Seng-ts’an (Jap. Sōsan), d. 606?; the third patriarch (soshigata) of Ch’an (Zen) in China; the dharma successor (hassu) of Hui-k’o and the master of Tao-hsin. Hardly any details are known of the life of the third patriarch. There are, however, many legends about him and his meeting with Hui-k’o. According to one of these legends Seng-ts’an was suffering from leprosy when he met the second patriarch. Hui-k’o is supposed to have encountered him with the words, “You’re suffering from leprosy; what could you want from me?” Seng-ts’an is supposed to have replied, ” Even if my body is sick, the heart-mind (kokoro) of a sick person is no different from your heart-mind.” This convinced Hui-k’o of the spiritual capacity of Seng-tsan; he accepted him as a student and later confirmed him as his dharma successor and the thirtieth patriarch (third Chinese patriarch) in the lineage of Ch’an (Zen), which begins with Shākyamuni Buddha.
The incident that marked the “transmission from heart-mind to heart-mind” (ishin-denshin) from Hui-k’o to Seng-ts’an is given in the, Denkō-roku as follows:
The thirtieth patriarch Kanchi Daishi [ daishi, “great master”] went (for instruction) to the twenty-ninth patriarch and asked, “The body of the student is possessed by mortal illness. I beg you, master, wipe away my sms.”
The patriarch [Hui-k’o] said, “Bring me your sins here, and I’ll wipe them away for you.”
The master [Seng-ts’an] sat in silence for a while, then said, “Although I’ve looked for my sins, I can’t find them.”
The patriarch said, “In that case I’ve already thoroughly wiped away your sins. You should live in accordance with Buddha, dharma, and sangha” [sambō].
It is said that during the Buddhist persecution of the year 574, Seng-ts’an had to feign mental illness in order to escape execution, and that finally he went into hiding for ten years on Mount Huan-kung. His mere presence there is said to have pacifi e d the wild tigers, which until that time had caused great fear among the local people. The authorship of the Hsin-hsin-ming (Jap., Shinjimei) is attributed to Seng-ts’an. It is one of the earliest Ch’an writings. It expounds Ch’an’s basic principles in poetic form and shows strong Taoist influence. The Hsin-hsin ming begins with a famous sentence, which comes up again and again in Ch’an (Zen) literature (for instance, in example 2 of the Pi-yen-lu): “The venerable way is not difficult at all; it only abhors picking and choosing. “In this early Ch’an poem, the fusion, typical for later Ch’an (Zen), of the mutually congenial teachings of Mahāyāna Buddhism and Taoism appears for the first time.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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External links: soshigata / dharma / hassu / Hui-k’o / Tao-hsin / kokoro / Shākyamuni / Buddha / ishin-denshin / Denkō-roku / Mahāyāna Buddhism / Taoism