Encounters: Fada and the Lotus Sūtra

After Huineng received the Dharma at Huangmei, he returned to Caohou Village in Shaozhou, where no one knew who he was. (Other editions say that when the Master left Huangmei, he stopped at Caohou Village and stayed there for over nine months. But the Master himself said, "In less than thirty days I reached Huangmei" — given how urgent his own search for the Way had been, how could he have lingered so long on the way back? The version claiming he stopped there on his way south is therefore mistaken.) There was a Confucian scholar named Liu Zhilüe, who treated the Master with great respect. Zhilüe had an aunt who had become a nun, named Wujinzang, who constantly recited the Great Nirvāṇa Sūtra. The Master, listening for a moment, at once understood its subtle meaning, and explained it for her. The nun then held up the scroll and asked him about a character in the text. The Master said, "I cannot read the character, but you may ask me its meaning." She said, "If you cannot even read the character, how could you possibly understand its meaning?" The Master said, "The subtle principles of the buddhas have nothing to do with written words." The nun, astonished at this, went throughout the village telling the local elders, "This is a person who has attained the Way — we ought to invite him and make offerings to him." A descendant of the Prince of Wei, Cao Shuliang, together with the local residents, came competing with one another to pay their respects. At that time the ancient temple of Baolin, which had lain in ruins since it was destroyed by war at the end of the Sui dynasty, was rebuilt on its old foundations, and the Master was invited to dwell there. It soon became a splendid monastery, and the Master lived there for more than nine months, until he was again pursued by a wicked faction, and fled into the mountain in front of the temple. They set fire to the grass and trees to drive him out, but the Master hid himself by pressing into a crevice in the rock, and so escaped. That rock still bears the marks of the Master's knees from sitting cross-legged there, and the pattern of his robe's cloth, and for this reason it is called the Refuge Rock. Remembering the Fifth Patriarch's charge to stop at Huai and hide at Hui, the Master then went into hiding in those two districts.

The monk Fahai, a man of Qujiang in Shaozhou, first came to the Patriarch and asked, "Mind itself is buddha — I beg you to give me instruction on this." The Master said, "The former thought, not yet arisen, is mind; the latter thought, not yet ceased, is buddha. To form every mark is mind; to be free of every mark is buddha. If I were to explain this in full, I could not exhaust it in an entire kalpa. Hear my verse: "Mind itself is called wisdom; buddha itself is samādhi — holding samādhi and wisdom equally, the intention within becomes pure. Awaken to this teaching, and let it come from your own cultivated nature; its function is fundamentally without arising — cultivating both together is the correct way." At these words Fahai was greatly awakened, and praised the teaching with a verse of his own: "Mind itself was always the buddha; not to awaken to this is to wrong oneself for nothing. Now I know the cause of samādhi and wisdom together — cultivating both as one, free of every single thing."

The monk Fada, a man of Hongzhou, went forth from home at the age of seven and constantly recited the Lotus Sūtra. He came to bow before the Patriarch, but his head did not touch the ground. The Master rebuked him: "If you bow without your head touching the ground, how is that any different from not bowing at all? There must be something you are carrying in your mind. What have you been cultivating?" He said, "I have recited the Lotus Sūtra already, three thousand times over." The Master said, "If you recited it ten thousand times, and grasped the sūtra's meaning without taking this as some achievement to be proud of, then you would walk the same path as I do. But now you carry this accomplishment as a burden, and do not even recognize your own fault. Hear my verse: "Bowing is meant to break down the banner of pride — why does your head not touch the ground? Where there is still a self, offense arises at once; forget your own achievement, and merit becomes beyond compare." The Master asked further, "What is your name?" He said, "Fada." The Master said, "Your name is Fada — 'reaching the Dharma' — but have you ever actually reached it?" And he spoke a further verse: "Your name now is Fada, diligently reciting without ever resting; but reciting emptily, merely following the sound, is called a bodhisattva only once the mind itself is made clear. Since you now have this connection with me, I will now speak for your sake: simply trust that the Buddha never spoke a word at all, and a lotus flower will bloom straight from your own mouth." Hearing this verse, Fada, ashamed, said in apology, "From this moment on, I will be humble and reverent toward everyone. Your disciple has recited the Lotus Sūtra without ever understanding its meaning, and my mind has always held doubts about it. The venerable monk's wisdom is vast — I beg you to explain briefly the principles within this sūtra." The Master said, "Fada! The Dharma itself has indeed been reached — it is your own mind that has not reached it. The sūtra itself holds no doubt at all; it is your own mind that doubts it on its own. When you recite this sūtra, what do you take as its central doctrine?" Fada said, "This student's faculties are dull and unclear; I have only ever followed the text and recited it aloud — how could I know its central purport?" The Master said, "I myself cannot read — try taking up the sūtra and reciting a portion of it aloud, and I will explain it for you."

