As I was sharing with Elliston Roshi my sorrow at the passing of Shimabukuro Hanshi, he suggested I checked what Hui Neng had to say about his own passing, about 1200 years ago. I happened to be reading in Heinrich Dumoulin's “Zen Buddhism, a history
– India and China.“ the part about Hui Neng, the 6th Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, who was an extremely influential figure of the development of Buddhist Zen in China.
As he knew his death was coming, Hui Neng addressed his disciples in this way :
" Good
bye, all of you. I shall depart from you now. After I am gone, do not
weep worldly tears, nor accept condolences, money, and silks from
people, do not wear mourning garments, If you did so, it would not
accord with the sacred Dharma, nor would you be true disciples of
mine. Be the same as you would if I were here. And sit all together
in meditation. If you are only peacefully calm and quiet, without
motion, without stillness, without birth, without destruction,
without coming, without going - this then is the great Way. After I
have gone, just practice according to the Dharma in the same way that
you did on the days that I was with you. Even though I were still to
be in this world, if you went against the teachings, there would be
no use in my having stayed here. "
The Cherry Blossom is to flowers,
what the Samurai is to men.
