Daman Hongren came to visit
Daoxin when he was only six years old and asked to be admitted to the sangha. Daixin asked the boy what his family name [hsing] was, and Hongren replied with a
clever pun: “I have a nature [hsing]
but it is not an ordinary one.” Although
the characters for “name” and “nature” are different, they are pronounced the
same.
“What is it then?” Daoxin
inquired, still asking for the precocious child’s name.
“It is Buddha-nature [fo-hsing].”
“So you have no name [hsing]?”
“No, master,” the boy continued
the pun, “because it [referring to his nature] is empty.”
Daoxin accepted Hongren as a
disciple, despite his age, and the boy dedicated himself to the practice with
fervor. He would become the Fifth Patriarch of Chinese Zen and the teacher of
the equally precocious Huineng.
[Daman
Hongren – Zen Masters of China: 55-57, 61-65, 72]
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