Master Hongren, the fifth ancestor of Zen Buddhism, whose family name is Zhou, is a native of Huangmei, Qizhou (now Qichun, Hubei), according to the first volume of the "Five Lantern Huiyuan", his previous life was a person who planted pine in the Potou Mountain.
At that time, the four ancestors Daoxin happened to be stationed in Xitou Mountain, and they belonged to the neighbors, so the Taoist asked Yu Daoxin Zen Master: "Can I hear your Dharma?"Zen Master Daoxin replied, "Of course you can, but you are too old, even if you have some understanding and enlightenment, you will not have time to teach the Dharma to universalize sentient beings, and if you are reincarnated and come back, I can wait for you." ”
He left the four ancestors and went down the mountain to a river, and saw a young girl washing clothes by the river, so he went up to the girl and asked, "Is it okay to stay with you (can I stay with you)?"The maiden thought he was going to spend the night, so she replied, "I can't do this, but you have to ask my father or brother for their consent." The man of Zhisong Dao said: "Promise me, that is, dare to do (only if you agree, I dare to go)." The girl nodded in agreement. The man saw that the girl agreed, and walked away with his cane.
Everyone should pay attention to the fact that there is a problem with the words of the people who asked the laundry girl, and there is a feeling of deliberately digging a pit and putting it under the trap, and it can even be said that it is to deceive the girl's consent. Very unkind, right?Keep this buckle first, and then look back, which is explained below. ）
The strange thing is that soon after, the girl was inexplicably pregnant, the old etiquette was very old-fashioned and strict, unmarried pregnancy is a very unethical thing, the family can tolerate this rude, righteous and shameful girl, it is simply a great shame, so the girl was kicked out of the house.
This girl's family name is Zhou, she was pregnant with a child in a daze, and was kicked out by the family, the grievances and pain in her heart can be imagined, but she has to live, she can only wander around, do some odd jobs for others, sleep under the eaves of some shops at night, eat and sleep in the open, hunger and cold, and suffer from white eyes and discrimination.
Naturally, she was very angry and resentful in her heart, feeling that this child was very unlucky and unlucky, so she secretly threw the newly born child into a stinky ditch.
The next day, when she couldn't help but look again, she saw that the child was floating upstream of the ditch, living well, she was surprised, seeing that the child was full of energy, and the little body was pink and tender, and she couldn't help but feel mother's love, and couldn't help but hold the child in her arms. At that moment, the great motherly love made her determined, no matter how much humiliation and pain she suffered. You must raise this child**.
With her children, she lived a wandering life, begging from village to village. The people in the surrounding villages called the child "no surname", which means illegitimate child.
In the blink of an eye, the child was seven years old, and one day, the mother and son were begging when they met a monk who was none other than the Fourth Patriarch Daoxin. The four ancestors looked at it carefully, and found that this child had a strange appearance, which was unusual for ordinary children, and sighed: "This is not an ordinary child, thirty-two husbands, only seven are missing, although his appearance is not as good as the Buddha's consummation, but if he is a monk, twenty years later, he will definitely do great Buddhist things, can inherit the wisdom of Buddhism, and can be the dependence of all sentient beings." ”
The Biography of the High Monk records that this extraordinary child is also inferior to the Buddha in the appearance of the seven adults. Gou prepares the flow of the Fa, and after 20 years, he will do great Buddhist deeds and be competent to send the lotus.
So Master Daoxin asked the child, "What is the surname of the son?"”
The child said: "The surname is there, not the usual surname." ”
The fourth ancestor asked, "What is your surname?"”
The child said, "It's Buddha nature." ”
The fourth ancestor asked again: "You have no surname evil?"”
The child said: "Sex is empty, so there is none."
When the Fourth Patriarch heard this, he immediately understood that this child was the reincarnation of the Cultivator Song Dao man back then, and that he was indeed a root instrument that was enough to transmit the Fa, and he was secretly happy, so he asked the child's mother to let the child become a monk. This week, the Zhou family experienced a series of strange things from the child's pregnancy to growing up, and knew that it was all the cause of the world, so he agreed to the request of the fourth ancestor. This child worships the four ancestors as teachers, and the four ancestors Daoxin gave him the Dharma name Hongren.
Regarding this reincarnation of the past, after the five ancestors Hongren enlightened, there was an ancient poem to himself: drooping white hair under the green mountains, returning at the age of seven to change the old face. People are young and loose but old, and right and wrong have fallen into the world since then.
And the weirdest thing in this is the reincarnation of the five ancestors in the previous life of the Song Dao people, it is obvious that there is a suspicion of deceiving the laundry girl, unmarried and pregnant, not to mention the disrepute, and forced to be displaced, begging for a living, I believe that anyone who sees this, will be upset for this girl!
The records of the five ancestors of Zen Buddhism have not explained the situation of Hongren's mother, that is, the situation after the girl surnamed Zhou, there is such a legend in the folk, saying that this laundry girl, in her previous life, was the wife of the Buddha of the Song Dao, she was very opposed to the Buddha of the Song Dao, which led to the cultivation of the Song Dao people after the death of the wife, so that they were too old and were rejected by the four ancestors of the Taoist Zen Master.
