BODHIDHARMA AND HUI-K'0
Fact, Fiction, Legend

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BODHIDHARMA

With the Transmission of the Dharma, Shen Kuang received the name "Hui K'o" which means "Able Wisdom."

Master Hui K'o asked Bodhidharma, "In India, did you transmit the dharma to your disciples? Did you also give the robe and the bowl as certification?"

"I transmitted the Dharma in India," replied Bodhidharma, "but I did not use the robe and the bowl. Indian people are straight forward. When they attain the fruit, they know they must be certified. If no one certifies them, they do not say, 'I have attained the Way! I have given proof to Arhatship! I am a Bodhisattva!' They do not speak like this."

"Many people have the Great Vehicle Root Nature, but there are also many people who lie. Having cultivated without success, such people claim to have the way. Though they have not certified the fruit, they claim to be certified sages."

While the Patriarch was in China, he was poisoned six times. Dharma Master Bodhiiruci and Vinaya Master Kuang T'ung were jealous of him. They prepared a vegetarian meal which contained a invariably fatal drug, and offered it to the Patriarch. Although he knew it was poisoned, he ate it. Then he vomited the food on to a tray, and it was transformed into a pile of writhing snakes.

After this unsuccessful attempt, Bodhiruci tried again, using an even more potent poison. Again, Bodhidharma ate the food. Then he sat atop a huge boulder and spat out the poison. The boulder crumbled into a heap of dust. In four more attempts, jealous people tried without success to poison the Patriarch.

One day, the Great Master Bodhidharma said to Hui K'o, 'I came to China because I saw people with the Great Vehicle Root Nature. Now I have transmitted the Dharma and am ready to complete the stillness." After his death the Patriarch's body was buried. there was nothing unusual about his funeral.

In Northern Wei (386-532 A.D.), however, an official called Sung Yun, met Bodhidharma on the road to Chung Nan Mountain in Ts'un Ling. When they met Bodhidharma was carrying one shoe in his hand. he said to Sung Yun, "The king of your country died today. Return quickly! There is work to be done."

The official asked, "Great Master, where are you going?"
"Back to India," the Great Master replied.
"Venerable One, to whom did you transmit your dharma?"
"In China after forty years, it will be 'K'o.'"

Sung Yun returned to his country and reported the incident. "Recently, in Ts'un Ling, I met the Patriarch Bodhidharma who told me that the king of our country had died and instructed me to return back to the capital. When I arrived I found it exactly as he had said. How did he know?"

His countrymen scoffed, "Bodhidharma is already dead. How could you have met him on the road?" Then they rushed to the Patriarch's grave and found it empty, with nothing inside but one shoe.

Where did Bodhidharma go? No one knows. Perhaps he came to America. Wherever he wanders, no one can recognize him, because he can change and transform according to his convenience. When he came to China he said he was one hundred and fifty years old, and when he left he was still one hundred and fifty years old. No historical references can be found.

When Bodhidharma was about to enter Nirvana he said, "I came to China and transmitted my Dharma to three people. One received my marrow, one received my bones, and one received my flesh." After the transmission, the patriarch himself no longer had a body. Great Master Hui K'o received the marrow and Ch'an Master Tao Yu received the bones.

Bhikshuni Tsung Ch'ih would recite The Lotus Sutra from memory. After she died, a green lotus flower grew from her mouth. She received Bodhidharma's flesh. In the end, Bodhidharma had no body at all. So don't look for him in America; you won't find him.

HUI K'0

The Second Patriarch, Hui K'o of the Northern Ch'i (550-577 A.D.) whose family name was Chi, was formerly Shen Kuang. When he was born, his parents saw Wei T'ou Bodhisattva, the golden armored spiritual being, come to offer protection; thereupon they named their son "Shen Kuang" which means "spiritual light." Not only was the Patriarch intelligent, but he had an excellent memory as well, and his skills and powers of discrimination were so remarkable that he could read ten lines in the time it took an ordinary person to read one. In a gathering of one hundred people, all talking at once, he could clearly distinguish each conversation.