Fada then recited the sūtra in a loud voice, and when he reached the Parable Chapter, the Master said, "Stop! This sūtra, from the very beginning, takes as its central doctrine the manifestation of the Buddha in the world for the sake of a single causal purpose. However many kinds of parables it goes on to tell, none of them go beyond this one point. What is this causal purpose? The sūtra says, 'The buddhas, the world-honored ones, appear in the world only for the sake of one great causal purpose.' This one great purpose is the Buddha's own knowledge and vision. People of this world are deluded outwardly, attached to marks, and deluded inwardly, attached to emptiness; if one is able to be free of marks within marks, and free of emptiness within emptiness, this is to be undeluded both within and without. If you awaken to this teaching, and your mind opens in a single thought, this is what is meant by opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision. "'Buddha' means, simply, awakening, divided into four gates: opening the knowledge and vision of awakening, showing the knowledge and vision of awakening, awakening to the knowledge and vision of awakening, and entering the knowledge and vision of awakening. If, on hearing it opened and shown, one is able to awaken and enter it, then this knowledge and vision of awakening — one's own original true nature — comes to manifest itself. Be careful not to misread the sūtra's meaning: on hearing others say that 'opening, showing, awakening, and entering' belongs to the Buddha's own knowledge and vision alone, and that we ourselves have no share in it — if you understand it in this way, this is itself slandering the sūtra and vilifying the Buddha. If he is already a buddha, already complete with this knowledge and vision, what further need would there be to open it at all? You should now believe that this knowledge and vision of the Buddha is simply your own mind, and that there is no other buddha apart from it. It is only because every sentient being obscures their own light, greedily clinging to the dust of worldly circumstances, disturbed without by conditions and within by their own mind, and willingly submits to being driven about by them, that the World-Honored One must trouble himself to rise from his samādhi, and through every kind of bitter, urgent word, persuade beings to let this all come to rest, and not to seek outside themselves — for this is no different from the Buddha himself. This is why it is called 'opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision.' I too urge everyone: within your own mind, constantly open the knowledge and vision of the Buddha. People of this world have crooked minds, foolish and deluded, committing offenses, speaking well with the mouth while the mind is evil, full of greed, anger, envy, flattery, deceit, and arrogance, encroaching on others and doing harm — this is opening, for oneself, the knowledge and vision of a sentient being. But if you can rectify your mind, constantly give rise to wisdom, contemplate your own mind, cease from evil and practice good — this is opening, for yourself, the knowledge and vision of the Buddha. You must, thought after thought, open the Buddha's knowledge and vision, and not open the knowledge and vision of a sentient being. To open the Buddha's knowledge and vision is itself to transcend the world; to open the knowledge and vision of a sentient being is itself to remain within the world. If you merely toil away, gripping tightly to your recitation, and call this your practice, how would this be any different from a yak that loves nothing so much as its own tail?" Fada said, "If that is so, then does one need only grasp the meaning, without troubling to recite the sūtra at all?" The Master said, "What fault does the sūtra itself have? How could it possibly obstruct your practice? It is only that delusion and awakening lie with the person, and loss and benefit come from oneself. To recite with the mouth and carry it out in the mind is to turn the sūtra; to recite with the mouth without carrying it out in the mind is to be turned by the sūtra. Hear my verse: "When the mind is deluded, the Lotus Sūtra turns you; when the mind is awakened, you turn the Lotus Sūtra. Reciting the sūtra for a long time without understanding it, you become an enemy to its very meaning. Thought without thought is itself right thought; thought with attachment becomes wrong thought. Reckoning neither existence nor non-existence, you ride forever in the great white ox cart." Hearing this verse, Fada could not help weeping, and at these very words was greatly awakened. He said to the Master, "From long ago until now, I have truly never once turned the Lotus Sūtra — I have only ever been turned by the Lotus Sūtra." He asked further, "The sūtra says, 'Even the great śrāvakas and bodhisattvas, exhausting their thought together in reckoning, cannot fathom the Buddha's wisdom.' Yet now you have caused an ordinary person simply to awaken to their own mind, and call this the Buddha's own knowledge and vision — unless one is of the very highest faculties, one could hardly avoid doubting and slandering this claim. And the sūtra also speaks of three carts — the goat cart, the deer cart, and the ox cart — set against the great white ox cart. How are they to be distinguished? I beg the venerable monk to instruct me further." The Master said, "The sūtra's meaning is stated plainly — it is you yourself who has become confused and turned away from it. Those of the three vehicles who cannot fathom the Buddha's wisdom are troubled precisely by their own reckoning. Though they exhaust every thought reckoning it together, they only grow further and further from it. The Buddha originally spoke this teaching for the sake of ordinary people, not for the sake of buddhas themselves; if there is anyone unwilling to believe this principle, let them withdraw from the assembly as they please. Little do they know that they are already seated in the great white ox cart, and yet still search outside the gate for the three carts. Moreover, the sūtra states plainly to you: 'There is only the one buddha vehicle — there is no second vehicle, and no third,' down to the countless skillful means, and every kind of causal parable and figure of speech — all of this teaching exists only for the sake of the one buddha vehicle. Why do you not realize this for yourself? The three carts are provisional, spoken for the sake of that earlier time; the one vehicle is real, spoken for the sake of the present time. All of this teaches you only to set aside the provisional and return to the real; and once you have returned to the real, even 'the real' has no name left to call it. You should know that every treasure that exists belongs entirely to you, to be used and enjoyed by you alone — no longer thinking of it as a father's, nor as a child's, nor even thinking of it as something to be used at all. This is what is meant by upholding the Lotus Sūtra: from kalpa to kalpa, never setting the scroll down from your hand, from day to night, never a moment without being mindful of it." Having received this instruction, Fada leapt with joy, and praised it with a verse of his own: "Reciting the sūtra three thousand times over, one single word at Caoxi has undone them all; without understanding the purpose of transcending the world, how could the frenzy of many lifetimes ever be put to rest? The goat, the deer, and the ox cart were only provisionally set up, proclaimed as good in the beginning, the middle, and the end. Who could have known that within the burning house itself, there was already the very king of the Dharma?" The Master said, "From now on you may truly be called a monk who recites the sūtra." From this time on Fada grasped its profound meaning, and yet he never once stopped reciting the sūtra.

