Minshu Ruxiang 敏樹如相

School: Linji | 1603–1672 | Teacher: Poshan Haiming | Students: Chisong Daoling, Erdu Tai, Yingxiu Wu, Konggu Daocheng

Linji master, dharma heir of Poshan Haiming, and a great teacher in his own right — the lamps count many heirs, of whom Chisong Daoling carried the line into Guizhou. In his own account of conduct he says he was a son of the Wang family of Tongchuan prefecture in Sichuan; he brooded daily on impermanence, suffering and emptiness, felt at twenty-five that he had wasted his life, and could not get his family's leave to go, until he took up a pair of shears and made to cut off his hair, and so broke out of the cage. He was tonsured by Master Jiankong. Reading the Heart Sutra at 'the five aggregates are empty', doubt broke open in him. He read Hanshan's expedient words on Zhaozhou's dog, and knew that what he had was only 'use on the road' and not the house itself. Hearing that a great teacher had appeared at Liangshan — 'the venerable Poshan is truly an eye for men and gods' — he went to him, was given the dog-and-Buddha-nature huatou, took the full precepts, and was sent off with three fascicles of the record of sayings. He was abbot of Baizhang in Sichuan and of Sanmei at Shiqian in Guizhou, and died in 1672 aged seventy.

References: DILA Authority A010077 | DILA Authority A010077 | DILA Authority A009652 | Link

View interactive profile →