Huike
Encyclopedia
Dazu Huike is considered the Second Patriarch of Chinese Chán
and the twenty-ninth since Gautama Buddha
.
The Hsu kao-seng chuan says that Huike was born in Hu-lao (Ssu-shui hsien, Henan
) and his secular name was Shénguāng (神光, Wade-Giles: Shen-kuang; Japanese: Shinko). A scholar in both Buddhist scriptures and classical Chinese texts, including Taoism, Huike was considered enlightened but criticised for not having a teacher. He met his teacher Bodhidharma
at the Shaolin Monastery in 528 when he was about forty years old and studied with Bodhidharma for six years (some sources say four years, five years, or nine years).
Legend has it that Bodhidharma initially refused to teach Huike and Huike stood in the snow outside Bodhidharma’s cave all night until the snow reached his waist. In the morning Bodhidharma asked him why he was there and Huike replied that he wanted a teacher to "open the gate of the elixir or universal compassion to liberate all beings". Bodhidharma refused, saying, “how can you hope for true religion with little virtue, little wisdom, a shallow heart, and an arrogant mind? It would just be a waste of effort.”
Finally, to prove his resolve, Huike cut off his left arm and presented it to the First Patriarch as a token of his sincerity at which point Bodhidharma accepted him as a student and changed his name from Shenguang to Huike (“Wisdom and Capacity”). Without realizing that he had just self-amputated his left arm, Huike screamed in pain and the exchange went as follows:
According to the Denkoroku, when Huike and Bodhidharma were climbing up Few Houses Peak, Bodhidharma asked, “Where are we going?” Huike replied, “Please go right ahead---that’s it.” Bodhidharma retorted, “If you go right ahead, you cannot move a step.” Upon hearing these words, Huike was enlightened.
Legend has it that Bodhidharma wished to return to India and called together his disciples and the following exchange took part.
Bodhidharma passed on the symbolic robe and bowl of dharma succession to Huike and, some texts claim, a copy of the Lankavatara Sutra
. Bodhidharma then either returned to India or died. Huike went to Yedu (Wade-Giles: Yeh-tu) (modern Henan) about 534 and, except for a period of political turmoil and Buddhist persecution in 574, lived in the area Yedu and Wei (modern Hebei
) for the rest of his life. It was during the time of upheaval that Huike sought refuge in the mountains near the Yangtze River
and met Sengcan
who was to become his successor and the Third Chinese Patriarch of Chan. In 579, Huike returned to Yedu and expounded the dharma, drawing large numbers to listen to his teachings and arousing the hostility of other Buddhist teachers, one of whom, Tao-heng, paid money to have Huike killed but Huike converted the would-be assassin. (ibid)
The Wudeng Huiyan (Compendium of Five Lamps) compiled by Dachuan Lingyin Puji (1179–1253) claims that Huike lived to the age of one hundred seven. He was buried about forty kilometres east northeast of Anyang City in Hebei Province. Later, the Tang Dynasty emperor De Zong gave Huike the honorific name Dazu (“Great Ancestor”) Some traditions have it that Huike was executed after complaints about his teachings by influential Buddhist priests. One story says that blood did not flow from his decapitated body, but rather, a white milky substance flowed through his neck.
although this cannot be firmly established by modern scholars. This sutra urges ‘self-enlightenment’, the “forgetting of words and thoughts”. Tao-hsuan listed Huike and his circle of disciples as masters of meditation and the Lankavatara Sutra in his Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (Chinese: 高僧傳 Wade-Giles: Hsu kao-seng chuan; Japanese: Zokuk kosoden) There is little doubt that Huike practiced and promoted meditation (as opposed to sutra commentary) as the method to reach understanding of true Buddhism. Tao-hsuan referred to Huike (and others) as dhyana masters (Wade-Giles: ch’an-shih; Japanese: zenji) highlighting the importance of meditation practice in these early years of Chan development. However, what form Huike and Bodhidharma’s meditation took (which Tao-hsuan labelled ju shih an-hsin wei pi-kuan (“wall gazing” or “wall contemplation”) is unclear.
One text that was circulating at the time of Huike was the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices (Wade-Giles: Erh-ju ssu-hsing lun; Pinyin: Erru sixing lun). This text was the purported teachings of Bodhidharma with a preface by T’an Lin (fl.
