The Death of Hongzhi: Leaving his Final Affairs to Dahui (Say Goodbye Before you Die Edition)

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Bye Y'all

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In the ninth month of [the year 1157], Hongzhi visited [various personages of the region] and bade them farewell. On the seventh day of the tenth month he returned to the mountain [Tiantong]. In the early hours of the next morning, the master bathed and changed his clothes. He then sat in an upright position and bade farewell to the monks. He asked his attendants for a brush, and then wrote a letter to [Zen master] Dahui of Ayuwang Temple, asking him to take care of his final affairs.

He then wrote a verse:

Empty flowers of an illusory dream,
Sixty-seven years,
A white bird disappears in the mist,
Autumn waters touch the sky.

He then threw down the brush and passed away. Enshrined for seven days, his complexion was still lifelike. His entire body was placed in a stupa in the eastern valley. He received the posthumous name “Vast Wisdom.” The stupa was named “Divine Light.”

-Zen's Chinese heritage: the masters and their teachings
by Andy Ferguson

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Bonus Round: The path is not transmittable by patriarchs

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The path is not [something] transmittable by patriarchs. Before the arrival of patriarchs, the "imperial edict" had already pervaded and encompassed the whole [world]. Naturally empty without any traces, it is potent and spiritual—where opposites have terminated. Solitary and luminous, it transcends causes and conditions; eternally dynamic, it is separate from appearances. This is called becoming a Patriarch. Only through mutual authentication [can that which is transmitted be known]—the patriarch cannot hand it to you. All Buddhas arrive here and take this to be the ultimate, and utilize it to respond, transform, and disseminate their [emanation] bodies like [a multitude of] flowers and leaves. Sense faculties and objects are [employed] to enter the three times [of past, present and future]. The ten thousand opportunities do not disturb you; not a single mote of dust is outside your being. Its marvel is beyond the great thousands of scriptures. Where can [illusory] shadows be obtained?

- Silent Illumination Chan by Hongzhi Zhengjue
Excerpts from 宏智禪師廣錄 Hongzhi chanshi guanglu
(Extensive Records of Chan Master Hongzhi)

Submitted January 19, 2020 at 12:16AM by madewithsticks https://ift.tt/3amB8Mj