In Shenxiu's dormitory, Xiao Shami was reciting Huineng's verse to Shenxiu: "Bodhi has no tree, the mirror is not a platform, there is nothing originally, where to stir up dust." A flash of lightning pierced the dark and dreary sky, and a light that shone through the universe flashed in the depths of Shenxiu's heart, and he couldn't help but shout: "Good! Thunder slammed into the ground, and the sound of rumbling was endless.

Shenxiu raised his eyes out the window. Outside the window, thunder and lightning are blowing, wind and rain......

The next day, dawn had just dawned.

The monks who were doing the errands were already busy.

The five ancestors carried the Zen staff and walked around the Dongchan Temple as usual.

When the fifth ancestor quietly came to the rice room in the north courtyard alone, he saw that Huineng was tied to the waist stone around his waist, and his body was up and down, and he was stepping on the stone pestle vigorously, licking the rice, and the beads of sweat on his cheeks at this time were as big as soybeans, and his clothes were soaked with sweat.

Other monks were also busy, some scooping rice, some shaking sifting.

The monks greeted the five ancestors, and the five ancestors nodded and returned the salute, and came straight to Huineng, asking, "Huineng, is Mi Chung okay?"

In the past, the Five Ancestors came to inspect, followed by a group of big disciples, but now, he came alone, and Huineng had a premonition that something would happen. Now when he heard the Fifth Patriarch ask him like this, he had realized something, and replied without thinking: "The rice is good, but it is still lacking in the sieve (division)." ”

"Sieve (division) is here, but it can also be sifted." After the fifth ancestor finished saying this, he saw that Huineng nodded slightly, that is, he gently knocked three times on the head of the stone pestle with his Zen staff, said no more, and left quickly with the Zen staff.

The heart is clear.

The brilliant Hui Neng immediately understood: the fifth ancestor asked himself to meet him for the third time.

The heat wave immediately surged in Huineng's heart. But he bit his lip with his teeth, not letting his excitement leak out.

Shenqing walked over and asked Hui Neng, "What do you mean by what Master said?"

"Didn't say anything." Huineng replied casually, pretending to be nothing, and still worked with other monks to cook rice and sift rice in the rice room, so that everyone sweated profusely, and everyone finished work together in the evening......

At night, huge black wings spread out to cover Tozenji Temple.

The moon, stretching out half of its face in the night sky, peeps at everything that happens in the world. A few sparse stars, flashing a faint cold light in the confused Milky Way.

Throughout the day, Huineng did the same thing as usual, no matter how big or small, and after taking a bath, he put down the mosquito net, lay on the bed, and waited for the time to pass silently in the night.

On the monk's bed on the other side, Shen Qing, who had been tired all day, was sleeping soundly, and his snoring was sometimes weak and sometimes strong.

Outside the window, the sound of crickets under the stone steps and the shallow chanting of insects in the distance are mixed together, forming a beautiful and beautiful mountain nocturne.

Hui Neng was in bed, watching the moon move west from time to time, thinking that time was too slow.

"De, de, de" The night patrol monk sounded the three watches.

"Ah, the hour has finally come!" Huineng felt hot in his heart, immediately lifted the quilt, got up from the bed, put on monk shoes, gently opened the door, and walked out.

In the long corridor, silver-gray moonlight shines through the mullioned windows, casting dappled light and shadows on the ground.

Huineng tiptoed across the corridor and turned the semicircular arch.

"There are two figures in front of you! Ah, it's worth a monk. Hui Neng dodged and hid in the chrysanthemum bushes.

The two monks on duty walked over with lanterns and bangs.

"Amu, I seem to have seen a figure shaking just now." The tall watchman whispered to his companion.

The value monk who was called Amu was waving his hand: "No." At this time, everyone is asleep, how can there be any figure? You're dazzled. ”

The tall monk: "Let's go and check." I'm most afraid of any mistakes, you and I can't take responsibility. ”

Amu, the duty monk, looked helpless: "Since you called to investigate, brother, let's check." ”

Thereupon. The two duty monks carried lanterns to inspect the vicinity of the chrysanthemum bushes.