525-543) The two entrances refers to the entrance of principle and the entrance of practice. The entrance of principle is that one must have faith in the truth of the teachings and that everyone possesses the same “true nature” which is covered up by “false senses”. The entrance of practice refers to the four practices of the title: be undisturbed by suffering, accept one’s circumstances and be unmoved by good or bad fortune, be without attachment or desire and, finally, govern one’s actions based on understanding the emptiness or non-substantiality of all things.
Attached to the text are some letters, one of which may have been written to Huike and Huike's brief reply. The Bodhidharma text and Huike’s letter indicate that the earliest teachings of what was to become Chan emphasized that Buddha Nature was within and each person must realize this individually through meditation rather than studying the sutra
s, ceremonies, doing good deeds or worshiping the Buddhas. Meditation should be free of any dualism or attached goal and realization occurs suddenly. Huike wrote:
One of the most important characteristics of the early Chán of Bodhidharma and Huike was the sudden approach to enlightenment rather than the Indian yogic meditation which advocated concentration and gradual self-perfection.
Chan
-People:* Chan Marshall, American musician better known as Cat Power* Chan , Chinese surname; Mandarin transcription of the same name is Chen ** Agnes Chan , Hong Kong singer, also famous in Japan...
and the twenty-ninth since Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
.
Introduction
As with most of the early Chán patriarchs, very little firm data is available about his life. The earliest extant biography of the Chán patriarchs is the Biographies of Eminent Monks (519) (Chinese:高僧傳 Gāo Sēng Zhuàn) and its sequel, Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (Chinese:隋高僧傳 Suí Gāo Sēng Zhuàn; Japanese: Zoku kosoden) (645) by Tao-hsuan (?-667). The following biography is the traditional Chan biography as handed down throughout the centuries, including the Denkoroku by Zen Master Keizan Jokin (1268–1325).The Hsu kao-seng chuan says that Huike was born in Hu-lao (Ssu-shui hsien, Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
) and his secular name was Shénguāng (神光, Wade-Giles: Shen-kuang; Japanese: Shinko). A scholar in both Buddhist scriptures and classical Chinese texts, including Taoism, Huike was considered enlightened but criticised for not having a teacher. He met his teacher Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th/6th century AD. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Ch'an to China, and regarded as the first Chinese patriarch...
at the Shaolin Monastery in 528 when he was about forty years old and studied with Bodhidharma for six years (some sources say four years, five years, or nine years).
Legend has it that Bodhidharma initially refused to teach Huike and Huike stood in the snow outside Bodhidharma’s cave all night until the snow reached his waist. In the morning Bodhidharma asked him why he was there and Huike replied that he wanted a teacher to "open the gate of the elixir or universal compassion to liberate all beings". Bodhidharma refused, saying, “how can you hope for true religion with little virtue, little wisdom, a shallow heart, and an arrogant mind? It would just be a waste of effort.”
Finally, to prove his resolve, Huike cut off his left arm and presented it to the First Patriarch as a token of his sincerity at which point Bodhidharma accepted him as a student and changed his name from Shenguang to Huike (“Wisdom and Capacity”). Without realizing that he had just self-amputated his left arm, Huike screamed in pain and the exchange went as follows:
- Huike said to Bodhidharma, “My mind is anxious. Please pacify it.” Bodhidharma replied, “Bring me your mind, and I will pacify it.” Huike said, “Although I’ve sought it, I cannot find it.” “There,” Bodhidharma replied, “I have pacified your mind.”
According to the Denkoroku, when Huike and Bodhidharma were climbing up Few Houses Peak, Bodhidharma asked, “Where are we going?” Huike replied, “Please go right ahead---that’s it.” Bodhidharma retorted, “If you go right ahead, you cannot move a step.” Upon hearing these words, Huike was enlightened.
Legend has it that Bodhidharma wished to return to India and called together his disciples and the following exchange took part.
- Bodhidharma asked, “Can each of you say something to demonstrate your understanding?”
- Dao Fu stepped forward and said, “It is not bound by words and phrases, nor is it separate from words and phrases. This is the function of the Tao.”
- Bodhidharma: “You have attained my skin.”
- The nun Zong Chi stepped up and said, “It is like a glorious glimpse of the realm of Akshobhya Buddha . Seen once, it need not be seen again.”
- Bodhidharma; “You have attained my flesh.”
- Dao Yu said, “The four elements are all empty. The five skandhas are without actual existence. Not a single dharma can be grasped.”
- Bodhidharma: “You have attained my bones.”
