Thus, teachers and disciples intimately transmitted this excellent art as the essence of the teaching. Those who attained enlightenment in India and China followed this way. Now, all ancestors and all buddhas who uphold buddha dharma have made it the true path of unfolding enlightenment to sit upright, practicing in the midst of receptive samadhi. Hope that it will be like this in our country. When Bodhidharma came from India the root of twining vines was immediately cut off and the pure, single buddha dharma spread. In China after the Later Han Dynasty, the teachings of Buddhist scriptures were introduced and spread all over the land, but there was no conclusive teaching as yet. But in spite of their different styles, each of the Five Houses holds the one seal of the buddha mind. At present in Great Song China only the Linji School prospers throughout the country. Their two lineages spread, and later the Five Gates opened: the Fayan School, the Guiyang School, the Caodong School, the Yunmen School, and the Linji School. They both equally received the buddha’s seal, as guiding masters of humans and devas. Then the authentic buddha dharma spread in China, and the teaching that is not concerned with concepts and theories took form.Īt that time there were two outstanding disciples of Huineng: Nanyue Huairang and Qingyuan Xingsi. In this way, by direct transmission, it reached Huineng, the Sixth Ancestor, Zen Master Dajian. Bodhidharma went to China and entrusted dharma to the great master Huike this was the beginning of dharma transmission in the eastern country. The great master Shakyamuni entrusted dharma to Mahakashyapa at the assembly on Vulture Peak it was then authentically transmitted from ancestor to ancestor down to Venerable Bodhidharma. I wish to leave for students of the way the authentic teaching of the buddha house. How can they nourish the correct seed of prajna and encounter the time of attaining the way? Since I am wandering about, which mountain or river can they call on? Because of my concern for them, I would like to record the standards of Zen monasteries which I personally saw and heard in Great Song as well as the profound principle which has been transmitted by my master. They may be misguided by incapable teachers and obstructed from the correct understanding, and intoxicated in confusion they may sink into the realm of delusion for a long time. There may be true students who are not concerned with fame and gain who allow their aspiration for enlightenment to guide them and earnestly desire to practice the buddha way. For the time being I wander about like a cloud or a water-weed, and let the wind of the ancient sages be heard. And yet I have put aside the hope of having the teaching prevail everywhere until the time of surging opportunity. Then, at the beginning of Shaoding Era of Great Song, I came back to Japan with the vision of spreading the teaching and saving sentient beings-a heavy burden on my shoulders. Finally, I became a student of Zen master Rujing of Taibo Peak, and completed my life’s quest of the great matter. Later I went to Great Song China, visited masters on both sides of the Zhe River, and heard the teachings of the Five Gates. Priest Myozen alone, as a senior disciple of ancestor Eisai, authentically received transmittion of the unsurpassable buddha dharma from him no one can be compared with him. Then I met priest Myozen, of the Kennin Monastery, with whom I trained for nine years, and thus I learned a little about the teaching of the Rinzai School. Passing through the barrier and dropping off limitations in this way, how could you be hindered by nodes in bamboo or knots in wood ?Īfter the aspiration for enlightenment arose, I began to search for dharma, visiting teachers at various places in our country. The concentrated endeavor of the way I am speaking of allows all things to come forth in realization to practice going beyond in the path of letting go. Sentient beings continuously move about in this dharma, but where they are is not clear in their consciousness. When you release it, it fills your hand-how could it be limited to one or many? When you speak it, it fills your mouth-it is not bounded by length or width.Īll buddhas continuously abide in this dharma, and do not leave traces of consciousness about where they are. #ELUCIDATE ENDEAVORS FREE#Sitting upright, practicing Zen, is the authentic gate to free yourself in the unconfined realm of this samadhi.Īlthough this inconceivable dharma is abundant in each person, it is not actualized without practice, and it is not experienced without realization. Receptive samadhi** is its mark only buddhas transmit it to buddhas without veering off. All buddha tathagatas who individually transmit inconceivable dharma, actualizing unsurpassable, complete enlightenment, have a wondrous art, supreme and unconditioned.
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