Having discussed Adyashanti’s enlightenment experience, we now discuss the enlightenment experiences of two prominent monks from the Tang Dynasty in China hundreds of years ago. Their enlightenment experiences share with Adyashanti’s a common hallmark of Buddhist enlightenment: the universe disappeared upon their enlightenment.
1) Dharman Master Hui-Neng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism (Chinese: 禪宗).
In a previous post, we discussed the Dharma Master Hui-Neng (Chinese: 大鑒惠能), and that he was enlightened twice. Furthermore, immediately after his second enlightenment, he reported his findings on the consummate self-nature of the Ultimate Reality that Buddha teaches to his mentor, the Fifth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism.
After hearing his report, the Fifth Patriarch immediately recognized the significance of his level of enlightenment. While the Fifth Patriarch appointed Dharma Master Hui-Neng his successor right away, he did not ask him to stay and helped him run the monastery. Instead, the Fifth Patriarch demanded that he leave immediately, fearing that some monks from the monastery might want to harm him. Subsequently, Hui Neng hid among a wandering hunting group as their cook for fifteen years. After fifteen years and feeling pretty safe, Hui Neng left the hunting group and travelled south.
One day, the Dharma Master travelled to the monastery in Guan Zhou, where Dharma Master Yin Zon (Chinese: 印宗法師) was giving a sermon on Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (Chinese: 大般涅槃經), which is “a Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtra of the Buddha-nature genre.”
During the talk, the wind blew, and the banner hanging from the post fluttered. At that point, two monks began to debate about whether it was the wind blowing or the banner fluttering (Chinese: 時有風吹幡動，一僧云：風動。一僧云：幡動。議論不已.”
Upon hearing the monks, Dharma Master Hui-Neng interpreted, “It is neither the wind blowing, nor is it the banner fluttering, it is your benevolent minds moving (Chinese: 不是風動，不是幡動，仁者心動.” When the masses heard the exchange, they were aghast (Chinese: 一眾駭然).
Dharma Master Ying Zon heard the dialogue and was fully aware of its significance. He went up to Hui-Neng and inquired if the person before him was the rumored heir to the Fifth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism. After receiving his confirmation, he and his followers turned around and paid the Sixth Patriarch their respect. Furthermore, Dharma Ying Zon asked to be his student. This was how Hui-Neng reappeared as the Sixth Patriarch.
The significance of the Six Patriarch’s statement lay in the fact that these few words expressed his understanding of the role of an active mind in manifesting the universe. As Adyashanti’s enlightenment experience shows, nothing in the universe exists upon enlightenment when the mind is inactive. Therefore, whether it was the wind blowing or the banner fluttering, they only existed because the monks’ minds were active. Indeed, if they were enlightened, they would understand and have no reason to engage in the dispute.
Given that the relationship between a quiescent mind and the disappearance of everything in the universe is something only an enlightened person could understand, Dharma Master Ying Zon correctly wondered whether the person before him could be the rumored, missing, and yet enlightened Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism. Therefore, when Master Hui-Neng confirmed that he was indeed the rumored Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, he turned around and humbly asked Master Hui-Neng to be his teacher.
2) Grandmaster Yong Jia (Chinese: 永嘉大師)
Grandmaster Yong Jia (665-713) of the Tang Dynasty, also known as YongJia Xuanjue (Chinese: 永嘉玄覺), was a grandmaster in both Chan and Tiantai (Chinese: 天台) Buddhism. He was a contemporary of Dharma Master Hui-Neng. While Dharma Master Hui-Neng practiced Chan-style meditation, Tiantai Buddhism focused on Samathavipasyana meditation. Grandmaster Yong Jia was an expert in both meditative techniques.
Grandmaster YongJia is best known for his Songs of Enlightenment (Chinese: 證道歌), a lengthy singable poem, which “has been considered a central Zen text from the Song Dynasty to the present day. It was apparently so highly esteemed that Dahui Zonggao reported that it was translated from Chinese to Sanskrit so it could be studied elsewhere. Today, it is often memorized by Zen practitioners in East Asian countries.”
The most well-known phrases in the long poem are “While dreaming, the Six Destinies are obviously there, after enlightenment, everything is empty, including the Trichilicosm.” (Chinese: 夢裏明明有六趣. 覺後空空無大千).
“Dreaming” is often used in contrast to enlightenment, which is typically described as an “awakening from deep sleep of unenlightenment,” as discussed earlier. Therefore, “While Dreaming” is meant to describe Grandmaster YongJia’s state of unenlightenment prior to his enlightenment.
The Six Destinies (Romanized Sanskrit: sadgati; Chinese: 六趣) are the six possible destinies of determinative birth and rebirth cycles that Buddha teaches. In other words, “While dreaming, the Six Destinies are obviously there” refers to Grandmaster YongJia’s acknowledgement that, before his enlightenment, he was subject to the endless cycles of rebirth, or samsara (Chinese: 輪迴/生死輪迴).
Trichilicosm (Chinese: 三千大千世界), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, can be understood as “the largest possible universe.”
The significance of both the Six Destinies and Trichilicosm is that they are present only when one is unenlightened. While “Six Destinies are obviously there” conveyed the fact about the inevitable consequences of having to undergo cycles of rebirth when one is unenlightened, “after enlightenment, everything is empty, including the Trichilicosm” expressed the understanding that even the “largest possible universe” would disappear at the time of enlightenment when the mind is quiescent, as Adyashanti did.
Furthermore, the fact that enlightenment happened to Buddha 2600+ years ago in modern-day Nepal, Dharma Master Hui-Neng and Grandmaster Zhang Ja in Tang Dynasty China centuries ago, and Adyashanti in contemporary America all confirm Buddha’s teaching that Citta, or the Ultimate Reality is the “experienced object” spread throughout the universe ready to form a dualist state of awareness with an “experiencing subject” anywhere globally and at any time.
(If you like this post, please like it on our Facebook page and share. Thank you.)
