poem appeared beside