TẬP SAN NGHIÊN CỨU PHẬT
HỌC PHÁP LUÂN
Số 8 - PL. 2552
[MỤC LỤC]
Zen master TRẦN NHÂN TÔNG
His Teachings and Literature
Translated with notes
by Phan Minh Trị
(continued)
II. POEMS
登 寶 臺 山
地 僻 臺 逾古
時 來 春 未深
雲 山 相 遠近
花 徑 半 晴陰
萬 事 水 流水
百 年 心 語心
倚 欄 橫 玉笛
明 月 滿 胸 襟
ON THE
BẢO ĐÀI MOUNTAIN
In the secluded place the mountain looks far
more ancient.
The spring has just come in the
present.
The clouds are floating, now far
from now close to the mountain.
Half in shade half in moonlight,
the path is lined with flowers.
Like flowing water are various
kinds of mundane affairs.
In mind remains only the trace
of the hundred years’ life.
Leaning on the balcony, with a
jade flute in hand,
I am thoroughly wrapped in the
moonlight.
梅
鐵 膽 石 肝凌 曉 雪
縞 裙 練 帨迓 東 風
人 間 儉 素漢 文 帝
天 下 英 雄唐 太 宗
THE
PLUM
In the morning snow the
plum stands bold and dignified.
Its plain trunk with white
branches welcomes the spring wind.
The most modest in the world is
Emperor Yen of the Han;
And the renowned hero is Emperor
Thai-tsung of the T’ang.
二 月 十 一夜
歡 伯 澆 愁風 味 長
桃 笙 竹 簟穩 龙 床
一 天 如 水月 如 晝
花 影 滿 窗 春 夢 長
ON THE
ELEVENTH NIGHT OF THE TWELFTH MONTH
Cleansing sorrow, the
wine has a long-standing flavor.
Lonely I am on the bed covered
with a bamboo mat.
The sky is clear and the moon is
bright.
The flowers shadowing the
window, the spring dream is prolonged.
閨 怨
睡 起 钩 簾看 墜 紅
黄 鸝 不 語怨 東 風
無 端 落 日西 樓 外
花 影 枝 頭盡 向 東
THE
WOMAN’S DEPRESSION
Raising the
blind and watching falling flowers after getting up;
Being angry at the
spring wind, the orioles cease singing.
Beyond the west pavilion the sun
is indifferently setting.
The flowers and branches are all
throwing their shadows to the east.
諒 州 晚 景
古 寺 淒 涼秋 靄 外
漁 船 蕭 瑟暮 鐘 初
水 明 山 淨白 鷗 過
風 定 雲 閑 紅 樹 初
THE
SCENERY OF LẠNG CHÂU IN THE EVENING
The old temple looks gloomy in the mist of
autumn.
A fishing boat is floating
lonely in the first sounds of the evening bell.
Over the clear water and quiet
mountains the white sea-gulls are flying.
The wind subsides, the clouds
are moving leisurely over a few red-leaved trees.
春 晚
年 少 何 曾 了 色 空
一 春 心 在 百 花 中
如 今 勘 破東 皇 面
禪 板 蒲 團看 墜 紅
THE END
OF SPRING
Form-emptiness was incomprehensible at such
an early age.
Spring came and my mind was
among a variety of flowers.
Now that I have realized the
‘face’ of Spring,
From the meditation seat I can
contemplate falling flowers.
武 林 秋 晚
畫 橋 倒 影蘸 溪 橫
一 抹 斜 陽水 外 明
寂 寂 千 山紅 葉 落
濕 雲 如 夢 遠 鐘 聲
AN
AUTUMN EVENING IN VŨ LÂM
XE "Vũ Lâm"
The
splendid bridge is horizontally reflected on the stream,
Beyond which comes the ray from
the sun in the evening sky.
Quietly in the endless mountains
red leaves are falling;
Like in a dream are the wet
clouds and the bell from afar.
