Xue Jian's voice did not allow for the slightest bargaining: "In this case, master, you must follow me to the capital tomorrow, otherwise, my head will not be guaranteed!" The lives of my whole family, young and old, are not guaranteed!"

The old eyes of the Sixth Ancestor Huineng froze, thought for a while, and said, "Lord Qincha, it is not difficult to keep your head. ”

Xue Jian thought he had changed his mind and was overjoyed: "Ah, you are finally willing to go to Beijing with me!"

"Definitely. The old man decided to live in the mountains to recuperate and practice Taoism. ”

Xue Jian's tone was ironclad: "If you don't go to Beijing, how can you do it?" In order to see the ancestor and listen to your Dharma in person, the Great Sage Emperor of Heaven was like frying oil, so he hurriedly issued an edict and sent me to the south immediately. I guess that the emperor is now looking forward to your arrival in the capital, just like the hope of a great drought. As a special mission, I went back empty-handed to reply to the decree. It will definitely provoke the emperor's anger, and the only result waiting for the old minister will be to be beheaded. You must know that the imperial law is ruthless!"

"Don't take things so absolutely." Sixth Ancestor Huineng first comforted Xue Jian, and then turned to say in an inquiring tone, "You are the emperor's close minister, let me ask you, is it to ask the emperor to ask the emperor to go to Beijing to make a speech?"

Xue Jian nodded: "Yes!" ”

"In that case, the matter can be resolved. It is necessary to know that within the Buddha's door, the law is the supreme. Hui Neng came up with an idea, "So be it! I'll talk about the Fa, you should record it and organize it in my Baoling Temple. Then, you take the Dharma I said back to the capital to reply to the decree, and then attach the recital seal that I wrote. In this way, you will no longer return empty-handed. Then the Holy One will not condemn you. ”

"Good, good, good!" Xue Jian was like a drowning man who suddenly grabbed a life-saving straw, and smiled when he came, "Over the years, I have followed the emperor around, and I often heard those Zen masters in the palace talk about Buddhism, but after listening, the emperor and I felt very sleepy about some problems, and today I happened to ask the sixth ancestor for advice." ”

Sixth Ancestor Huineng: "What questions does Lord Qincha have, that is, Guan Fa asked?"

Xue Jian scratched his fat head with his hand and remembered something: "Those Zen masters in Kyoto all say that if you want to comprehend the Mahayana Buddhist path, you must sit and meditate and practice concentration. If you want to be liberated without sitting meditation, that's never happening. Disciple: I don't know what the Dharma is like when the master speaks?"

The Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng said solemnly: "The Buddha Tao is realized from the bottom of the heart, how can it be said that it is only because of zazen meditation?"

Xue Jian blinked his incomprehensible gaze: "Ah, as soon as you speak, Master, it is different from what the great Zen master of Kyoto said, it is simply clear." Could you please explain it to me in detail? ”

"Good!" The Sixth Patriarch Huineng explained, "The Buddhist scriptures say that if someone says that if someone says that they are sitting and lying down, that person is a practitioner of evil paths. Why? Because everything does not come from nowhere, does not go anywhere, does not come into being, and does not perish, this is the pure meditation of the Buddha. All the Dharma is inherently illusory and empty, and this is the pure sitting of the Buddha. Ultimate liberation cannot be attained, let alone zazen?"

Xue Jian scratched his head habitually: "Master, what kind of Buddhism are you talking about?"

Sixth Ancestor Hui Neng pointed his hand directly at his heart: "I'm talking about the method of transmitting the heart. ”

Xue Jian begged: "Mind Transmission Method? When I returned to Beijing, the emperor would have asked me what I had learned when I came to Caoxi. Master Wang's compassion was great, and he instructed me to teach the most essential teachings of the Mind Method, so that I could play the Emperor of the Great Sage of Heaven and tell all the people in the capital who have learned the Tao. It is like a lamp that can light a thousand lamps, so that all dark places can be illuminated, and the light can spread endlessly. "

The Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng saw that he spoke very sincerely, and said: "There is no difference between light and darkness in the Buddha Tao itself, light and dark are just the meaning of mutual metabolism. There is no end to the transmission of light, and it is because there is an end, and the two treat each other, so there are two different names. So, the Sutra of Pure Names says that the Dharma is incomparable because it has no corresponding name. ”

Xue Jian said: "The metaphor of light is wisdom, and the metaphor of darkness is trouble." If a person who practices the Buddha path does not use the light of wisdom to break through his troubles, then he will have no beginning and will now live and die, so how can he leave it?"

