Enlightenment must be certified before it counts

Before the time of the Buddha Awesome Voice, anyone who became enlightened did not need to be certified by another person. But after the time of the Buddha Awesome Voice, enlightenment has to be certified before it counts.Someone who thinks he or she has become enlightened must have that enlightenment certified by a Patriarch or brighteyed Good and Wise Advisor. For example, the Shurangama Sutra contains the stories of twenty-five sages who each describe how they gained perfect enlightenment, and who then each request Shakyamuni Buddha to certify their attainments.

I will now tell a story of such a certification. During the Tang Dynasty of China, a Great Master called Yongjia (Eternal Excellence) was born in Yongjia county of Zhejiang Province. Because he stayed in Yongjia all his life, people gave him the name of Great Master Yongjia. After he entered monastic life, he studied the teachings of the Tian Tai School and cultivated meditative contemplation. One day, while reading the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra, he suddenly got enlightened. Soon after, he met a disciple of the Sixth Patriarch named Chan Master Xuance (Mystic Law) and related his awakening. Master Xuance suggested that he go to Cao Creek to pay respects to the Sixth Patriarch and request certification of his enlightenment. To do otherwise, to claim that one has become enlightened by oneself without the benefit of a teacher, would make one a follower of the externalists who believe in spontaneity.

When he arrived at Nanhua Monastery in Cao Creek, the Sixth Patriarch was meditating. Master Yongjia, full of pride,strode directly in front of the Patriarch’s meditation seat. Without even making a half bow, let alone a full prostration, he simply grasped his tin staff, walked three times around the Patriarch’s seat, then stood and rapped his staff on the ground. The Sixth Patriarch said, “Shramanas (monks) ought to possess the Three Thousand Modes of Awesome Deportment, and the Eighty Thousand Subtle Manners. Only when one’s behavior is impeccable does one merit the name Shramana. [Shramana means ‘diligent and putting to rest’.

A Shramana ‘diligently cultivates precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and puts to rest greed, hatred, and stupidity.’] Where do you, O Virtuous One, come from? And why are you so arrogant?” Master Yongjia answered, “Birth and death is the only important thing, and impermanence comes with haste.” The Sixth Patriarch said, “Then why do you not embody birthlessness. Why do you not understand ‘no-haste’?” Master Yongjia answered, “Once I understood, there is no birth. Once I realized it, there is no haste.” The Sixth Patriarch said, “You have really grasped the idea of birthlessness.” Master Yongjia said, “Do you mean to say that birthlessness is an idea?” The Sixth Patriarch said, “If it is not an idea, then how can you distinguish it?” Master Yongjia said, “Making distinctions is not an idea, either.” “You are so right! You are so right!” said the Sixth Patriarch, and thereupon certified him and made him his Dharma heir.

After Great Master Yongjia was certified by the Sixth Patriarch, he planned to return immediately to Kaiyuan (Primary Source) Monastery in Yongjia. The Sixth Patriarch asked him to stay for one night, but the next morning, he went right back to Yongjia. Because his enlightenment to the truth of the Buddhadharma was certified in just a single evening, people of that time nicknamed him, “The Monk Who Became Enlightened Overnight”. Afterwards, he energetically propagated the Sudden Teaching of the Chan School and is most noted for his Song of Enlightenment of more than fifty stanzas, which explains the state of sudden enlightenment. The Song is a masterpiece that will long endure and has become required reading for Buddhists.