I It was with a little alarm and a good deal of pleasurable excitement that I looked forward to my first grown-up visit to Mervyn Grange. I had been there several times as a child, but never since I was twelve years old, and now I was o... Read more of The Closed Cabinet at Mystery Stories.caInformational Site Network Informational.ca
Privacy
   Home - Samurai - Code of Honor - Courage

Samurai

Our Conception Of Buddha Is Not Final
Has, then, the divine nature of Universal Spirit been complet...

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

Life And Change
Transformation and change are the essential features of life;...

Enlightened Consciousness
In addition to these considerations, which mainly depend on i...

The Fifth And The Sixth Patriarchs
Tao Sin transmitted the Law to Hung Jan (Ko-nin), who being e...

The Parable Of A Drunkard
Now the question arises, If all human beings are endowed with...

Nature And Her Lesson
Nature offers us nectar and ambrosia every day, and everywher...

Man Is Neither Good-natured Nor Bad-natured According To Su Shih
The difficulty may be avoided by a theory given by Su Shih ...

Enlightened Consciousness Is Not An Intellectual Insight
Enlightened Consciousness is not a bare intellectual insight,...

The Betterment Of Life
Again, people nowadays seem to feel keenly the wound of the ...

The Buddha Of Mercy
Milton says: Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt; Surp...

The Ancient Buddhist Pantheon
The ancient Buddhist pantheon was full of deities or Buddhas,...

Change As Seen By Zen
Zen, like Hinayanism, does not deny the doctrine of Transienc...

Zen Under The Toku-gana Shogunate
Peace was at last restored by Iye-yasu, the founder of the To...

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

Life In The Concrete
Life in the concrete, which we are living, greatly differs fr...

Nature Is The Mother Of All Things
Furthermore, man has come into existence out of Nature. He i...

Buddha The Universal Life
Zen conceives Buddha as a Being, who moves, stirs, inspires, ...

The Beatitude Of Zen
We are far from denying, as already shown in the foregoing ch...

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




The Second And The Third Patriarchs








After the death of the First Patriarch, in A.D. 528, Hwui Ko did his
best to propagate the new faith over sixty years. On one occasion a
man suffering from some chronic disease called on him, and requested
him in earnest: Pray, Reverend Sir, be my confessor and grant me
absolution, for I suffer long from an incurable disease. Bring out
your sin (if there be such a thing as sin), replied the Second
Patriarch, here before me. I shall grant you absolution. It is
impossible, said the man after a short consideration, to seek out
my sin. Then, exclaimed the master, I have absolved you.
Henceforth live up to Buddha, Dharma, and Samgha.[FN#37] I know,
your reverence, said the man, that you belong to Samgha; but what
are Buddha and Dharma? Buddha is Mind itself. Mind itself is
Dharma. Buddha is identical with Dharma. So is Samgha. Then I
understand, replied the man, there is no such thing as sin within
my body nor without it, nor anywhere else. Mind is beyond and above
sin. It is no other than Buddha and Dharma. Thereupon the Second
Patriarch saw the man was well qualified to be taught in the new
faith, and converted him, giving him the name of Sang Tsung (So-san).
After two years' instruction and discipline, he[FN#38] bestowed on
Sang Tsung the Kachaya handed down from Bodhidharma, and authorized
him as the Third Patriarch. It is by Sang Tsung that the doctrine of
Zen was first reduced to writing by his composition of Sin Sin[FN#39]
Ming (Sin zin-mei, On Faith and Mind), a metrical exposition of the
faith.


[FN#37] The so-called Three Treasures of the Buddha, the Law, and
the Order.

[FN#38] The Second Patriarch died in A.D. 593--that is, sixty-five
years after the departure of the First Patriarch.

[FN#39] A good many commentaries were written on the book, and it is
considered as one of the best books on Zen.






Next: The Fourth Patriarch And The Emperor Tai Tsung (tai-so)
Previous: Bodhidharma's Disciples And The Transmission Of The Law[fn#31]


Add to del.icio.us Add to Reddit Add to Digg Add to Del.icio.us Add to Google Add to Furl Add to Stumble Upon
Add to Informational Site Network
Report
Privacy
SHAREBOOKMARK


Viewed 491