Zen Master swimming lessons

The Case:

Eminent Master Hongren, the 5P, in his previous lifetime was a woodcutter in the West Mountains of Qizhou. He happened to meet the 4P, who said to him, "I want to transmit the Dharma to you. You are already advanced in years, so if you are reborn, I will still be around." The master agreed and subsequently took birth with a woman from the Zhou family. She threw him into a dirty creek, but the gods saved and protected him.

When he was a young lad of seven, the 4P one day went to Huangmei county where he met the little boy, and seeing that his bones and physiognomy were unusually fine, asked him, "What is your surname?" The boy replied, "My surname is Existence-Nonexistence." The Patriarch asked, "What sort of surname is that?" The boy said, "it is the Buddha nature." The Patriarch said, "You do not have a surname then?" The boy said, "It is because my nature is empty that I have none."

The Patriarch was quiet, knowing that this boy was a Dharma vessel, and took him on as an attendant. Later, after he had left the household life, the Patriarch entrusted him with the robes and the Dharma. He then went to live on the east mountain of Huangmei.

Is Hongren the useless kid Miaozong threw in the river?

"He took birth in a woman" as in he chose? Man, these guys really do go all out.

Any of you buggers free from the laws of cause and effect yet?

Submitted May 17, 2020 at 01:15AM by Karokuma https://ift.tt/3byz82N