After sitting in meditation, he paid reverence to the Bodhisattva on the Five-Peaked Mountain, thus fulfilling his vow taken three years before to pray for the liberation of his parents. During this long journey, which took three years, he succeeded in realizing singleness of mind (i.e., the pure and undisturbed mind) even in the midst of hardship, adversity, illness and danger. On the mountain he saw, as many other pilgrims including devotees from foreign countries have done, balls of light dancing from one peak to another.
The master then went west and south, passing through many holy places where he paid reverence and sat in meditation until he reached the holy site of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva on mount O Mei in West Szechwan. There he saw at night countless Buddha-lights, like a constellation of bright stars in the sky. He continued his westward journey and entered Tibet where he visited the Potala, the seat of the Dalai Lama, and that of the Panchen Lama at Tashi Lunpo monastery. He then left Tibet to visit the holy sites of India, after which he crossed to sea to Ceylon, and thence to Burma. He then returned to China where he first visited the Cock's Foot Mountain in Yunnan which was the bodhimandala of Mahakasyapa, and then passed through the provinces of Kweichow, Hunan, Hupeh, Kiangsi and Anhwei. In his autobiography the master wrote of these two years of traveclass="underline" "The scenery changed every day but my pure mind was like a bright moon hanging solitarily in the sky. My health grew more robust and my steps were rapid."
In his 54th and 55th years, the master stayed on a mountain to read the tripitaka. At 56, he was invited to the famous monastery of Gao Ming at Yangehow to assist its abbot in supervising the twelve weeks of Ch'an meditation. On his way to Yangehow, he slipped and fell into a rising river and was caught in a fisherman's net. He was carried to a nearby temple where he was revived. He was very ill but went on to Kao Ming monastery where he was asked to help at the forthcoming meditation weeks. Without disclosing his illness, he politely declined the abbot's request, asking only to be allowed to attend the meditation meetings. His refusal was regarded as an affront to the whole community and, according to Kao Ming's rules of discipline, he was punished by being beaten with a wooden ruler. As the master was practising the relinquishment of attachment to ego, ksanti-paramita and virya-paramita, he willingly accepted this punishment which aggravated his illness. In order to cure it, he sat firmly in the meditation hall day and night with increasing zeal. He said in his autobiography: "In the purity of my singleness of mind, I forgot all about my body. Twenty days later my illness vanished completely. From that moment, with all my thoughts entirely wiped out, my practice took effect throughout the day and night. My steps were as swift as if I was flying in the air. One evening, after meditation, I opened my eyes and suddenly saw I was in brightness similar to broad daylight in which I could see everything within and without the monastery..." Knowing that he had only achieved an advanced but not the final stage, he refused to cling to it, resolving to wipe out the final hindrance caused by his last subtle attachment to ego and Dharma. One night when the meditation ended after six successive incense sticks had been burned, a monk came to fill his cup of tea. As the boiling water splashed over his hand, he dropped the cup, which fell to the ground and broke with a sound which was heard by his pure mind1 that was now able to perform its non-discriminating function of perceiving externals. Instantly he cut off his last link with samsara and rejoiced at his realization of the Absolute. He wrote in his autobiography: "I was like someone awaking from a dream" which meant that he had leaped over the worldly stream to the other shore of Bodhi. He then chanted the following two gathas:
1 – A cup fell to the ground
With a sound clearly heard.
As space was pulverised,
The mad mind came to a stop.
2 – When the hand released its hold, the cup fell and was shattered,
'Tis hard to talk when the family breaks up or someone dies.
Spring comes with fragrant flowers exuberating everywhere;
Mountains, rivers and the great earth are only the Tathagata.
_______________________________
1 – 'Pure mind' is a technical term for the innate primordial intellect.
After his own enlightenment, the master immediately began his Bodhisattva work of guiding others out of the sea of suffering. His first act was to pray to the Buddha for the liberation of his mother whom he had never seen. Previously he had taken the vow to go to the monastery of King Asoka at Ningpo to pay reverence to the Buddha's relics and to burn off there one of his fingers as his offering to the Buddha for her liberation. Each day he prostrated three thousand times and increased the number until he ached all over and was seriously ill. He became so weak that the chief monk did not approve of his burning a finger on account of the risk involved. The master burst into a flood of tears and finally the superintendent of the monastery and another monk agreed to assist him in fulfilling his vow. He was helped to the main hall where together with the assembly, he paid reverence to the Buddha, performed the ritual and recited the text of the rules of repentance and reform. He wrote later: "With singleness of mind, I repeated the Buddha's name and prayed Him to liberate my affectionate mother. At the beginning I felt pain, but as gradually my mind became pure, my awakening wisdom manifested clearly... When my finger had burned off, I arose to bow down before the Buddha. I did not need others to support me and entirely forgot my illness. After walking unaided to present my thanks to the assembly, I returned to the sick bay. Everyone present was surprised at my transformation, and I moved out of the hut for sick monks."