春 日 謁 昭陵
貔 虎 千 門肅
衣 冠 七 品通
白 頭 軍 士在
往 往 説 元 豐
A VISIT
TO GRANDFATHER’S TOMB ON A SPRING
DAY
Solemnly at
the thousand gates are brave guards,
Together with officials of all
the seven ranks.
There remain the soldiers whose
hair has already turned white,
Occasionally recounting the
victory of Nguyên Phong.
春 曉
睡 起 啟 窗扉
不 知 春 已歸
一 雙 白 蝴蝶
拍 拍 趁 花飛
A SPRING
MORNING
Getting up
and opening the window,
I know not the Spring has come.
A pair of white butterflies
Are steadily flying to the
flowers.
洞 天 湖 上
洞 天 湖 上景
花 草 減 春容
上 帝 憐 岑寂
太 清 時 一鐘
ON THE
ĐỘNG THIÊN LAKE
On the Động
Thiên Lake,
The scenery has lost part of its
verdant feature.
Out of the Jade Emperor’s favor,
however,
Its desolation is occasionally
warmed by the bell from Thái Thanh.
竹奴 銘
傲 雪 心 虚
凌 霜 節 勁
假 爾 爲 奴
恐 非 天 性
THE
BAMBOO PILLOW
The mind
remains empty in snow,
The body keeps firm in fog;
Being employed as a servant,
It is unlikely of your inborn
character.
山 房 漫 興
誰 縛 更 將求 解 脫
不 凡 何 必覓 神 仙
猿 閑 馬 倦人 應 老
依 舊 雲 庄 一 榻 禪
AN
INSPIRATION IN THE MOUNTAIN CHAMBER
We are not so bound as
to seek deliverance;
Nor so secular as to seek the
Immortals.
The gibbons resting, the horses
exhausted, men must be old.
The meditation bed remains in
the cloud-covered hermitage.
是 非 念 逐朝 華 落
名 利 心 隨夜 雨 寒
華 盡 雨 晴山 寂 寂
一 聲 啼 鳥又 春 殘
Following the fallen morning
flowers, ideas of praise and blame ended.
Together with the cold night
rains, desires for fame and interest
perished.
The flowers all falling, the
rain stopping, the mountain was serene.
The echo of a bird’s cry; and
the spring was gone.
贈 北 使 李思 衍
雨 露 汪 洋普 漢 恩
鳳 啣 丹 詔出 紅 雲
拓開 地 角 皆 和 氣
凈 挾 天 河洗 戰 塵
盡 道 璽 書十 行 下
勝 如 琴 殿五 絃 薰
乾 坤 兼 愛無 南 北
何 患 雲 雷 復 有 屯
DEDICATED TO NORTHERN EMISSARY
LI SZU-YEN
Like torrent rains is
favor from the Han house.
The red decree is brought by the
phoenix from the pink cloud.
All the quarters of the earth
are permeated with a peaceful atmosphere.
The dust of war is all cleansed
by water from the heavenly river.
It is generally said that ten
lines of His Majesty’s script
Can surpass King Shun’s
five-stringed lute.
His universal compassion is
delivered without differentiation of north and south.
Thus no more worry about any
thunder in the air.
贊 慧 中 上士
望 之 彌 高
鑽 之 彌 堅
忽 然 在 後
瞻 之 在 前
夫 是 之 謂
上 士 之 禪
PRAISING
THE SUPERIOR MAN TUỆ
TRUNG
Higher when
admired,
Harder when drilled,
Suddenly appearing before,
Then found behind,
That is called
The Superior Man’s Zen.
世 數 一 索莫
時 情 兩 海銀
魔 宮 渾 管甚
佛 國 不 勝春
A lifespan comes to an
end in the confused state of mind;
Human feelings close at the same
time with the eyes.
How narrowly the Maras’ Palace
is confined.
But the Buddha-land is in Spring
at all times.
一 切 法 不生
一 切 法 不滅
若 能 如 是解
諸 佛 常 現前
何 去 來 之 有
All dharmas
do not arise;
All dharmas do not pass away.
