"In the latter part of the autumn of 1878, between half-past three and four in the morning, I was leisurely walking home from the house of a sick friend. A middle-aged woman, apparently a nurse, was slowly following, going in the same directio... Read more of In Tavistock Place {93} at Scary Stories.ca

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Samurai

The Sermon Of The Inanimate
The Scripture of Zen is written with facts simple and familia...

Real Self
If there be no individual soul either in mind or body, where ...

The Courage And The Composure Of Mind Of The Zen Monk And Of The Samurai
Fourthly, our Samurai encountered death, as is well known, wi...

The Awakening Of The Innermost Wisdom
Having set ourselves free from the misconception of Self, nex...

The Third Step In The Mental Training
To be the lord of mind is more essential to Enlightenment, wh...

Buddha-nature Is The Common Source Of Morals
Furthermore, Buddha-nature or real self, being the seat of lo...

Zazen And The Forgetting Of Self
Zazen is a most effectual means of destroying selfishness, th...

The Parable Of The Monk And The Stupid Woman
The confused or unenlightened may be compared with a monk and...

Everything Is Living According To Zen
Everything alive has a strong innate tendency to preserve its...

Man Is Both Good-natured And Bad-natured According To Yan Hiung
According to Yang Hiung and his followers, good is no less re...

The Next Step In The Mental Training
In the next place we have to strive to be the master of our b...

Three Important Elements Of Zen
To understand how Zen developed during some four hundred year...

The Method Of Instruction Adopted By Zen Masters
Thus far we have described the doctrine of Zen inculcated by ...

Zen Is Not Nihilistic
Zen judged from ancient Zen masters' aphorisms may seem, at t...

Life And Change
A peculiar phase of life is change which appears in the form ...

Buddha Dwelling In The Individual Mind
Enlightened Consciousness in the individual mind acquires for...

Enlightenment Is Beyond Description And Analysis
In the foregoing chapters we have had several occasions to re...

Sutras Used By Zen Masters
Ten Dai failed to explain away the discrepancies and contradi...

The Errors Of Philosophical Pessimists And Religious Optimists
Philosophical pessimists[FN#214] maintain that there are on e...

Universal Life Is Universal Spirit
These considerations naturally lead us to see that Universal ...

The Fifth And The Sixth Patriarchs

Tao Sin transmitted the Law to Hung Jan (Ko-nin), who being educated
from infancy, distinguished himself as the Abbot of the Hwang Mei
Monastery at Ki Cheu. The Fifth Patriarch, according to his
biographer, gathered about him seven hundred pupils, who came from
all quarters. Of these seven hundred pupils the venerable Shang Sin
(Jin-shu) was most noted for his learning and virtues, and he might
have become the legitimate successor of Hung Jan, had not the Kachaya
of Bodhidharma been carried away by a poor farmer's son of Sin Cheu.
Hwui Nang, the Sixth Patriarch, seems to have been born a Zen
teacher. The spiritual light of Buddha first flashed in his mind
when he happened to hear a monk reciting a sutra. On questioning the
monk, be learned that the book was
Vajracchedika-prajnya-paramita-sutra,[FN#42] and that Hung Jan, the
Abbot of the Hwang Mei Monastery, was used to make his disciples
recite the book that it might help them in their spiritual
discipline. Hereupon he made up his mind to practise Zen, and called
on Hung Jan at the Monastery. Who are you, demanded the Fifth
Patriarch, and whence have you come? I am a son of the farmer,
replied the man, of Sin Cheu in the South of Ta Yu Ling. What has
brought you here? asked the master again. I have no other purpose
than to attain to Buddhahood, answered the man. O, you, people of
the South, exclaimed the patriarch, you are not endowed with the
nature of Buddha. There may be some difference between the
Southern and the Northern people, objected the man, but how could
you distinguish one from the other as to the nature of Buddha? The
teacher recognized a genius in the man, but he did not admit the
promising newcomer into the order, so Hwui Nang had to stay in the
Monastery for eight months as a pounder of rice in order to qualify
himself to be a Zen teacher.

[FN#42] The book was translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva in A.D.
384. 417; also by Bodhiruci in A.D. 509, and by Paramartha in A.D.
592; then by Hiuen Tsang in A.D. 648. Many commentaries have been
written on it by the prominent Buddhist authors of China and Japan.

Next: The Spiritual Attainment Of The Sixth Patriarch
Previous: The Fourth Patriarch And The Emperor Tai Tsung (tai-so)

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