Pārśva

The Tenth Ancestor, the Venerable Parsva, served the Venerable Buddhamitra for three years, never sleeping. One day, the Venerable recited a sutra and expounded on the unborn. Hearing this, the master awakened to the Way.

He was a man of Central India. His original name was Difficult Birth. Initially, when the master was about to be born, his father dreamed

of a white elephant, on whose back was a jeweled seat. On the seat rested a single luminous pearl, its light illuminating the fourfold assembly. Upon awakening, the child was born.

He was a man of Central India. His original name was Difficult Birth. Initially, when the Venerable was about to be born, his father dreamed of a white elephant whose back bore a jeweled seat; on the seat rested a luminous pearl. It entered through the gate, its light illuminating the fourfold assembly. Upon awakening, the child was born. The Venerable Buddhamitra,

traveled to Central India to teach and transform beings. At that time, there was a wealthy elder named Fragrant Canopy. He brought his son to pay respects to the Venerable, saying, 'This child remained in the womb for sixty years, hence he is called Difficult Birth. Moreover, I once met a sage who said, "This child is no ordinary person; he should become a vessel of the dharma." Now meeting the Venerable, he should be allowed to leave home.'The Venerable shaved his head and conferred the precepts upon him. Having been in the womb for sixty years and lived eighty years after birth, making a total of one hundred forty years, he first aroused the mind of enlightenment. He was extremely aged. When, based on this, he wished to arouse the mind, people all admonished him, saying, 'You are already aged; what purpose would it serve to vainly approach the clear stream? There are two kinds of leaving home: one is practicing meditation,

the other is reciting sutras. You are not capable of either.'

In the 'Jingde Transmission of the Lamp Record', in India, there was a wealthy elder named Xianggai who brought his son to pay respects to the Venerable. The Venerable said, 'This child remained in the womb for sixty years, hence named Difficult Birth.'He also met a sage who said this child was extraordinary and would become a vessel of the Dharma. Now encountering the Venerable, he should be allowed to leave home. The Venerable immediately shaved his head and gave him the precepts.

The Master, hearing worldly slander, vowed himself, saying, 'If I leave home and do not master the Tripitaka and attain the three insights, I vow not to let my side touch the mat.'So vowing, by day he studied and recited sutras, by night he sat in meditation and contemplated, never sleeping. When he first sought to leave home, auspicious light illuminated his seat, and he experienced the appearance of thirty-seven relics. From then on, diligent and forgetting fatigue for three years, he finally mastered the Tripitaka and opened the wisdom of the three insights. One day, when the Venerable recited sutras and expounded non-arising, the Master heard and awakened, eventually ranking as the Tenth Patriarch.

Know that the work of Buddhas and Patriarchs is such diligent forgetting of fatigue, studying and reciting sutras, sitting in meditation and contemplating. The Patriarch also ordinarily recited sutras and expounded the unsurpassed. These sutras are the true Mahayana scriptures. Though all spoken by the Buddha, if not Mahayana sutras, they are not recited; if not sutras of definitive meaning, they are not relied upon. These Mahayana sutras do not speak of wiping away fine dust, nor of eliminating delusions. Sutras of definitive meaning not only exhaust principle and wonder, but also exhaust the matter. Exhausting the matter means from the initial aspiration of all Buddhas to the bodhi and nirvana, explaining the three vehicles and five vehicles, eons, lands, and names—all are exhausted. This is definitive meaning. Thus, know that Buddhist sutras are like this.

Even if one expresses a phrase or penetrates a principle, if the work of a lifetime of study is not completed, it is difficult to be acknowledged as a Buddha or Patriarch. Therefore, one must diligently forget fatigue, surpass the crowd in aspiration, transcend the ordinary in practice, carefully study thoroughly, investigate in detail, continue night into day, establish resolve and arouse effort, fully clarify the original intent of Buddhas and Patriarchs appearing in the world and the essential meaning of one's own preservation, so that in one lifetime there is no principle not penetrated, no matter not exhausted—then one is a Buddha or Patriarch. Lately, the way of Patriarchs has declined, and due to lack of genuine study, some think it sufficient to penetrate a single word or principle. I fear this is the category of arrogance. Greatly beware.

In the 'Lotus Sutra', lifespan of a kalpa, lands adorned, voice-hearers and bodhisattvas, true Dharma and semblance Dharma—do you not see that all follow the same path? The path is like a mountain: the higher you climb, the higher it becomes. Virtue is like the sea: the deeper you enter, the deeper it becomes. Enter the deep and reach the bottom, climb the high and reach the peak—only then become a true child of the Buddha. Do not idly abandon body and mind. All people are vessels of the Way. Every day is a good day.

It is only due to careful study or lack thereof that there are those who penetrate and those who do not. It is not necessarily about choosing people.

One should know the proper time not by calculation but through present causes and conditions. Already over a hundred and forty years old, I am aged and feeble. Yet because my aspiration remained undivided, I forgot fatigue in diligent practice, and thus completed my training in this single lifetime. Truly, as a pitiful old-boned body, I attended my master for three years without ever sleeping. People nowadays especially become lazy in old age. Reflecting on the ancient sages of the past, do not consider cold hardship as cold hardship, do not consider scorching heat as scorching heat, do not think of cutting off body and life, do not think the mind cannot reach. If one can be like this, then one is a person of learning. This is indeed a person of the Way. If one has learning and possesses the Way, who would not be a buddha-ancestor?

It is said one should recite sutras. Reciting sutras does not necessarily mean chanting with the mouth and holding them with hands, considering it merely as turning the scripture. Carefully, within the house of the buddha-ancestors, do not vainly practice amidst sounds and forms, do not carry out your practice within the womb of ignorance. Wherever wisdom arises, whenever the mind-ground opens brightly, one should recite sutras. If throughout the twelve hours of the day one practices in this manner without ever relying on anything, then there is no failing to realize the unborn original nature.

Do you not know? Though born, there is nowhere from which one comes; though dying, there is also no place to go. Right here is birth, everywhere is extinction. Arising and ceasing, together with time, never cease. Therefore, birth is not birth.

Death is not death. Yet as a training person, do not let life and death hang on your mind. Do not separate yourself through seeing and hearing. Even if there is seeing and hearing, sounds and forms, they are your own treasury of light. From the eye faculty, light radiates, creating adorned forms. From the ear faculty, light radiates, hearing the Buddha's work of sound. From the hands, light radiates, turning oneself and turning others. From underfoot, light radiates, advancing and retreating.

Today, to point out and explain such principles, I think to put on humble words. Do you wish to hear?

The master asked Huangbo on another occasion: 'How about the study of samadhi and prajna, this principle?'Huangbo said: 'Throughout the twelve hours, not relying on turning here and turning there, how many sutras? The sections and phrases of dying here and being born there.'