If it is so understood,
The Buddhas are always present.
What is the use of asking ‘going
and coming’?
身 如 呼 吸鼻 中 氣
世 似 風 行嶺 外 雲
杜 鵑 啼 斷月 如 晝
不 是 尋 常空 過 春
The body is
like breath through the nose;
The world is like wind through
the clouds on the peak.
The cuckoos are singing away in
the bright moonlight.
Let not the spring pass so idly.
1. THE
DISCOURSES AT THE SÙNG
NGHIÊM TEMPLE
In the beginning of his discourse at the
hall, the Emperor-Father
mounted the platform, burning incense to pay homage [to the Buddhas
and the Patriarchs]. Thereafter, the head monk struck a board to
invite him to the seat. The Emperor-Father said, “For the sake of a
great deed Buddha Śākyamuni appeared in the world. For forty-nine
years he moved his lips but not a word was ever spoken. As for me,
present here in this seat in front of you all, what may I say?” He
sat down for a moment on the Zen-bed, then said:
The cuckoos are singing away in the
moonlight;
Let not the spring pass so idly.
With a slap given [on the bed] he said,
“Nothing at all. Go out! Go out!”
*****
The monk asked, “What is Buddha?”
The master said, “To understand as before is
not possible.”
The monk asked, “What is Dharma?”
The master said, “To understand as before is
not possible.”
The monk asked, “What does it mean after
all?”
The master said,
The ‘eight words’have all been openly spoken;
Nothing left for me to demonstrate to you.
The monk asked, “What is Saṃgha?”
The master said, “To understand as before is
not possible.”
The monk asked, “What does it mean after
all?”
The master said,
The ‘eight
words’ have all been openly spoken;
Nothing left for me to show you.
The monk asked, “What is the task that helps
go upwards?”
The master said, “Keeping the stick up to
tease the sun and the moon.”
The monk asked, “What is the use of setting
forth an old ‘công án’?”
The master said, “Once repeated, once
renewed.”
The monk asked, “What is the meaning of ‘the
special transmission outside the teaching’?”
The master said, “The frog fails to leap out
of the pail.”
The monk asked, “What about leaping out but
then submerging?”
The master said, “That depends on the length
of its jumping in mud or sand.”
The monk asked, “What about failing to leap
out?”
The master said, “What does that blind man
see?”
The monk asked, “What are you playing tricks
for, master?”
The master uttered a sigh. The monk stood
thinking. The master hit him. He was about to pose another question
when the master shouted. So did the monk.
“What then do you mean when shouting at me
again and again?” asked the master.
The monk thought over it. The master shouted
again, “Where is the cunning fox that has just come?”
The monk bowed and went out.
*****
Question: “With such diligent efforts to
practice meditation for a long time, how many of the Buddha’s six
marvelous powers have you achieved, Master?”
Answer: “All the six.”
Question: “What about the power of knowing
others’ mind?”
Answer: “Minds whatsoever in your country are
all seen and known by Tathāgata.”
Raising his fist, the monk said, “If so, can
you know what is inside it?”
Answer: “There is and there is not; it is
neither form nor emptiness.”
*****
Question: “A monk once asked the Venerable
Lang-yeh, ‘If it is called “original tranquility,” why did
mountains, rivers and great continents all of a sudden arise?’ What
does that mean?”
Answer: “Just as the fishing boat sails on
the sea.”
Question: “What do you mean?”
Answer:
Who can know
smoke and waves in the distance?
There remains a matter to discuss.
Question: “What is the traditional task of
the Buddhas in the past?”
Answer:
Wild gardens
and forests need no tending;
White plums and pink peaches
blossom spontaneously.
Question: “What is the traditional task of
the Buddhas in the present?”
Answer:
The clear water
is used to reflecting swallows early in the morning;
Pink peaches in the immortals’
garden are attracted by spring wind.
Question: “What is the traditional task of
the Buddhas in the future?”
