Huineng returned to Baoling Temple with Fang Dialect, and there was already a wandering monk named Zhichang waiting for him in the guest hall.

It turned out that this monk named Zhichang was a native of Guixi, Shinshu. He became a monk at a young age and was determined to become a saint with a clear mind. However, despite his courageous efforts, day and night, and his practice, a whole decade has passed, and his heart is still dark. Enlightenment and enlightenment, that's just a dream. As he grew older, his troubles increased day by day, and he was restless every day, eager to take out his ignorant heart and wash it in the clear mountain stream. The heart naturally can't be taken out and cleaned, so let's experience the flesh. He traveled with a staff and a bowl.

The lonely clouds of the stone reflect the wisdom of the sun, and the clear spring and the crescent moon shine on the Zen heart; The natural view of the mountains is free, and the sound of the stream is free and round. The magnificent mountains and rivers, the ethereal breeze and the bright moon inspired him to understand the pride of the universe and the road of life. He heard that the monk Datong of Baifeng Mountain in Hongzhou was very clever in Zen law, so he made a special trip to pay homage. However, he came with great hope, but the monk Datong was cold, and for more than three months, he did not teach him a single Zen method, but only asked him to follow the public to meditate and recite Buddha. If Zhi Chang is to repeat these daily lessons, will he still use his staff to travel and find a teacher?

So, on a dark night when he couldn't see his five fingers, he didn't care about the three seven twenty-one, he directly broke into the abbot and asked the monk Datong: "I have been here for more than three months, and I have not been taught a single law. What does the master mean? ”

"If you have any doubts, ask questions, and undoubtedly self-study. The mountain monk hangs the silk, and the wisher takes the bait. "The monk of Datong wants to capture the old way.

Zhichang asked impatiently, "May I ask the master, how is my true heart and nature?" ”

Monk Chase pointed upwards and said, "Can you see the void?" ”

"Yes, I can see it."

Monk Datong asked again, "Does the void you see have a shape and appearance?" ”

Zhichang replied: "The void has no shape, where is there any appearance!" ”

Only then did the monk Chase elaborate: "Your nature is like a void, and there is nothing to see, and this is called correct view; There is nothing to know, but it is true knowledge. It has no color, no size or length, but when it is empty, ethereal, pure, and clear, it is to see the nature of the Buddha, that is, to see the nature of the Buddha, that is, to know the seeing. ”

Zhichang listened to this lecture of the monk Datong, as if looking at flowers in the fog, looking at the moon in the water, hazy, ethereal, beautiful, wonderful, but vague, illusory, no matter what, you can't see it really, let alone enter the Zen machine.

Helpless, he traced the Gan River upstream, climbed the high Da Yu Ridge, and traveled thousands of miles to Cao Xi to visit the six ancestors.

Huineng listened to him and said, "No wonder you don't understand, what Monk Datong said, there are still drawbacks of knowledge. Now, I'll tell you a poem from which you can learn. ”

Huineng's voice is like the spring breeze in February, nourishing the barren soul of Zhichang:

If you don't see a law, you can't see it, it's like a floating cloud covering the sun. I don't know how to keep the sky, and it's like lightning in the void. This knowledge is glimpsed, and it is convenient to mistakenly recognize how to solve it. Thou shalt know thou shalt know

A wisdom lamp illuminates the darkness of a thousand tribulations; A few drops of spring water melt through the ice of 10,000 years. Zhichang's heart burst out with wisdom, full of inspiration, and suddenly realized. He wept with joy, and as he wept, he said:

Unprovoked knowledge, seeking Bodhi. With a thought, Ning Yue is confused. The source body of self-consciousness flows in vain. If you don't enter the patriarch's room, you will be at a loss.

One night half a month later, Hui Neng inspected the disciples' cultivation experience in the main hall. Ying Xing found that the master was very strict today and it was not easy to pass the test in confusion, so he performed another of his stunts - slipping away!

Hiding behind the figures of the adults, Ying Xing quietly moved towards the door of the main hall, and when he approached the threshold, he turned abruptly and strung out of the door, almost colliding with the Fang Fang who was about to enter the door.

Fang Wei carefully protected the things covered with cloth in his arms, and scolded: "You daredevil, you almost made half a month's hard work come to naught!"

Ying Xing's curiosity was aroused, and he forgot the purpose of sneaking out, and chased after Fang Fang and asked, "What kind of treasure are you protecting, and it is worth making such a fuss?" ”

Fang Wei ignored him, walked straight to Hui Neng, and said, "Master, the disciple has completed the statue according to the order, I wonder if it can enter your eyes?" ”

The infant line rushed forward, lifted the tarpaulin, and held in Fang Fang's hands was a seven-inch tall and vivid statue of Huineng.

The baby Xing shouted in surprise: "Wow! Like! Nose for nose, eyes for eyes, it's exactly the same! Master, did you shrink it to it, or did it magnify it into you? ”

He didn't care about thirty-seven twenty-one, snatched the statue, looked up, down, left, right, if possible, he really wanted to break it open to see if there was flesh and blood in it. After looking at it for a long time, he handed the statue to Huineng.

Huineng didn't answer, and asked strangely, "Baby, who is this?" ”

"Master, this is you."

Huineng pointed to this statue that was identical to his own god and said, "If this is me, who are you offering it to?" ”

As he spoke, his keen gaze caught Huai Rang among the group of disciples. Huai Rang shuddered and felt the Zen feeling on his face......

