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How Lifeless being can do a Sermon

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This question was asked National Master Nangyang Huizhong:

How Lifeless being can do a Sermon?


The Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng who is at the root of the Chan school of the South, had a great number of listeners and followers, five of them are remarkable :


Yongjia Xuanjue ; Nanyue Huairang ; Quigyuan Xingsi ; Heze Shenhui appointed to be the seventh patriarch and:


dico-bouddhisme.jpgNangyang Huizhong ou Nan’yo Echu ; Houei-chong de Nan-Yang (675-775) who won in his lifetime the title of National Master, he was 85.


In his dictionary of Buddhism, his biography recounts Philippe Cornu :

“It is said that until the age of 16, Wei-chong had never spoken a word or even crossing the bridge facing his house. But one day, a master Chan advancing on the bridge, Hui-chong rushed to meet him to ask him to give the ordination. The monk sent directly to see Hui-neng Caoqi. Hui-neng not only received him kindly but he was very watchful in saying that he will become “a lonely Buddha in the world “.


In 713, when Hui-neng is gone, Hui-chong withdraws 40 years on Baiyashan in Nanyang, which he takes the name. But his reputation is that the emperor Suzong 肃宗 (Li Heng 李亨 711-762) asked him at his court: Hui-chong Nanyang already 85 years. Forced to surrender to the orders of his emperor, he became his spiritual teacher with the title of National Master. Nangyang Huizhong was revered by all for his gentleness and wisdom. When life left his body there was centenary already.


A monk asked the Master National :

‒ Lifeless being know to do a sermon ?

‒ They preach endless.

‒ Why I do not hear ?

‒ You, do not hear: this does not prevent others from listening.

‒ I do not know who can listen.

‒ The holy can do it.

‒ Reverent, the sermon you can listen it?

‒ I can not listen it.

‒ You can not listen it! So what, how dare you say that Lifeless being can do a sermon ?

‒ Fortunately I do not listen! If I listened, I would be the equal of the holy and you would not listen to my sermon.

‒ If it’s like that, living beings can not hear.

‒ My preaching is for them, it is not for holy.

‒ And how will be the living beings after listening the Sermon of Lifeless being ?

‒ They will no longer be living.


This dialogue will be decisive to Tozan Ryokai founder of Soto Zen school, which is related to Caodong (曹洞宗). Dongshan Liangjie (洞山 良 价 Tozan Ryokai Japanese, the 38th Patriarch, Bodhidharma, the 11th since had composed Hôkyôzanmai – Precious Mirror of the Samadhi and Stances about the Five Ranks of Merit.

To see Philippe Cornu, Le Dictionnaire du Bouddhisme page 139.


Tozan went to find Isan, to question him about The Sermon of Lifeless being.

Isan replied: “I never could talk about it with the mouth that my parents have given”, then suggested that Tozan visit Ungan Donjo.

As soon he arriving, facing Ungan Tozan asked :

‒ “Who can hear The Sermon of Lifeless being?”


Ungan answered:

‒ “Only Lifeless being can hear it.”

‒ “Why not me?”


Ungan raised his staff straight up and said: “Do you hear?”

‒ “No, I don’t.”

‒ “If you do not even hear my sermon, how can you hope to hear the one of Lifeless being? Rivers, birds, trees, and forests all celebrate Buddha and Dharma”


Satisfied with the response of Ungan; Tozan composed a poem:


Wonderful! How wonderful!

Sermons by Lifeless being

Is the eternal truth.

You can not hear with your ears

It is with the eye it must listen.


“Listen with the eye, but not with your eyes. This eye there is the clear vision that opens in the silence of your meditation. Enter the silence, like an eye opens and the world speaks, sings and sound and light: a silence full to the brim.”


And Dogen said: “The Sermon by Lifeless being is a full chapter of Patriarchs and Buddha thought, solely them deepen it.”



Read also :

www.buddhachannel.tv/portail/spip.php?article20059
www.encyclopedia.com

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