Wendi Adamek on Sengcan - including an alternate version of the first meeting between Huike and Sengcan

Excerpt from Adamek's "Mystique of Transmission: On an Early Chan History and Its Contexts":

"In the Lidai fabao ji and later Chan texts, the third Chan patriarch Sengcan (d.u.) becomes a symbol of the subitist cure that is offered in place of confession:

When he first encountered Great Master Ke, [Seng]can appeared to have palsy, and they met in the midst of a crowd. Great Master Ke asked, “Where are you from? Why are you here?” Sengcan replied, “Because I want to serve the Venerable.” Great Master Ke said, “For you, a person afflicted with palsy, what good is it to meet with me?” Can replied, “Although my body is afflicted, between the mind of the afflicted and the Venerable’s mind, there is not any difference.” Great Master Ke realized that Can was no ordinary man and therefore entrusted the Dharma and the kāṣāya robe of verification to Sengcan.

"...The one who is chosen to be the sole legitimate vessel of the Dharma is one whose physical unfitness signifies a heavy karmic burden, suffering from an illness that would mark him as ineligible for ordination according to the Vinaya. This encounter between Huike and Sengcan has a structure identical to the famous Platform Sūtra story of Hongren’s encounter with Huineng. In the latter encounter, Hongren voices the customary antipathy to “barbarians,” and in this encounter Huike voices popular prejudice against the afflicted. ....the motif of Sengcan’s illness continued to function as a good inversion of the “good sign” in the definitive Chan transmission record, [the Record of the Transmission of the Lamp]. ....one physically unfit for the Saṅgha becomes the quintessence of the Saṅgha: “The Great Master deeply appreciated his capacity, and had him tonsured. He said, ‘This is our jewel! He should be called Sengcan (Saṅgha-gem).’ ”

Submitted January 14, 2019 at 01:35AM by essentialsalts http://bit.ly/2Macvqg