According to the Gospels, Jesus never had a formal
education, but his words amazed pharasees, his teachings
triumphed in history. Of course, if you are a Christian,
there is nothing to be surprised, because Jesus was and is
the son of God, wisdom bestowed upon him.
Huineng (638-713 AD), the Sixth Patriarch of Chinese
Zen, came in the same way.
Huineng came from the low class of the society, iliterate
and poor. His father died while he was young, so he made
living by selling firewoods. One day while deliverying
firewoods, he overheard a nun reciting Diamond Sutra aloud,
so he stood by the window to listen, and understood right away.
The nun was amazed and told her relatives that this boy was
a saint, and her relatives sponsored Huineng to go to the
Fifth Patriarch Hongren's monastery to learn more and hopefully
making Huineng a great monk.
The monks at the monastery saw Huineng poor and ugly (
I guess because he came from the lower class), assigned him
to perform labor tasks, chopping woods and cooking meals.
For 9 months, Huineng never met Patriarch Hongren.
One day Patriarch Hongren told his deciples that he
intended to pass on the patriarchship to the next generation.
He asked his deciples to each write a poem to express their idea
about Zen, whoever had the best poem, he would pass on
the patriarchship to him.
Leading deciple Senhui, respected by everyone, with
humble heart, did not dare to present his poem to Patriarch
Hongren directly, so he wrote his poem on the wall without
signing his name:
My body is like the wisdom tree,
my mind is like the mirror stand,
I constantly polish,
allow no fallen dust on it.
Everyone was facinated at the beauty of this poem,
and knew this must come from Senhui, our next patriarch.
One monk, after saw Senhui's poem, reciting it loudly while
passing by the kitchen, and overheard by Huineng.
Huineng asked what's about, he explained the situation
and said how wonderful this poem was. Huineng told him
this poem did not get to the heart of Zen. Nearby monks
laughed at Huineng and called him a twit. Huineng said:
Don't look down upon the beginner, sometimes the
beginner knows what's the best.
So Huineng asked to see the poem on the wall, the monks
led him to there, after reading Senhui's poem, Huineng said
he had one, too, and asked someone to write it on the
wall, since Huineng was iliterate. Here was Huineng's poem:
Wisdom has no tree,
mind is not a mirror stand,
nothing is there,
where can the dust fall?
Everyone shout with amazement after reading Huineng's
poem. Soon Patriarch Hongren heard about it and came in
person to see Huineng's poem.
Not long after, Hongren passed on the patriarchship to Huineng,
with the objection of everybody, to become the Sixth
Patriarch of Chinese Zen.
Remember, Huineng was poor, iliterate and no-good looking.
I'll talk more about Huineng's stories in future.
PS, if you can read Chinese, you are welcome to visit my
chinese blog site:
http://hi.baidu.com/vincentyo/blog
education, but his words amazed pharasees, his teachings
triumphed in history. Of course, if you are a Christian,
there is nothing to be surprised, because Jesus was and is
the son of God, wisdom bestowed upon him.
Huineng (638-713 AD), the Sixth Patriarch of Chinese
Zen, came in the same way.
Huineng came from the low class of the society, iliterate
and poor. His father died while he was young, so he made
living by selling firewoods. One day while deliverying
firewoods, he overheard a nun reciting Diamond Sutra aloud,
so he stood by the window to listen, and understood right away.
The nun was amazed and told her relatives that this boy was
a saint, and her relatives sponsored Huineng to go to the
Fifth Patriarch Hongren's monastery to learn more and hopefully
making Huineng a great monk.
The monks at the monastery saw Huineng poor and ugly (
I guess because he came from the lower class), assigned him
to perform labor tasks, chopping woods and cooking meals.
For 9 months, Huineng never met Patriarch Hongren.
One day Patriarch Hongren told his deciples that he
intended to pass on the patriarchship to the next generation.
He asked his deciples to each write a poem to express their idea
about Zen, whoever had the best poem, he would pass on
the patriarchship to him.
Leading deciple Senhui, respected by everyone, with
humble heart, did not dare to present his poem to Patriarch
Hongren directly, so he wrote his poem on the wall without
signing his name:
My body is like the wisdom tree,
my mind is like the mirror stand,
I constantly polish,
allow no fallen dust on it.
Everyone was facinated at the beauty of this poem,
and knew this must come from Senhui, our next patriarch.
One monk, after saw Senhui's poem, reciting it loudly while
passing by the kitchen, and overheard by Huineng.
Huineng asked what's about, he explained the situation
and said how wonderful this poem was. Huineng told him
this poem did not get to the heart of Zen. Nearby monks
laughed at Huineng and called him a twit. Huineng said:
Don't look down upon the beginner, sometimes the
beginner knows what's the best.
So Huineng asked to see the poem on the wall, the monks
led him to there, after reading Senhui's poem, Huineng said
he had one, too, and asked someone to write it on the
wall, since Huineng was iliterate. Here was Huineng's poem:
Wisdom has no tree,
mind is not a mirror stand,
nothing is there,
where can the dust fall?
Everyone shout with amazement after reading Huineng's
poem. Soon Patriarch Hongren heard about it and came in
person to see Huineng's poem.
Not long after, Hongren passed on the patriarchship to Huineng,
with the objection of everybody, to become the Sixth
Patriarch of Chinese Zen.
Remember, Huineng was poor, iliterate and no-good looking.
I'll talk more about Huineng's stories in future.
PS, if you can read Chinese, you are welcome to visit my
chinese blog site:
http://hi.baidu.com/vincentyo/blog
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