3.4 (b): From Seng-Ts’an to Hung-Jen

[Full title: 3.4: The Six Chinese Patriarchs (b): From Seng-Ts’an to Hung-Jen]

As above mentioned, Seng-ts’an received the Dharma of Buddha-heart when he was a Upasaka. There was no biography of Seng-ts’an in the Memoirs of the Eminent Priests and also it was not recorded that Tao-hsin received the Lamp of Dharma from Seng-ts’ang. It has been mentioned that after Master Hui-k’o‘s death, came Seng-ts’an (607 A.D.). This much is mentioned in the biography of Fa-chung. According to the Records of Transmission of the Lamp (of the Dharma) after Seng-ts’an received the Lamp of Dharma from Hui-k’o, he dwelt in seclusion at Wan Kun hills.

When the anti-Buddhist movement was carried on in the state of Northern Chou, Sengts’an went to Ssu K’un Mountain at Tai-hu district and he kept away from society. In the 12th year of Kai-hwang period of the Emperor Wen Ti’s reign of the Sui dynasty (593 A.D.), there was a swami named Tao-hsin (14 years old) who came to Seng-ts’an and asked: “I wish to have the method of liberation.” Seng-ts’an said: “Who binds you?” Taohsin answered: “There was none.” Thereupon Sengts’an reminded him of a fault and said: “Why you want to seek liberation?” Tao-hsin therefore at once attained spiritual enlightenment and was given the Lamp of Dharma by Seng-ts’an and became the 4th patriarch of the Dhyāna School.^[1] Seng-ts’an went to Lo-fu mountain where he was dwelling in seclusion for some years and came back to Wan Kun hills. He preached the Buddha’s dharma to all people at an assembly where he died under a tree in a standing posture in the year 607 A.D.

Seng ts’an had written an Epitaph on Believing in Mind. It is very important literature in the Dhyāna School.

The beginnings of the above said Epitaph states:

The Perfect Tao knows no difficulties;
Except that it refuses to make preferences;
Only when, freed froth hate and love,
It reveals itself fully and without disguise;
A tenth of an inch’s difference,
And heaven and earth are set apart;
If you wish to see it before your own eyes;
Have no fixed thoughts either for or against it....

In the end this Epitaph states:

Where Mind and each believing mind arc not separated,
And unseparated are each believing mind and mind,
This is where words and sentences fail;
For is not of the past, present, and future.

This shows the Dhyāna idea of enlightening the mind very clearly.

In between Seng-ts’an and Hung-jen (605-675 A.D.), there was Tao-hsin (580-651 A.D.) whose family name was Ssu-ma belonged to Honei. After some time his family shifted to Kuang-chi of Hupeh province. He was keenly interested in the methods of attaining enlightenment and took on the monastic obligations of the Buddhist order at a young age. In the 13th year of Ta Yet period of the Emperor Yang Ti‘s reign of the Sui dynasty (618 A.D.), Tao-hsin brought his pupils to Chi-chow where a large group of bandits besieged the city for seven days. The people who lived in that city were terrified. Tao-hsi asked them to recite Prajñāparāmita Sūtra. It is learnt, that all the bandits saw many divine soldiers staying inside the city and they themselves fled away. Later on Tao-hsin shifted to P’o Tou hills of Chi-ch’ung district of Hupei province.

One day, Tao-hsin was going to Hwang-mei from Chi-ch’ung and met a child on the road side.

Tao-hsin asked: “What is your Hsin (family name)?” Child answered: “I have my Hsin (essence of mind), but have no ordinary Hsin (family name).”

Tao-hsin said: “What is that Hsin?”

Child: “Buddha’s Hsin (Buddha-nature).”

Tao-hsin: “You have no essence of mind?”

Child: “Because the Hsin (Nature of all things) is immaterial.” ^[2]

Tao-hsin knew that the child had the capacity for receiving the Buddha-dharma and therefore sent out an attendant to request the child’s parents to allow him to take the Buddhist order. The parents agreed and Tao-hsin brought the child and gave him a Buddhist name called Hung-jen and the Lamp of Dharma. Hung-jen became the 5th patriarch of the Dhyāna School.

Tao-hsin died in the 2nd year of Yung-hui period of the emperor Kao-tsung‘s reign of the T’ang dynasty (651 A.D.) at the age of 72.

The legal heir of Tao-hsin was Hung-jen, the 5th Patriarch of the Dhyāna School (died in 675 A.D.). After Hung-jen the sect was divided into two schools, Southern and Northern.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ibid., p. 26.

[2]:

See Chou Hsiang-Kuang. 1960, p. 28.