Answer:
The shore is
waiting for tides, the sky is longing for the moon;
Hearing the flute from the fishing
village, the visitor feels homesick.
Question: “What is your traditional task,
master?”
Answer:
With the cloud
wrapped in the tattered robe, I eat gruel in the morning;
With the moonlight poured out of
the pot, I prepare tea in the evening.
Question: “What does it mean by ‘Ling-yun got
awakened at the flowering peaches’?”
Answer:
They open and
close naturally;
Even the Spring does not know.
Question: “What is the meaning of ‘killing
without blinking’?”
Answer: “The body is permeated through with
gall.”
Question: “May a great practitioner be
trapped in the cycle of cause-and-effect?”
Answer:
Like a bowl of
blood the mouth utters blames for Buddhas and Patriarchs;
Like sword-shaped trees the teeth
pierce the Zen forest.
On entering the Avīci Hell
some day after death,
Laugh uproariously—Namo
Avalokiteśvarabodhisattva.
Question: “What is the meaning of ‘the white
herons fly down the field—a thousand marks on snow; the yellow
orioles sing in the bush—a stem of flower’?”
Answer: “You are mistaken.”
Question: “What is your view, master?”
Answer:
The white
herons fly down the field—a thousand of marks on snow;
The yellow orioles sing in the
bush—a stem of flower.”
Question: “It is my words.”
Answer:
If the
immortal’s alchemical techniques are mastered,
That elixir of life surely proceeds
from red cinnabar.
Question: “What is pure dharmakāya?”
Answer:
In the golden
bowl of wine is the lion’s dung;
On the K’un-lun iron mountain is
the flock of partridges.
Question: “I can’t understand.”
Answer:
“Not a Western
merchant good at setting prices,
But a crowd of dealers cheating
each other.”
Question: “What is the perfect sambhogakāya?”
Answer:
“The eagle
flies up on end in the still wind;
The shiny pearl looks smooth in the
clear wave.”
The monk prostrated himself.
The king XE "Điều Ngự" said,
“From the very
beginning have there been functions of all kinds,
Which are not fulfilled owing to
your faults.”
Question: “What is the meaning of
‘innumerable nirmānakāya?”
Answer:
Take hold of
clouds and fogs to ascend to the Heaven;
The water is rising one meter high
at your chest.
Standing up, the monk said, “Thus it is.”
The King XE "Điều Ngự" said,
How laughable
the fellow at the cloud-covered peak looks!
Everywhere iron has been swallowed
up in confusion.
The monk prostrated himself and went out.
2. THE
DISCOURSE AT THE KỲ LÂN
HALL
On the 9th
of the leap 1st month of Bính Ngọ, the Most Venerable
Trúc Lâm XE "Trúc Lâm" came to the Kỳ Lân Hall XE "Kỳ Lân Hall" to
open the preaching. Pointing at the Dharma-seat, he said, “This is
the cane bed, the precious Seat of Golden Lion; yet, it is
impossible to determine the words of the Buddhas and the Patriarchs
in such a narrow seat.” Then, burning incense, he uttered his
prayer:
“This
incense, which can produce sweet-scented smoke and pleasant
atmosphere, is composed of the five attributes of the Dharma-kāya
and offered marvelously to the ten directions. May the heat arising
from the incensory grant fortune to the ten directions, consecrate
the nine temples, prolong the King’s life and consolidate the
heavenly throne!
“This
incense, which is pure at the root and born from a precious seed, is
grown up not by tending but by understanding. May the heat arising
from the incensory bring about favorable weather, make the country
at peace and the people at ease, the Buddha-sun increasingly bright
and the wheel of dharma constant in motion!
“This incense, which does not become cooked
when toasted nor inflamed when burned nor does it open when knocked
nor move when pulled, can split the brain into two if smelled and
exhaust the pupil if looked at. May the heat from the incensory be
dedicated to the Superior Man Vô Nhị and the Great Man Tuệ Trung,
whose ‘dharma-rains’ have permeated through subsequent generations!
