Tao-hsin (Jap., Dōshin) 580-6 51; the fourth patriarch (soshigata) of Ch’an (Zen) in China; the student and dharma successor (hassu) of Seng-ts’an and the master of Hung-jen. He is supposed to have met the third patriarch when he was not yet twenty years old and to have distinguished himself through his special predilection for meditation. It is said that he practiced zazen with an intensity and devotion unequaled by any patriarch since Bodhidharma.
An account of the incident that marked the transmission of the buddha-dharma from Seng-ts’an to Tao-hsin is given in the Denkō-roku:
“The thirty-first patriarch [fourth Chinese patriarch], Daii Zenji [honorific title of Tao-hsin] bowed to Kanshi Daishi [honorific title of Seng-ts’an] and said, ‘I entreat you, master, have compassion for me; please grant me the dharma-gate of liberation.’
“The patriarch [Seng-ts’an] said, ‘Who has you tied up?’
“The master [Tao-hsin] said, ‘There is no body who has me tied up.’
“The patriarch said, ‘Then why are you seeking liberation?’
“With these words the master experienced great enlightenment.”
Tao-hsin, whose given name was Ssu-ma, came from Honan. He left his home at the age of seven in order to study Buddhism and met Seng-ts’an a few years later. He proved an excellent student. After Seng-ts’an had transmitted the patriarchate to him, he told Tao-hsin to take up residence at a monastery on Mount Lu and instruct students in the Lankāvatāra-sūtra, which had been important in Ch’an since Bodhidharma and in the practice of zazen.
After some time on Lu-shan, Tao-hsin, following a sign, moved to a neighboring mountain called Shuang-feng (‘Twin Peaks’). Soon many students gathered around him there, which encouraged him to establish a self-sufficient monastic community. This provided the model for future Ch’an (Zen) monastic communities. In the course of the thirty years that he spent on Shuang-feng, it is said that he had about him at a given time up to 500 students. While the patriarchs preceding him were strongly influenced by the orthodox Mahāyāna tradition and the sūtras, Tao-hsin already showed a tendency that was to be characteristic of the later Ch’an (Zen) tradition dismissal of scholarly erudition and emphasis on the primacy of meditative practice.
Thus in a still-extant work of his, we read: “Sit eagerly in meditation [zazen]! Sitting is the basis. . . . Shut the door and sit! Don’t read the sūtras, don’t talk to people. When you practice like that and work at it for a long time, the fruit is sweet as [it is for the] monkey [who] takes the nut from the nutshell. Such ones are but few!” (trans. from Dumoulin, Zen Geshichte and Gestalt, Bern, 1959).
Among the many students of Tao-hsin, Hung jen, the future fifth patriarch, was especially outstanding for his profound realization of the dharma teaching of his master. Toward the end of his life, Tao-hsin gave him the task of building a mausoleum on the slopes of Shuang-feng. When this was finished, Tao-hsin entered it and, sitting absorbed in meditation, passed away.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Books on Tao-hsin
External links: soshigata / dharma / hassu / Seng-ts’an / Hung-jen / zazen / buddha-dharma / Denkō-roku / Buddhism / Lankāvatāra-sūtra / Bodhidharma / Mahāyāna / sūtras