Huineng asked: "If this is me, what about that?" ”

Xingsi and other enlightened disciples understood in their hearts that the Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng was taking the opportunity to instruct the Zen monks to comprehend their own nature: the so-called one was asking about Buddha nature. All sentient beings have Buddha nature. Although ordinary people can't show it because they have too many afflictions, they don't lack Buddha-nature in themselves, and our every move, blowing our beard and staring at our eyes, is the effect of Buddha-nature. Therefore, Buddha-nature is also self-nature, true heart, and true nature. However, our Buddha-nature is not a fixed thing, it has no shape, no color, no substance, so it is impossible to grasp. At the same time, Buddha-nature is alive and cannot be explained by any concept or frame, so Zen masters often use imaginary words such as "this, that" and so on at random.

The ignorant infant didn't know what "that" meant, and said in a daze: "Master, it's you, you are him, can you be separated?" ”

Huineng said meaningfully: "If you can't separate, you can take it back." ”

Ying Xing's hand holding the statue was just about to retract, but Hui Neng slapped him lightly, and then said with a smile: "This is a reluctant separation." ”

One can hit you, and the other is in your hands, isn't it separated? Isn't it the role of "that" that can hit you! For some reason, Huai Rang felt that his master's hand was hitting his soul, and he couldn't help but have hair standing on end all over his body and sweating profusely......

Fang Bian was a clever man, and when he heard what Master said, he immediately felt enlightened and said, "If this is the case, you must present the statue to Master." One and two, two and one; It's not different, it's not different. ”

Huineng said: "I accepted it, I accepted it." Hui Neng held his statue and smiled at it.

Then, he said, "Fang Bian, although you have mastered the art of making a vivid statue, you do not understand the true Buddha nature. ”

Seeing that he was at a loss, Huineng inspired him to say, "The Buddha Shakyamuni said in the Diamond Sutra, 'All appearances are false.'" That is to say, the true Buddha is unformed, and those who study Buddhism should not cling to external images and lose their minds, and we should worship the innocent Buddha of their own nature, not these clay and wood sculptures. ”

The argument seemed to understand something. The big hand of the Sixth Patriarch stroked the top of his head and said, "Fang Bian, you are a monk, may you always be a model for people and a blessing for the world." ”

Fang Fang is like an initiation, a feeling that he has never experienced before, slowly flowing from the top of his head into his heart, like a Bodhi seed, blooming a cool and spiritual lotus flower in his heart......

Huineng took off the robe he usually wore and solemnly presented it to Fang Wei. Fang Bian's hand held the robe, so excited that he didn't know what to do, and the two lines of tears flowed like a stream bursting the embankment, flowing happily and happily.

He walked out of the Daxiong Treasure Hall, came to the side of the main hall, and divided the robe given to him by the Sixth Patriarch into three parts with a ring knife: one was draped on Huineng's statue, one was put into his arms, and the last one, which he carefully wrapped in palm bark, buried deep in the ground. Then he knelt in that place, clasped his hands together, and swore to heaven, "In the future, if anyone digs up the earth and digs up this robe, it will be my rebirth." I will be the abbot in this Baoling Temple, rebuild the temple, and spread the Dharma. ”

Many years later, in the eighth year of Jiayou in the Song Dynasty, there was a Zen monk named Weiguang, the abbot of Baolin Temple. In order to rebuild the main hall, when digging the foundation, this ancestral robe that is still as good as new was dug up......

That night, Huai Rang didn't close his eyes all night. He's been thinking about "that" all the time.

When he first came to Baoling Temple, Master Huineng asked him, "What kind of thing is coming from?" It was from that moment that this mystery floated in his mind like a cloud, unsolicited and lingering; It was like swallowing something like a jujube, unable to dissolve, unable to digest, and unable to spit it out, so it was dull in his heart for a long time-

What kind of thing does it come from?

As time went on, this doubt not only did not dissolve, but increased day by day. He was unwilling, restless, didn't know what to do, didn't know how to lie down, and fought with the mystery in his heart every day, trying his best to break through the darkness and find his true face......

- This is Zen meditation. Do not doubt, do not understand, small doubt, big doubt; If the mind and body are suspicious, and the opportunity is ripe, it will inevitably burst with a "bang" - a big realization!

Last night, Master's soul-stirring glance made Huai Rang only feel that his body and mind were suddenly empty, and only that mystery was left in his heart. All his mind, all his thinking, all his energy, all rushed to this question that had been entangled with him for many years, so that he could not distinguish between east and west, north and south, and forgot to eat......

In the morning, Huai Rang was still ignorant. When the senior brother Xingsi distributed the day's work, he still let him still collect firewood. So, he came to the mountain in a daze, stayed on the mountain for a whole day, and did not even go back to the temple to eat at noon. In the evening, he walked back with an empty load of firewood, and when he looked up, he suddenly found that it was the season when the rice was ripe, and it was the time when the sunset was golden, and everything was the same as when he first came to Caoxi. Eight years have passed leisurely, and what remains in his heart is an inexplicable touch. He witnessed the leisurely clouds in the blue sky, heard the friendly sound of the spring in the stream, smelled the fresh fragrance of flowers on the side of the mountain path, and felt the intoxication of the fruits in the golden autumn...... Suddenly, he felt a sense of home.

I see! His heart suddenly opened up, the mystery burst, and he was reborn, as if he had let go of a thousand burdens—he forgot to throw down the firewood on his shoulders, and shouted happily while running towards the Baoling Temple......

The Sixth Ancestor Huineng was standing outside the mountain gate!

Like, for eight years he had not touched a place; It seems that eight years does not exist for him at all; Like, he's been waiting for him! He let out an earth-shattering cry at him:

"What kind of thing is coming from?"

"If you say that it looks like something, you don't hit it!"

Huairang's answer is like a tiger roaring in the mountains and forests, and the sound is shaking the mountains.