The Great Master, however, had great anger; he disagreed with everyone and was ready to fight. When Shen Kuang explained Sutras, as I have told you, he uses his iron beads to win his arguments. Later, after he knelt for nine years in quest of the Dharma, it was his great anger which enabled him to cut off his arm and feel no pain. It was also because of this anger that he later felt pain. Unafflicted by anger, he would have felt no pain. pain is just an affliction and affliction is the cause of pain.

The Second Patriarch was forty years old when he left Bodhidharma. having obtained the Dharma, he went into hiding because Bodhiruci and Vinaya Master Kuang T'ung, who had made six attempts on the life of Bodhidharma, also wished to kill his disciples. So although Hui K'o had great anger, he nevertheless obeyed his teacher and went into hiding for forty years. When he was eighty, he began to propagate the Buddhadharma, teaching and transforming living beings.

Later, the disciples of Bodhiruci and Vinaya Master T'ung Kuang tried to kill Master Hui K'o, who feigned insanity to lessen the jealousy of his rivals. But he never ceased to save living beings who were ready to receive his teaching. Because so many people continued to trust the Second Patriarch, Bodhiruci's disciples were still jealous. They reported Hui K'o to the government, accusing him of being a weird inhuman creature. "He confuses the people who follow him," they charged; "he is not even human." The emperor ordered the district magistrate to arrest him, and Hui K'o was locked up and questioned:

"Are you human or are you a freak?" asked the Magistrate.
"I'm a freak," replied master Hui K'o.
The magistrate knew that the Patriarch was saying this to avoid jealousy, so he ordered him to tell the truth. "Speak clearly," he demanded, "what are you?"

The Great Master replied, "I'm a freak."
Governments can't allow strange freaks to roam the earth, and so Hui K'o was sentenced to die. Now, isn't that the way of the world?

The Patriarch wept when he told his disciples, "I must undergo retribution." He was a courageous man, certainly not one who would cry out of Fear of Death. He was sad that the Dharma had not been widely understood during his lifetime. "The Buddhadharma will not flourish until the time of the fourth Patriarch," he announced, and then he faced the executioner.

"Come and kill me he said!" he said. The executioner raised his axe and swung it towards the master's neck. What do you think happened?

You are probably thinking, "He was a patriarch with great spiritual power. Certainly the blade shattered and his neck was not even scratched." No. The axe cut off his head, and it didn't grow back. However, instead of blood, a milky white fluid flowed onto the chopping block.

You think, "Now really,this is just too far out." If you believe it that is fine. if you don't believe it that is fine too; just forget it. However, I will give you a simple explanation of why blood did not flow from the Patriarch's neck: When a sage enters the white yang realm his body becomes white because his body has completely transformed into yang, leaving no trace of yin. "I don't believe it," you say. Of course you don't. If you did, you would be just like the Second Patriarch.

When the executioner saw that the master did not bleed, he exclaimed, "Hey! He really is a freak! I chopped off his head, but what came out was not blood, but this milky white fluid. And his face looks exactly as it did when he was alive!" The emperor knew that he had executed a saint, because he remembered that the Twenty-fourth Indian Patriarch, Aryasimha, had also been beheaded and had not bled, but a white milky fluid had poured forth, because he had been without outflows. When one has no ignorance, one may attain to a state without outflows and enter the white yang realm.

You think, "But you just said the Patriarch Hui K'o had great anger. How could he have been without great ignorance?" You are certainly more clever than I, for i did not think of this question. But now that you have brought it up, I will answer it. His was not petty anger like yours and mine which explodes like firecrackers, "Pop! Pop! Pop." His anger was wisdom and because of it his body became yang. Great patience, great knowledge, great courage, great wisdom: That's what his temper was made of.

Realizing that Hui K'o was a Bodhisattva in the flesh, the Emperor felt great shame. "A Bodhisattva came to our country," he said, "and instead of offering him protection, we kill him." Then the Emperor had all the officials take refuge with this strange Bhikshu. Thus, even though the Second Patriarch had already been executed, he still excepted these disciples.

