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Calligrapher: Yong Cheong Thye
Originally, enlightenment was never a tree;
菩提本无树
The nature of enlightenment is not something that can be
predicated as "existence" or "non-existence". It is not
attained through involvement with concepts and effort. I was certainly not
expecting enlightenment by flying from Singapore
to Guangzhou
to trace the footsteps of the Sixth Patriarch.
Neither does a bright mirror need a stand;
明镜亦非台
The absolute true nature of mind is free of affirmation and
negation. It is not something that can be established as "is" or
"is not". So, what is the point in my coming to Guangzhou? I could only say that it was
not a pointless trip.
Fundamentally, there was not a thing;
本来无一物
As I strolled along the banks of the Pearl
River, I passed a bustling market and joined the seething mass
of humanity in riding the Metro from Huangsha
Station to Ximen Kou Station. Alighting from Ximen Kou, it was another jaunt through narrow alleys
lined with shops selling incense, beads and other religious paraphernalia,
before I finally reached the gate of the 1700-year-old Guangxiao
Temple (光孝寺). There were indeed a lot of sights to behold.
Where can dust alight?
何处惹尘埃
My coming to Guangzhou
has certainly stirred up much dust. The Sixth Patriarch's stanza has also
stirred up quite a lot of dust. Over the past millennium since its
composition, scholars and practitioners have been trying to unlock its
secrets. However, as the Sixth Patriarch revealed in the Platform Sutra,
"the secret lies within you" (密在汝边). Still, my coming to Guangzhou
was never a problem in itself. The stanza itself was never the problem. We
should each investigate for ourselves the source of all problems, and then
there might be the chance of realizing the ground of primordial purity,
where there were never any problems from the beginning.
Guangxiao Temple
Passing two burly guardians and the smiley Putai,
I found myself in the spacious outer courtyard of Guangzhou's oldest Buddhist temple. The
grounds are well-ordered; enclosing pavilions and concealing wells and
engraved tablets from various periods. The three halls at the back contain
some imposing Buddha images; the westerly one has a reclining Burmese-style
jade Buddha, while the usual trio fills the central hall. In 113 BC, this
was the residence of Zhao Jiande (南越王赵建德), the last of the Nanyue Kings,
becoming a place of worship only after the 85-year-old Kashmiri monk Tanmo Yeshe (云摩耶舍) built the first hall in AD 401. The temple was later visited
by Buddhist luminaries such as the sixth century monk Zhiyao
Sanzang (智药三藏), who planted the bodhi trees still
here today; the Indian founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma
(菩提达摩); and the Sixth Zen Patriarch, Huineng
(六祖惠能).
Unlike many temples in other parts of China which are more like
museum showpieces, Guangxiao is an active and
functioning temple. In its various halls, groups of laypeople clad in black
hai-qing robes can be seen reciting Ksitigarbha Sutra, Universal Door Chapter of the Lotus
Sutra, and the Great Compassion Dharani. I was
greatly relieved to see monks leading the prayers and lecturing the Dharma
rather than offering to read my fortune.
Words could not describe my joy when I finally saw the ancient
pagoda in the peaceful inner courtyard which was erected to commemorate the
Sixth Patriarch's tonsure and his first appearance to teach Dharma. Though
there was a drizzle, I held an umbrella and circumambulated it seven times,
and was delighted to see several people doing the same.
Huineng was
born into a poor family and lost his father at a tender age. As he did not
have opportunities for formal education, he had to work as a woodcutter to
support his aging mother. Upon hearing a customer reciting the Vajra Sutra one day, his interest in the Dharma was
kindled. He was directed to seek further instructions from Hongren (弘忍), the Fifth Zen Patriarch. Though Hongren
recognized Huineng's keen acumen on their first
meeting, he could not declare it openly. During those times, people from
the less developed southern part of China were referred to as ge liao (葛獠), a derogatory term that probably means "barbarians".
Concerned that his northerner disciples would harm Huineng
out of pride and jealousy, Hongren downplayed Huineng's capabilities by assigning him to do menial
work in the kitchen, while waiting for the opportune time to transmit the
teachings to him. One day, Hongren announced that
he is looking for a Dharma heir to continue his teaching lineage, and that
whosoever is interested should compose a stanza to express his realization.
Shenxiu
(神秀), his most senior disciple, wrote:
The body is like a bodhi tree, 身是菩提树
The mind a bright mirror stand. 心如明镜台
One should constantly polish it, 时时勤拂拭
And not let any dust alight. 勿使惹尘埃
While Shenxiu's sycophantic friends
were heaping praises on the stanza, Huineng was
not so impressed. I believe that Huineng probably
harboured no ulterior intentions to become the
next patriarch, and that he was simply speaking his mind when he had
someone to help him pen the following stanza:
Originally, enlightenment was never a tree; 菩提本无树
Neither does a bright mirror need a stand; 明镜亦非台
Fundamentally, there was not a thing; 本来无一物
Where can dust alight? 何处惹尘埃
Everybody present was astonished by the depth of Huineng's realization; but to protect Huineng, Hongren made a show
of disparaging him and erasing the stanza with his sandals. A few nights
later, Hongren secretly summoned Huineng into his chamber, and transmitted to him Bodhidharma's robes and alms bowl------ the insignia of
authority in Zen School, certifying that he had indeed received and
thoroughly fathomed the mind-seal of all the Buddhas.