Thereafter,
the Emperor-Father walked to the seat. When he was seated, the head
monk struck the board, inviting him to preach. He said, “Venerables,
if our presentation is centered on the transcendental truth, we
would go wrong when forming a certain idea and utter falsehood when
opening our mouths. In such a case, how should we grasp the truth?
How should we master meditation? Is it then possible to base our
presentation on the conventional truth?”
Then taking
a glance from right to left, he said, “Is it true that no one in the
very place has a sufficiently big eye? If he does, not even a hair
of his eyebrows is lost. If not, I, a poor monk, find it hard to
avoid from moving my mouth and uttering wasteful nonsense. Today,
for your sake, let me draw out some mixed and blended part. Listen!
Listen!
“Look, the Great Way is devoid of anything,
neither tying nor binding. The original nature is transparent,
neither good nor evil. Due to picking and choosing, numerous ways
emerge; owing to a shadow of delusion, everything becomes greatly
set apart. Saints and fools are of the same path; no distinction can
be found between right and wrong. Remember that faults and merits
originally do not exist, that cause and effect are devoid of
essence. From the very beginning, nothing is lacking within
everybody, all is inherent in everybody. Just like form and shadow,
Buddha-nature and Dharma-nature occasionally appear and disappear,
neither being attached to nor detached from each other. Obviously,
just on the face the nostrils turn down and the eyebrows cross above
the eyes; yet it is not easy for you to get an insight into it.
“Thus, seek
the Way that can by no means be sought. Concentrated in only one
‘inch of intestines’
are the three thousand Dharma-gates. And from just the source of
mind are numerous marvelous functions. What is called the threefold
gate of precept, meditation and wisdom is not lacking within
yourselves.
“Dharma is
nature; Buddha is mind. Not any nature is no Dharma. Not any mind is
no Buddha. Mind is Buddha, mind is Dharma; Dharma is essentially no
Dharma. Dharma is mind, mind is essentially no mind; mind is Buddha.
“Venerables,
time passes so fast, human life is not permanent. Eating gruel and
eating vegetables, why do you understand nothing about the bowls,
the spoons, the chopsticks?”
***
Then, a monk
stepped out, asking, “It is an ordinary affair for having meals and
putting on clothes. Why should one be so much concerned with them
that one has to raise doubt?”
Having
prostrated himself, he stood up, asking, “We do not ask about the
Realm of Zen XE "Dhyāna" without Desire. We put up only a question
as to the Realm of Desire without Zen.”
Thereupon the master pointed to the air.
The monk
asked, “What is the use of employing the ancient people’s saliva and
sputum?”
The master
said, “Once raised, once renewed.”
The monk:
“The ancient people used to speak about what the Buddha is, what the
Dharma is, what the Saṃgha is. What did they mean by ‘what’?”
The master
said, “What!’ ‘What!”
The monk said, “The
sound of a lute without strings is scarcely understood; yet its tune
becomes highly appreciated when the father plays it for his son.”
IV. WRITING
THE
BIOGRAPHY OF THE SUPERIOR MAN TUỆ TRUNG
The Superior
Man Tuệ Trung was the eldest son of Khâm Minh Từ Thiện Thái Vương,
and the eldest brother of the Queen-Mother Nguyên Thánh Thiên Cảm.
When his father died, the Emperor [Trần] Thái Tông, out of his
respect for the former’s loyalty, conferred on Tuệ Trung the title
Hưng Ninh Vương.
As a young man, he was endowed with a noble
character, and widely known for his honesty. After being appointed
to take charge of troops and people of Route Hồng, he made great
achievements in defending the land twice against foreign invaders.
Later, he was appointed to be Tiết Độ Sứ of Camp Thái Bình on the
coastal land. His capacity was great and his manners gentle.
Just in his
childhood, Tuệ Trung had great admiration for the Gate of Śūnyatā.