The Sixth Patriarch Huineng replied, "Afflictions are bodhi enlightenment, don't divide afflictions and bodhi into two, they are no different. If we want to use the light of wisdom to illuminate our troubles, this is the view of the two-vehicle people. The sheep cart and the deer cart are the same root machine, and no one who has the highest wisdom and the greatest good root will have this view. ”

Xue Jian: "What is Mahayana insight?"

The Sixth Patriarch Huineng explained: "Light and darkness, mortals refer to two very different situations, but the wise man is clear and understanding, and there is no difference between the nature of light and darkness. This undifferentiated nature is the true Buddha-nature. The so-called true Buddha-nature means that the bodies of ordinary people and fools do not decrease, nor do they increase in the bodies of sages and saints, they do not scatter when they are troubled, and they do not remain silent when they are meditating. It perishes and does not perpetuate, it does not come and goes, it is not in the middle, nor is it inside or outside. There is no birth, there is no extinction, the nature is the same, and the permanent residence is unchanged, which is called the Buddha path. ”

Xue Jian asked relentlessly: "What is the difference between what the master said about immortality and immortality and what the outer Tao said?"

The Sixth Patriarch Huineng replied: "What the outer Tao says about not being born and not dying is to use extinction to prevent birth, and use life to show extinction. To perish is to be immortal, and to be born is not to be born. And when I say immortality, I mean that the Buddha-nature has not been born in the first place and will not be extinguished now. That's why what I mean by immortality is different from what I say about the outer way. If you want to know the most essential meaning of the Dharma of heart-to-heart, don't think about all the good and all the evil. In this way, it is natural to realize that the mind and body of the Dharma are clear and clear, and that it has more subtle uses than the sand of the Ganges. ”

When Xue Jian heard this, he suddenly realized, and felt that every pore on his body was opened, exuding the brilliance of his own nature, and he sincerely admired: "Listening to the master's words is better than listening to those Zen masters in the palace for a few years. ”

Xue Jian returned to the meditation room where he stayed, fought at night, and recorded the Dharma and teachings spoken by the Sixth Patriarch Huineng overnight, and worked until dawn.

The next day, Xue Jian handed over those transcripts to the Six Ancestors to read and circle, and then wrote them down in this chapter.

On the third day, the sixth ancestor Huineng handed over the seal he invited to Xue Jian, and led the monks of Baolin Temple to send Xue Jian out of the mountain gate.

When Xue Jian left, the Sixth Patriarch said to him meaningfully: "Please ask the envoy to enshrine my Zen method to the saint today." Afflictions are bodhi. If your mind is pure, you don't ask for troubles, and you are liberated in the moment. In addition, the world is impermanent, full of variables, when it is time to let go, we must let go, when the world is in mind! ”

Xue Jian heard the voice of the Sixth Ancestor and asked sensitively, "Master, has there been any change in the political situation?" ”

"It doesn't hurt the big picture. When my father-in-law returned to the capital, he naturally understood. ”

"Master's decree, I will definitely tell the Holy Lord, disciple to leave!"

Before Xue Jian returned to the capital, he learned halfway through: An earth-shattering event happened in the capital - Wu Zetian was forced to abdicate, and the crown prince Zhongzong ascended the throne - it was really impermanent.

Then returned to Xue Jian and led the official errand, day and night, and returned to Beijing to return to Wu Zetian.

To add here: In the first month of the first year of Shenlong, there was turmoil in the imperial court: the civil and military ministers of the imperial court had long been unaccustomed to Wu Zetian's arrogance and indulgence, arbitrariness and arbitrariness, and took advantage of her serious illness to launch a palace coup d'état, and led the troops to kill Wu Zetian's male concubine Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Zongchang's brothers, welcomed the crown prince Li Xian to the throne, and respected Wu Zetian as the "Great Sage Emperor Zetian". In February, the country name was restored to Tang.