Hui Neng, who was hiding in the chrysanthemum bushes, didn't dare to move, holding his breath tightly, for fear that they would hear the sound of breathing.

The two monks searched at random, but found nothing.

Standing only three feet away from Huineng's hideout, Amu complained about the tall monk: "Brother, I have just said, how can there be a figure at this time, you must have stepped on the taro as a snake." If you think about it, the people who live in the north courtyard are the hardest and poorest people in the whole temple, and thieves will not patronize these poor places. ”

The high-value monk was said by the other party's face was hot: "Even if I was dazzled and mistaken just now, okay?" Do you want me to apologize to you?"

The two watchmen left the chrysanthemum bush with lanterns and walked towards the hall, and soon the two figures disappeared into the darkness over there.

Hearing the silence all around, Hui Neng flashed out of the chrysanthemum bushes, and walked through the south corridor with light and fast steps, and came to the abbot's room of the five ancestors. He doesn't go in through the front door, but walks to the back door.

The crimson door at the back door of the abbot's room was closed.

Huineng walked to the door, flexed his index finger, and was about to knock on it, but suddenly thought of something, and the outstretched hand stopped abruptly, and turned to the door with his hand, and gently pushed.

It turned out that the back door of the abbot's room was just a false cover and was not chained, Huineng gently pushed the door open, turned around and closed the door.

Two soybean oil lamps on the wall are "creaking, creaking" and ignishing.

Under the swaying and dancing light, Hui Neng saw that the five ancestors were sitting upright, lowered his eyes, and hurriedly gave a salute to the five ancestors.

The five ancestors' eyelids lifted slightly, and they saw Huineng's move. I already understood a little in my heart, but I deliberately sank my face: "You are a lay disciple, do you understand the strict rules of the temple, this south corridor is not where you came. Besides, you dare to trespass into my abbot's room late at night?"

Huineng: "Master asked me to come." ”

The Fifth Ancestor pretended not to understand: "When will I ask you out?"

Huineng replied in a small but firm voice: "During the day, Master, you go to the rice room. I knocked three times on the stone with a Zen stick, and I came to the third watch. ”

Fifth Ancestor Shou raised his eyebrows slightly, and then asked: "Even if I asked you out, why didn't you go through the front door, but enter from behind?"

Huineng explained: "Your Zen staff is not knocked in front of the stone, but in the back. ”

"You really understood what I meant, and you came as promised." Only then did the Fifth Ancestor raise his eyebrows and smile. It is true that the world's Buddhist temples are like forests, and the monks in the world are like the sea, but what is the real visionary?

Huineng respectfully asked, "Which direction should I sit?"

"Sit here." The Fifth Ancestor made a gesture to signal Hui Neng to sit on another futon in front of him.

Huineng respectfully sat down on the futon, facing the five ancestors, and he asked knowingly: "What advice does the master have for the third watch of the disciples?"

The Five Patriarchs got straight to the point: "Let me ask you, what is your opinion on the 'precepts', 'wisdom', and 'concentration' in the six paramitas?"

Huineng replied: "The mind is nothing more than the 'precept' of self-nature, the mind is free of foolishness and self-nature 'wisdom', and the mind is free of chaos and self-nature 'determination'. ”

Fifth Ancestor: "If one day, you are in charge of Dongchan Temple, what will you do?"

Huineng said humbly: "The apprentice is illiterate, and he is even more virtuous and talentless, how can he be in charge of Dongchan Temple?"

The Fifth Ancestor was clear and stared at Hui Neng: "I am an assumption, what you think in your heart, you can answer it, there is no need to hide it." ”

Only then did Hui Neng express his chest directly: "With the emptiness, that is, the heart is sex, and the head shows the Buddha." Everything is through Zen, pointing directly to the hearts of the people, or the day is straight to the source of the heart, and the epiphany becomes a Buddha. ”

The Fifth Patriarch pointed out: "This is the method of Dunzen meditation. ”

Huineng: "Zen is a natural life and a human spirit. It is a kind of practice method that directly enters into the human thing itself and transcends the self of the object. In order to grasp the truth and totality of life and life, in a word, it is a kind of spiritual realm of enlightenment. ”