After the death of the wife of the Planter Songdao, she was reincarnated as a girl of the Zhou family, and it was precisely because of the debt of this previous life that there was a legend of the reincarnation of the Planter Songdao and the reincarnation of Hongren, which has the reincarnation of Buddhism and the cause and effect of no debt. So there is some truth to it.
As for Hongnin's mother, after Hongnin inherited the mantle of Zen Buddhism, she went to take refuge, and Hongnin arranged for her mother to live in the temple and treat her as a general resident, while his mother worked in the temple every day and worshiped the Buddha.
When Hongnin's mother died of old age, Hongnin dragged her mother's body out of the temple, and dragged it past the eighteen thresholds, at this time, there were tens of millions of believers who followed Master Hongnin, they thought that Hongnin was not filial, and his virtue was bad, and they were clamoring to leave, at this moment, his mother's soul appeared and explained: "It's not that Hongnin is not filial, but that I prevented my husband from becoming a monk in my previous life, and there were many acts of slandering the Buddha and slandering the Buddha, and he was deeply sinful, and he was pulling me through the eighteen layers of hell to help me die in the good way." ”
After everyone listened, they woke up like a dream, so they admired the five ancestors Hongren even more, and felt the reincarnation of good and evil cause and effect, and the Buddha became more and more pious.
After Hongren became a monk, he lived in Shuangfeng Mountain with the four ancestors Daoxin Zen Master, he was introverted, did not like to talk, pure and flawless, and had a generous heart. His fellow disciples always bullied him, and he didn't argue with them, so he dealt with them calmly. During the day, they rushed to do hard work and hard work. In the evening, he meditated all night long, practiced diligently, and never slackened over the years.
The Legend of the Dharma Treasure says that he "is driven by chaos during the day, and sits until dawn at night, never slackening, and is refined until many years".
Hongren is such an excellent character, diligent in practice, and high in understanding, and has excellent popularity among his brothers and sisters, and has become a model and example for them to learn. When Master Daoxin was still alive, there were many people who came from all over the world to visit and learn the Tao, which can be described as "asking for benefits from all directions, and more than a thousand times a month".
Master Daoxin of the Fourth Ancestor really didn't look away, this Hongren is indeed a great instrument that can be called inheriting the Zen method. He was very happy, and since then, he has opened a small stove for Hongren from time to time, teaching the purpose of epiphany, and constantly randomly clamping the hammer, Hongren's understanding is already high, so carefully taught, the Tao soon reached the realm of perfection.
Finally, one day, when the karma was ripe, Master Daoxin, the fourth patriarch, passed on his Dharma robe to Master Hongren. Hongren also became the five ancestors of Chinese Zen Buddhism. When the Dharma was paid, Master Daoxin of the Four Ancestors said a verse:
"The Chinese species is born, and the Chinese are born because of the place.
The great fate and sex are combined, and they are born and not born. ”
At the same time, the four ancestors Daoxin also entrusted all his ** to the Hongren Zen Master. After the Hongren Zen Master obtained the Dharma, he soon built another dojo in Huangmei Fengmao Mountain to open the Dharma, named Dongshan Temple (later known as the Five Ancestors Temple), and the Zen method was called the Dongshan Method.
According to the record of "Lenga Teacher", in February of the fifth year of Xianheng of Tang Gaozong (674 AD), Hongren died in Dongshan Temple at the age of 74. The Tang Dynasty Sect was called Daman Zen Master. Before he went into destruction, he passed the mantle to Huineng. He is the sixth ancestor of Zen Buddhism, Master Hui Neng.
Hiroshi said before he died;"I have taught countless people in my life;The good ones die together, and those who preach our way later can only have ten ears"。These ten people are said to be Shenxiu, Zhixi, Liu Zhuji, Huizang, Xuanyue, Lao'an, Faru, Huineng, Zhide, and Yifang. Among these ten people, the most prominent and influential are Shenxiu and Huineng.
Although Shenxiu and Huineng are from the same school and have the same teacher, the Zen methods they teach are not the same. Huineng in the South. Its Zen Dharma sect "Prajna" is the Dun Gate, Shenxiu is in the north, and its Zen Dharma Sect "Lengga" is the gradual gate, which is known as the South Neng North Show or the South Dun North Gradual. Later, Nanchan moved north, Beixiu gradually declined, and Nanchan then formed a unified world.
Chinese Zen science, since Bodhidharma, has been initiated by the "Ranga". To the four ancestors of Taoism, and create a line of samadhi practice. Hongnin not only inherited the Zen tradition of Master Doshin, but also proposed the practice method of initiation with the Diamond Sutra. In other words, since the Dharma Patriarch passed on the Dharma, Zen Buddhism has been constantly developing.
In the era of Taoism and forbearance, the monks paid equal attention to agriculture and Zen, self-sufficiency, and Zen in their lives, advocating that practitioners should mainly live in the mountains and stay away from the hustle and bustle. These reforms and measures conducive to the spread of Buddhism have had a far-reaching impact on the history of Chinese Buddhism.
During his time in Higashiyama, Master Hongnin gradually created a unique system of Zen thought"Dongshan Method"He has made significant contributions to the establishment and development of Zen Buddhism, and has been recognized by the Buddhist community as one of the founders of Zen Buddhism in China.
There is no Amitabha Buddha in the south, and it is good and good, and it is good !!
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