Chapter 10: The Monk Hui Ming

Vaguely I recall that lifetime, beneath Elder Fa Ming, the abbot of Jinshan Si, there were four prized disciples, and the monk Hui Ming was the youngest of them. To be regarded by the elder as a prized disciple, one naturally must have some root of wisdom. Hui Ming followed the elder in studying the various scriptures, and before long attained the samadhi of emptiness. He knew the flavor of the Ganlu Jietuo Fawi, and understood that all dharmas are merely manifestations of one's own mind. Yet his concentration was insufficient, and he failed to realize the fruit. Therefore he was also the one least observant of the monastery's pure precepts — greedy for play, greedy for food. He often slipped out of the temple in secret to drink wine, eat meat, and wander the mountains and waters. Elder Fa Ming enforced the precepts with great strictness; if anyone within the temple dared violate the precepts, drinking wine or eating meat, a flogging was certainly unavoidable — yet Hui Ming alone was exempted. Though Hui Ming repeatedly broke the precepts, the elder's response to him was nothing more than a scolding. In time, those monks who had been flogged naturally grew somewhat resentful, saying Elder Fa Ming was biased — for the same violation of precepts, the punishments were light or heavy.

On this day, the elder ascended the hall to lecture on Chan, and opening his mouth said: "Recently I have heard that some people believe I enforce the law unfairly — that for the same violation of precepts, the punishments are heavy or light, and they are unconvinced. Is this so, or is it not?"

The assembly fell silent; no one dared respond.

The elder addressed the crowd in a stern voice: "Even though Hui Ming behaves wantonly, greedy for food and play, it is merely his nature. Yet his heart is pure and good — when have you ever seen him act to harm others for his own gain, or to afflict sentient beings? His nature is free and easy; he regards life as an illusory dream, and never frets over loss or gain. On this single point alone, he will not fall into the three evil paths. Yet among you there are some who only see the faults of others, never speak of their own mistakes — who can only be pleased with themselves, and cannot bear to see others do well. As monastics, the greed, hatred, delusion, and arrogance in your hearts are even worse than those of householders. This is not nature — it is the evil of the mind! If I do not discipline you strictly, if I let you run wild, then when you lose your human form beneath your kasaya, it will be too late for regret!"

When these words were spoken, among the assembly there were those whose faces showed shame, those who remained unmoved, and those who were indignant.

And "I" went on doing as I pleased — taking advantage of the time when the assembly was in Chan meditation, I secretly slipped away to the riverbank to watch the fish, and propped up one leg to bask in the sun. My senior brother Hui Wu, seeing me sneak off again, came out after me and said with a laugh: "What a carefree monk!"

Hui Ming said: "Senior brother, come lie down here too? This spot really is wonderfully comfortable!"

Hui Wu said with a smile: "You really have the nerve to ask me to lie down with you! Everyone is in seated meditation, yet here you are. With such lack of diligence, when will you ever realize Bodhi?"

Hui Ming said: "Chan meditation is truly dull — it cuts off all delusive thoughts and attachments, so that one cannot even feel pain or pleasure. One doesn't even know whether one is still alive. I fear that one step further, and I would no longer be myself. There are so many delightful things and delicious foods in this world — why be in such a hurry to give them up?"

Hui Wu said: "The pleasures of the world are brief, gone in a flash. If one is too indulgent, when suffering arrives, with insufficient concentration the mind will follow the conditions, and should one sink into the sea of suffering then, who could save and pull one out?"

Hui Ming sighed: "To realize Bodhi — how difficult it is. Not to mention the likes of you and me; even the great monks and virtuous ones of antiquity knew not how many lifetimes they had cultivated, and still could not attain it. Better to follow the heart's desires, free and at ease."

Hui Wu said: "Since one has left the household, one should take the seeking of Buddha's wisdom as one's proper work — how can one be greedy for pleasure and neglect one's proper work?"

Hui Ming said with a laugh: "Those in court take the climbing of rank as their proper work. Merchants take the making of wealth as their proper work. Scholars take the pursuit of fame as their proper work. Thieves take stealing as their proper work. Fishermen take catching fish as their proper work. Monastics take realization as their proper work. Executioners take beheading as their proper work. Hui Ming takes dreaming as his proper work. For some people, their proper work, in the eyes of others, becomes precisely the neglect of proper work. How can there be so many proper works?"

Hui Wu, amused by such a string of words, burst into hearty laughter. Knowing the time had not yet ripened, he did not press the matter further.