As advised by Hongren, Huineng
had to leave immediately to escape from the persecutions of Shenxiu's jealous supporters. He was to remain in
hiding, incognito among a group of hunters, until conditions are ripe for
him to transmit the True Dharma.
Six years later, at Faxing Temple (法性寺; later renamed Guangxiao Temple), two
monks were debating under a flagpole. One argued that it was the wind that
was moving while the other retorted that it was the banner. Huineng resolved the controversy be declaring that it
was their mind that has "moved". His terse and insightful reply
attracted the attention of the abbot Yinzong (印宗法师), who was lecturing on the Mahaparinirvana
Sutra at that time. Yinzong relinquished the High
Seat to Huineng and questioned him on the subtle points
of the sutra. The abbot was impressed by the latter's replies, though at
the same time befuddled when he found that Huineng
could not read even a single word from the sutra. Nonetheless, Yinzong was quick to volunteer to ordain Huineng when he was revealed to be the Sixth Patriarch.
Huineng's ordination took place under Zhiyao Sanzang's bodhi tree (thus fulfilling a prophecy which Zhiyao had earlier made) and the rest is history.
The account of Huineng's quest for
Dharma has never failed to inspire me. The story of an underling finally
getting the upper hand certainly makes interesting reading material. Being
of Southern Chinese descent myself, I could not help feeling a bit of glee
too. Most importantly though, I think that enlightenment is everyone's
birthright, and that the greatest merit of Huineng
and his descendants was to have made it accessible to so-called commoners.
This should not be taken for granted, for in the early part of the history
of Chinese Buddhism, only royalties and nobles had access to the Dharma,
and the luxury to practice it.
As a fitting conclusion of my pilgrimage to Guangxiao Temple, I proceeded to the Patriarch
Hall behind the pagoda to pay my homage to a life-sized bust of the Sixth
Patriarch. Without me asking for it, two middle-aged lady keepers, who were
cleaning the altar at that time, allowed me a close-up to inspect the holy
image, and to snap pictures of it for keepsake. I was very grateful for
that, because photography of sacred images is usually strictly forbidden in
China.
I also followed the lady keepers' cute suggestion to bury a few strands of
my hair under Zhiyao's bodhi
tree to strengthen my connection with the Sixth Patriarch. "In life
after life, may I and all sentient beings be able to obtain a precious human
birth and come under the guidance of wise and compassionate Dharma
teachers", I prayed.
Liurong Temple and Flower Pagoda
From Guangxiao Temple, it is only a
fifteen-minute meander through busy alleys and a street market to reach Liurong Temple (六榕寺, literally "Temple of the Six Banyan Trees"),
associated with the dissident poet-governor Su Dongpo
(苏东坡), who visited in AD1100 and left his calligraphy on two stone
steles just within the gates. Very little of the original temple itself,
which was founded in Southern Song (AD 420 to 479), survives; and the site
is better known for the 1000-year-old, 57-metre-high Flower Pagoda (花塔)(see bottom), which is believed to enshrine relics of the
Buddha brought from India by Emperor Wu's uncle. Carvings of lions, birds
and insects adorn the pagoda's wooden eaves; of its seventeen stories, nine
have balconies and the rest are blind. At the apex is a huge bronze pillar
covered with over a thousand reliefs of
meditating figures rising up through the roof, solid enough to support a
five-ton alms bowl and pearl that you can see from the ground.
At the back of the leafy compound, an entire hall, simply but
elegantly furnished, is dedicated to the Sixth Patriarch, with calligraphic
plaques that say "one should not have any fixations" (应无所住) ------ an important statement from the Vajra
Sutra, and "one flower, five petals" (一花五叶) ------ referring to the blossoming of Zen Buddhism, which was
widely propagated through the five sub-schools of Linji,
Chaodong, Fayen, Yunmen and Weiyang two
generations after the Sixth Patriarch.
I came from afar, to search for the footprints of the Patriarch
in Guangzhou.
远赴广州觅祖迹
Having stirred up a lot of dust, I could not see the Patriarch. 处处惹尘不见祖
Suddenly, a storm comes, even though the sky was clear. 晴天霹雳来阵雨
Ah! The Patriarch's footprints are really beneath my feet. 原来祖迹在足下
Disclaimer: Composed by Vincent Lim. This stanza is meant for
educational purposes, and does NOT imply that he is realized.
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