Since he penetrated the essentials of Zen teaching on his visits to
Zen Master Tiêu Dao at the Phước Đường Temple, he concentrated his
mind on it alone, which then became a joy of his everyday life,
without any concerns about secular fame and success.
After
retiring to Tịnh Bang, a granted village of his own and later
renamed Vạn Niên by him, he led a normal life among the common
people, to whom he never caused anything rude or harmful.
Consequently, he succeeded in “fostering the seed of Dharma”
and leading honest people on the path to liberation. Those who had
been instructed by him were capable of apprehending the most
fundamental principles of Buddhist teachings, on which they came to
discipline themselves such that they could live spontaneously in
accordance with the Way without longing for earthly successes.
Hearing of
his reputation so long, Dụ Lăng
summoned him to the Imperial Palace, where in each of their
discussions the former was so amazed at his transcendental
interpretation of the Zen teaching that he acknowledged him as his
older Buddhist brother and bestowed on him the present title.
At a banquet held in the palace by the Queen-Mother’s order,
surprised at seeing him eat meat [as normally as those who did not
observe the precept of being vegetarian] the former asked him, “How
would you become Buddha while you, though always lecturing on Zen,
are eating meat as such?” Smiling, he said, “Buddha is Buddha; I,
Tuệ Trung, am Tuệ Trung. I needn’t become Buddha; Buddha needn’t
become me. You don’t hear the ancients’ saying ‘Mañjuśrī is
Mañjuśrī; liberation is liberation’?”
At the Queen-Mother’s death, His Majesty Dụ
Lăng ordered a banquet with votive offerings for Buddhist monks to
be held in the Forbidden Citadel. At the beginning of a discourse on
Zen, he requested some renowned monks each to write a short stanza
to present their own understanding; yet none of them were able to
attain to the depth of the Buddhist teaching. When Dụ Lăng showed
the notepad [in which their stanzas had been written down] to Tuệ
Trung, he crossed them out only with a stroke, and wrote his own as
follows:
見
解
呈
見
解
似
捏
目
作
怪
捏
目
作
怪
了
明
明
常
自
在
Knowing in
terms of knowledge
Is likened to a view of odd things
while screwing up one’s eyes.
If such a view comes to an end,
Everything is clearly seen as
usual.
Reading the gātha, Dụ Lăng wrote
another one on the spot:
明
明
常
自
在
亦
捏
目
作
怪
見
怪
不
見
怪
其
怪
悉
自
壞
That everything is clearly seen as usual
Is like odd things seen while
screwing up one’s eyes.
Whether they are seen oddly or not,
They are all to pass away.
At this, the Superior Man grasped the
Emperor’s implications.
When Dụ Lăng was taking sick, Tuệ
Trung sent him a letter, asking about his health. After reading it,
the King replied with a gātha, of which are the following two lines:
炎
炎
暑
氣
汗
通
身
未
曾
涴
我
娘
生
袴
In this intense heat my body is
permeated with sweat;
Since my birth I have never
wetted my mother’s skirt.
Reading the
gātha, Tuệ Trung uttered a sigh.
When hearing
the King’s sickness became serious, Tuệ Trung hurried to the
Citadel; but the king had passed away.
I am deeply
indebted to Tuệ Trung for his instructions. Formerly, when I was
going into mourning at my Queen-Mother Nguyên Thánh XE "Nguyên Thánh" ’s death,
I once visited him XE "Tuệ Trung Thượng Sỹ" and was given two
records of Hsüeh-tou and Yeh-hsüan. Rather doubtful of his secular
way of living, I pretended to ask him, “How is it possible for those
who have had the habit of eating meat and drinking wine not to be
affected by the consequence of such unwholesome actions?” “Suppose
somebody who does not know the king to be passing by his back has
thrown something at him, would he be frightened in that case? Should
the king get angry at him? [Certainly it does not matter anything at
all] because the two facts have nothing to do with each other,” he
explained. Then, he read two stanzas to express it:
無 常 諸 法 行
心 疑 罪 便 生
本 來 無 一 物
非 種 亦 非 萌
All saṃskāras
are impermanent.