- Finally, Huike came forth, bowed deeply in silence and stood up straight.
- Bodhidharma said, “You have attained my marrow.”
Bodhidharma passed on the symbolic robe and bowl of dharma succession to Huike and, some texts claim, a copy of the Lankavatara Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...
. Bodhidharma then either returned to India or died. Huike went to Yedu (Wade-Giles: Yeh-tu) (modern Henan) about 534 and, except for a period of political turmoil and Buddhist persecution in 574, lived in the area Yedu and Wei (modern Hebei
Hebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
) for the rest of his life. It was during the time of upheaval that Huike sought refuge in the mountains near the Yangtze River
Yangtze River
The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...
and met Sengcan
Sengcan
Jianzhi Sengcan is known as the Third Chinese Patriarch of Chán after Bodhidharma and thirtieth Patriarch after Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha....
who was to become his successor and the Third Chinese Patriarch of Chan. In 579, Huike returned to Yedu and expounded the dharma, drawing large numbers to listen to his teachings and arousing the hostility of other Buddhist teachers, one of whom, Tao-heng, paid money to have Huike killed but Huike converted the would-be assassin. (ibid)
The Wudeng Huiyan (Compendium of Five Lamps) compiled by Dachuan Lingyin Puji (1179–1253) claims that Huike lived to the age of one hundred seven. He was buried about forty kilometres east northeast of Anyang City in Hebei Province. Later, the Tang Dynasty emperor De Zong gave Huike the honorific name Dazu (“Great Ancestor”) Some traditions have it that Huike was executed after complaints about his teachings by influential Buddhist priests. One story says that blood did not flow from his decapitated body, but rather, a white milky substance flowed through his neck.
Huike Teachings
There is some evidence that both Huike and Bodhidharma based their teachings on the Lankavatara SutraLankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...
although this cannot be firmly established by modern scholars. This sutra urges ‘self-enlightenment’, the “forgetting of words and thoughts”. Tao-hsuan listed Huike and his circle of disciples as masters of meditation and the Lankavatara Sutra in his Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (Chinese: 高僧傳 Wade-Giles: Hsu kao-seng chuan; Japanese: Zokuk kosoden) There is little doubt that Huike practiced and promoted meditation (as opposed to sutra commentary) as the method to reach understanding of true Buddhism. Tao-hsuan referred to Huike (and others) as dhyana masters (Wade-Giles: ch’an-shih; Japanese: zenji) highlighting the importance of meditation practice in these early years of Chan development. However, what form Huike and Bodhidharma’s meditation took (which Tao-hsuan labelled ju shih an-hsin wei pi-kuan (“wall gazing” or “wall contemplation”) is unclear.
One text that was circulating at the time of Huike was the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices (Wade-Giles: Erh-ju ssu-hsing lun; Pinyin: Erru sixing lun). This text was the purported teachings of Bodhidharma with a preface by T’an Lin (fl.
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
525-543) The two entrances refers to the entrance of principle and the entrance of practice. The entrance of principle is that one must have faith in the truth of the teachings and that everyone possesses the same “true nature” which is covered up by “false senses”. The entrance of practice refers to the four practices of the title: be undisturbed by suffering, accept one’s circumstances and be unmoved by good or bad fortune, be without attachment or desire and, finally, govern one’s actions based on understanding the emptiness or non-substantiality of all things.
Attached to the text are some letters, one of which may have been written to Huike and Huike's brief reply. The Bodhidharma text and Huike’s letter indicate that the earliest teachings of what was to become Chan emphasized that Buddha Nature was within and each person must realize this individually through meditation rather than studying the sutra
Sutra
Sūtra is an aphorism or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. Literally it means a thread or line that holds things together and is derived from the verbal root siv-, meaning to sew , as does the medical term...
s, ceremonies, doing good deeds or worshiping the Buddhas. Meditation should be free of any dualism or attached goal and realization occurs suddenly. Huike wrote:
- Originally deluded, one calls the mani-pearl a potsherd
- Suddenly one is awakened---and it is [recognized] as a pearl
- Ignorance and wisdom are identical, not different.
One of the most important characteristics of the early Chán of Bodhidharma and Huike was the sudden approach to enlightenment rather than the Indian yogic meditation which advocated concentration and gradual self-perfection.
External links
- Faure, Bernard, Bodhidharma as Textual and Religious Paradigm in History of Religions, Vol. 25, No. 3. (Feb., 1986)