From then until his death, the master performed his Bodhisattva work by expounding sutras, transmitting the precepts, reconstructing many temples that had fallen in ruins, building new ones and starting seminaries for novices, Buddhist associations for lay men and free Buddhist schools for children. His field of activities was not confined to China but also included Burma, Thailand, Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong where the number of his disciples could not be counted.
In the course of this Bodhisattva work, the master survived dangers, illnesses, poisoning, beating, torture and persecution. A translation of his autobiography is being published by instalments in World Buddhism, a monthly journal published in Dehiwela, Ceylon. Before passing away on 13th October 1959, the master said to his attendant: "After my death and cremation, please mix my ashes with sugar, flour and oil, knead all this into nine balls and throw them into the river as an offering to living beings in the water. If you help me to fulfil my vow, I shall thank you for ever."
Hsu Yun in his extreme old age had chosen hardship and suffering to protect the Buddha Dharma in his country instead of seeking safety across the water in Hong Kong.
http://www.tantra.co.nz/tantrahome/spirituallibrary/chanmaster.htm
Порожнее Облако. Атобиография китайского дзенского учителя Сюй-Юня (частично)
Перевод с английского И. А. Ковина
Москва, 1996
Вступление
Имя Учителя Сюй-юня было известно и уважаемо в Китае в каждом буддистском храме и в каждом доме еще задолго до его смерти в почтенном возрасте 120 лет в 1959 году на горе Юнь-цзю. Он стал чем-то вроде живой легенды своего времени. Его жизнь и пример вызвали такое же смешанное чувство благоговейного страха и вдохновения в умах китайских буддистов, какое вызывает Миларепа у тибетских буддистов. Примечателен тот факт, что жизнь Сюй-юня в значительной мере охватила и нашу эпоху, тонко демонстрируя те духовные силы, о которых мы обычно только догадывались, заглядывая в прошлое через туманную завесу времени, отделяющую нас от великих чаньских адептов периода династий Тан, Сун и Мин. Они были великими людьми, пример которых вдохновляет многих и сегодня. По во многих случаях, кроме письменно дошедших до нас диалогов и наставлений древних, у нас имеются лишь скудные сведения об их жизни и индивидуальности.
Самое убедительное в истории Сюй-юня – это то, что она рисует четкий портрет одной из самых великих фигур китайского буддизма, дополняя его светотенями человеческого и духовного опыта. Это, конечно, не современный биографический опус в западном смысле. Тем не менее он выявляет самые сокровенные мысли и чувства Учителя Сюй-юня, от чего он кажется нам еще реальнее. Несомненно, самое важное для буддиста – это поучительные беседы, которые у Сюй-юня богаты внутренним прозрением. Мы совершенно естественно интересуемся индивидуальными, человеческими факторами, спрашивая, а какую жизнь прожили эти удивительные люди. В конце концов, святые походят на горы: если "вершины их достижений" могут уходить высоко в беспредельное пространство, то сами они должны покоиться на твердой почве, подобно всем остальным. То, как они относились ко всему мирскому, весьма существенно в их развитии, даже если их конечной целью являлся "уход за пределы" этого мира. В случае Сюй-юня мы имеем прекрасную возможность заглянуть во внутренний мир великого китайского буддистского Учителя.
К моменту ухода в мир иной, Сюй-юнь был справедливо признан самым выдающимся чаньским китайским буддистом в "Среднем Царстве". Когда он давал инструкции во время медитационных собраний и читал наставления в последние несколько десятков лет, буквально сотни учеников – а иногда их число достигало тысяч – устремлялись в те храмы, где он встречался со своими последователями. Такая свежая волна энтузиазма не наблюдалась в китайских монастырях со времен династии Мин, когда появился Учитель Хань-шань (1546-1623).
Этот выдающийся Учитель также видел, что Дхарма переживает спад, и начал реконструкцию храмов и пересмотр учений, как и Учитель Сюй-юнь через триста с лишним лет после него. Всего лишь за год до того, как вокруг Учителя Сюй-юня начала собираться масса людей, многие храмы, в которых ему в разные годы приходилось останавливаться, представляли собой развалины – убогие тени бывшего величия и жизненности. Но Учитель восстановил их, наряду с учениями, которые являлись их внутренним смыслом.