Faults proceed from doubt alone.
Nothing has arisen so far;
Neither seeds nor sprouts are.
And again,
日 日 對 境 時
境 境 從 心 出
心 境 本 來 無
處 處 波 羅 密
In our everyday perception of
all things,
They arise just from our mind.
Both things and mind have not
truly existed.
Nowhere is no-pāramitā.
Whereby I could comprehend his implications,
so I asked, “Though it is so, how should we act as faults and merits
have been definitely distinguished [in the sūtras]?” He went on with
his instruction in another stanza:
喫 草 與 喫 肉
眾 生 各 所 屬
春 來 百 草 生
何 處 見 罪 福
Eating grass and eating meat,
That depends on the beings’
consciousness.
All kinds of grass grow when
spring comes.
What may be called faults and
merits?
“If so, what
is the use of strictly observing Brahmacarya?”
I asked. He smiled without saying a word. At my repeated question,
he read two more stanzas:
持 戒 兼 忍 辱
招 罪 不 招福
欲 知 無 罪福
非 持 戒 忍 辱
Observing precepts and
cultivating patience,
That is to gain no merits but
faults.
To realize merits and faults are
all of śūnyatā,
Do not observe precepts nor
cultivate patience.
And again,
如 人 上 樹 時
安 中 自 求 危
如 人 不 上 樹
風 月 何 所 為
Like a man who is climbing a
tree,
Thus seeking danger from safety;
If not climbing the tree,
Why must he be concerned with
moon and wind?
Then he instructed me secretly, “Do not tell
those who are not worthy.” Thereby I am aware that his personality
is truly transcendent.
One day I
asked him for some advice as regards my working principles.
Spontaneously he said, “Reflect on nothing but your own affairs.” At
this, I got instantaneously aware of the path I had to enter. So I
made up my mind to serve him as my master.
How solemn
and majestic his bearing was! How dignified his manners were. His
lectures on the essentials of Zen always had such an influence on
listeners as the cool breeze, the bright moonlight. The eminent
scholars throughout the country at the time all recognized him to be
among those who had nurtured a deep faith and gained a
transcendental insight [into the Zen teaching] and whose actions,
whether conformed or apparently contrary to conventional values,
were in reality hard to measure.
Later, when
he fell ill at the Dưỡng Chân Estate, he refused to rest in his own
room. Instead, he had a wooden bed placed in the middle of an empty,
large room where, lying in the same posture as the Buddha did in his
pariṇirvāṇa, he gently closed his eyes, about to pass away. On
hearing about this, his household gathered around him, crying and
lamenting loudly. Opening his eyes, he got up and asked for water to
wash his hands and clean his mouth. Gently he blamed them:
“Birth-and-death is the ordinary principle [of all things]. Why are
you crying so painfully as to disturb my true nature?” Thereafter,
he quietly departed, at the age of sixty-two, on the 1st
of the 4th month of Tân Mão, Trùng Hưng the Seventh.
At his death
I attended his funeral and dedicated to him a stanza entitled
“Burning Incense for Repaying His Favors,”
which is not written down here. Since I became his dharma-successor,
it has always occurred to me, especially at the beginning of a
course of Buddhist practice or a discourse on the Buddhist teaching,
that it is difficult for me to repay the Four Great Favors and the
Dharma-milk. Therefore, I had his portrait painted as an offering to
him together with a praising stanza as follows:
這
老
古
錐
人
難
名
邈
梁
皇
曲
尺
泰
帝
鐸
轢
能
方
能
圓
能
厚
能
薄
法
海
獨
眼
禪
林
三
角
His Holiness the Venerable Elder,
It is hard to offer him a designation.
His countenance is like the Emperor Liang’s;
His capacity is equated to the Emperor Thai’s.
Able to be now square, then round,
To be now thick, then thin,
He appears as the One Eye in the ocean of Dharma,
And as the Three Angles of the
forest of Zen.
trans. by P.M.T.