Second senior brother Hui Zhen, in daily life observed the precepts with great strictness. If he saw any monk who did not keep the pure precepts, he would never come within ten paces of him. Yet when Hui Ming drank wine, he not only never looked down on him — he would take tea as a substitute for wine and sit at the same table to drink together.

Hui Zhen said: "Wine is the foremost precept for monks — drinking a little one day and a lot the next, as you do, what manner of conduct is that?"

Hui Ming said: "I don't drink much, only a little. Does senior brother know that the Way of drinking wine has great similarities with the Way of Chan? Hence the Second Patriarch Hui Ke once said, 'I regulate my own mind — what business is it of yours?'"

Hui Zhen said: "I truly do not know — how can the Way of drinking wine correspond to the Dharma of Chan?"

Hui Ming said: "The Way of Chan is solemn as thought yet without thought, bright as illumination yet without awareness. Nature is viewed as one, mind and realm as a single body. It is like one who drinks wine, feeling slightly tipsy — both drunk and sober. Toward everything in the world, one merely tastes and stops, never grasping with excess. Both seeing and not seeing, both knowing and not knowing, free from the two extremes of arising and ceasing, at ease in the Middle Way."

Hui Zhen said with a laugh: "Don't go out and spout these crooked arguments to others. If you're greedy for the cup, just say so — must you come up with such a high-sounding excuse? Hah — on top of the precept against wine, you've added the karma of false speech!"

Hui Ming also said with a laugh: "Hearing senior brother say that, my offenses are wiped away! Amitabha, many thanks to senior brother for clearing my karma!" Hui Zhen advised: "Sooner or later you must still restrain yourself — I only fear that impermanence comes swiftly, and when crossing the sea of birth and death, your strength will fall short."

Hui Ming nodded in assent, and set down his cup, no longer drinking.

Third senior brother Hui Si, besides the Buddha's Dharma, was also well-versed in the martial Way. He was the only one in the temple at the sight of whom Hui Ming would turn tail and run. If he caught Hui Ming neglecting his lessons and sneaking off, or going to drink wine and eat meat, the two of them were sure to have a bout. The outcome was predictable — every time it was Hui Ming begging for mercy.

Hui Si said: "What — don't you always say life is a dream? How can one feel pain in a dream?"

Hui Ming said: "Senior brother, as a monastic, you are so cruel — you've woken me from my sweet dream again. You've violated the precept against anger!"

Hui Si said: "Sigh, there's no help for it. If I don't enter hell, who will? For your sake, junior brother, I've made such a great sacrifice — you should strive diligently, so as not to betray senior brother's painstaking efforts!"

Faced with this senior brother Hui Si, Hui Ming had no recourse. He could only call upon senior brothers Hui Wu and Hui Zhen to plead for him. The four brothers would often gather together to expound the Mahayana, and discuss the past and present. Hui Ming would occasionally become the butt of his brothers' teasing because he often teased them.

For instance, senior brother Hui Wu once said: "Hui Ming's temperament is like a child who never grows up. If one day he were neither greedy for food nor greedy for play, there would be only two possibilities."

The other three asked in unison: "What two possibilities?"

Hui Wu said: "The first is that he has become a Buddha."

The three asked again: "And the second?"

"He has entered parinirvana."

At these words, all four brothers burst into hearty laughter! Yet spring departed and autumn came, and times changed. Elder Fa Ming, along with Hui Wu, Hui Zhen, and Hui Si, all entered parinirvana one after another, before Hui Ming. The temple gained a new abbot, and could no longer accommodate so unruly a monk. The monks who had once been flogged for breaking the precepts gave him twenty strokes and drove him out of the temple. Hui Ming begged for alms along the streets to pass the days, and before long also passed away in seated meditation.

Thereafter, I know not how many more cycles of rebirth he went through, until this present life — yet his temperament truly has not changed in the slightest. Only, he can never again meet companions such as those...

Sigh, Hui Ming, Hui Ming — you cannot advance to attain Bodhi and realize the fruit, nor retreat to mingle with the world and blend your light with the dust; not monk-like as a monk, not lay-like as a layman — is this not suffering?

Whenever this happened, he would recall what his brothers had said: "The pleasures of the world are very brief; when pleasure ends, suffering follows. If one indulges too deeply in worldly pleasure, when suffering arrives, one will also end up immersed in suffering."

Yet at other times he would think — what harm is there in it? All sentient beings move forward within suffering, grow within suffering, and within suffering realize Bodhi.

(End of this chapter)