SENG TS'AN

The Third Patriarch, Seng Ts'an of the Sui Dynasty, was of unknown family and origin. When he first came to visit the Second Patriarch, his body was covered with repulsive sores like those of a leper.

"Where are you from?" asked the Second Patriarch. "What are you doing here?"
"I have come here to take refuge with the High master and to study and cultivate the Buddhadharma," answered Seng Ts'an.
"You have a loathsome disease and your body is filthy. How can you study the Buddhadharma?"
Master hui K'o was clever, but Dhyana Master Seng Ts'an was even more clever. "I am a sick man and you are a high master," he said, "but in our true minds where is the difference?"

Thereupon, the Second patriarch transmitted the Dharma to Seng Ts'an saying, "This robe and bowl have been passed on from Bodhidharma. They certify that you have received the Dharma Seal. In order to protect it, you must go into hiding, because bodhiruci's follower's will try to harm you. be very careful and let no one know that you have received the transmission."

The Third Patriarch also feigned insanity while he taught living beings. During the persecution of Buddhism by the Emperor Wu of the Norther Chou dynasty (reigned from 561-577 A.D.), the Patriarch fled into the mountains. While he hid there, the tigers, wolves, leopards, and other fierce animals all disappeared.

According to the Ching-te Ch'uan Teng-lu, considered to be the oldest and most influential of the "Transmission of the Lamp" (teng-lu) texts, the animals apprently had reappeared by the time Thai Hsin (T'ao Hsin), the Fourth Patriarch received the Dharma Seal from Seng Ts'an. Witnessed from the following public case:

"There once was a sage named Niu-T'ou Fa-Yung (Gozu Hoyu, Niutou Farong Fa-jung) 594-657, who lived in a lonely temple high in the mountains. He was visited one day by a wandering monk, T'ao Hsin, the Fourth Patriarch of the Chinese Lineage of Ch'an. As the two were talking a wild animal roared close by, T'ao Hisn, a fully Enlightened monk, jumped. "I see it is still with you," said the Fa-Yung...refering, of course, to the instinctive "passion" of fright. Shortly afterwards, while he was unobserved for a moment, T'ao Hsin inscribed the Chinese character for the Buddha on the rock Fa-Yung was accustomed to sit. When the sage returned to sit down he saw the sacred Name and hesitated to sit. "I see," said T'ao Hsin, "it is still with you!" (source)

After transmitting the Dharma to the Fourth Patriarch, Thai Hsin, Master Seng Ts'an invited a thousand Bhikshus to a great vegetarian feast. After they had eaten, he said, "You think that to sit in a full lotus is the best way to die. Watch! I'll demonstrate my independence over birth and death!" The Master left the dining hall, followed by the thousand bhikshus. He halted by the trunk of a tree, and after pausing for a moment, he leapt up and grabbed a big branch. Then while swinging from the tree by one hand he entered Nirvana. No one knew his name or his birthplace.

Someone is afraid and thinks, "The First Patriarch was poisoned, the Second Patriarch was beheaded, the Third Patriarch died hanging from a tree. I certainly do not want to be a patriarch. It's much too dangerous." With this attitude, even if you wanted to be a patriarch you could not. As long as you fear death, as long as you fear anything at all, you cannot even be a patriarch's disciple. Patriarchs are not afraid of suffering. They are not afraid of life and they are not afraid of death. making no distinctions between life and death, they roam among people, teaching and transforming them. Like Fo T'o and Yeh She, they know that affliction is just Bodhi and birth and death is Nirvana. So, tell me now, who is not afraid of birth and death? if there is such a one, I will make him a patriarch.

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HUI-K'0: SECOND PATRIARCH

Fundamentally, our experience as experienced is not different from the Zen master's. Where
we differ is that we place a fog, a particular kind of conceptual overlay onto that experience
and then make an emotional investment in that overlay, taking it to be "real" in and of itself.

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BODHIDHARMA AND HUI-K'0 Fact, Fiction, Legend

BODHIDHARMA

HUI K'0

SENG TS'AN

BODHIDHARMA AND HUI-K'0
Fact, Fiction, Legend