The monk Zhitong, a man of Anfeng in Shouzhou, had at first read the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra some thousand times over, without ever grasping the meaning of the threefold body and fourfold wisdom. He came to bow before the Master and asked him to explain their meaning. The Master said, "The three bodies are these: the pure Dharma-body is your own nature; the complete reward-body is your own wisdom; the hundred-thousand-koṭi transformation-body is your own conduct. If you speak of the three bodies apart from your own fundamental nature, this is called having the bodies without the wisdom; but if you awaken to the three bodies as having no separate nature of their own, this is what is meant by the bodhi of the fourfold wisdom. Hear my verse: "Self-nature is complete with the three bodies; brought into clarity, it becomes the fourfold wisdom. Never departing from the conditions of seeing and hearing, you transcend them and ascend directly to the ground of buddhahood. I now explain this for you — believe it truly, and you will never again be deluded; do not study like those who run about seeking outside themselves, speaking of bodhi all day long." Zhitong asked further, "May I hear the meaning of the fourfold wisdom?" The Master said, "Once you have grasped the three bodies, the fourfold wisdom is already clear — why ask further? If you speak of the fourfold wisdom apart from the three bodies, this is called having the wisdom without the bodies; and even this wisdom, spoken of in such a way, becomes itself no wisdom at all." And he spoke a further verse: "The great perfect-mirror wisdom is the nature itself, pure; the wisdom of universal equality is a mind free of sickness; the wisdom of wondrous contemplation sees without effort; the wisdom that accomplishes what is to be done is the same as the great mirror. The fifth and eighth, and the sixth and seventh, consciousnesses turn at the stage of fruition and at the stage of cause, respectively; only their names are used, and they have no fixed nature of their own — if, at the very point of this turning, you hold nothing back, then though the world's affairs arise thick and fast all around you, you dwell forever in nāga-like samādhi." (This describes the turning of consciousness into wisdom. The teaching says: the first five consciousnesses are turned into the wisdom that accomplishes what is to be done; the sixth consciousness is turned into the wisdom of wondrous contemplation; the seventh consciousness is turned into the wisdom of universal equality; the eighth consciousness is turned into the great perfect-mirror wisdom. Though the sixth and seventh turn at the stage of cause, and the fifth and eighth turn only at the stage of fruition, only their names are turned, never their underlying substance.) At this Zhitong suddenly awakened to the wisdom of his own nature, and offered a verse in response: "The three bodies were, from the start, my own substance; the fourfold wisdom is simply my own mind made bright. Body and wisdom fuse together without obstruction, responding to whatever comes, taking on whatever form is needed. To set out deliberately to cultivate is itself already a false stirring; to hold fast and remain unmoving is likewise not the true essence. This wondrous principle I have understood only through the Master's teaching, and at last I forget even the very name of defilement."