27. Seng-kuo
[OMITTED]
The nun Seng-kuo (Fruit of the Sangha) (b. 408) of Kuang-ling
Seng-kuo's secular surname was Chao; her given name was Fa-yu. Her
family was originally from Hsiu-wu in Chi Commandery [in north
China].[87]
Because she had established genuine faith during a former life, pure
devotion was natural to her in her present life, and, even when she was
an infant at breast, she did not transgress the monastic rule of not eating
after mid-day.[88] Her father and mother both marveled at this.
When Seng-kuo grew up, although she was of one mind about what
she wanted to do, the karmic obstructions were mixed and multiform.
Therefore she was twenty-seven years old before she was able to leave
the household life, at which time she became a disciple of the nun Hui-ts'ung
of Kuang-ling [on the north bank of the Yangtze River northeast
of the capital]. Seng-kuo cultivated an intelligent and solid
observance of the monastic regulations, and her meditative practice
was so free from distractions that each time she entered into concentration
she continued thus from dusk to dawn. Stretching in spirit to
the pure realm of the divine, her body stayed behind looking as lifeless
as dry wood, but some of her disciples of shallow understanding were
doubtful of her yogic ability.[89]
In the sixth year of the yüan-chia reign period (429), a foreign boat
captain named Nan-t'i brought some Buddhist nuns from Sri Lanka to
the capital of the Sung dynasty.[90] The Sri Lankan nuns stayed at Luminous
Blessings Convent.
Not long after taking up residence there, they asked Seng-kuo,
"Before we came to this country, had foreign nuns ever been here?"
She replied, "No, there have not been any."
They asked again, ["If that is the case] how did the Chinese women
who became nuns receive the monastic obligations from both the
Assembly of Monks and the Assembly of Nuns [as they are required to
do according to the rules?]"
Seng-kuo replied, "They received the obligations only from the
Assembly of Monks."
"Those women who went through the ritual of entering the monastic
life began the reception of the monastic obligations.[91] This reception
was an expedient to cause people to have great respect for the
monastic life. Our eminent model for this expedient is the Buddha's
own stepmother, Mahāprajāpatī, who was deemed to have accepted
the full monastic obligation by taking on herself, and therefore for all
women for all time, the eight special prohibitions incumbent on
women wanting to lead the monastic life. [These she accepted from
the Buddha only.] The five hundred women of the Buddha's clan who
also left the household life at the same time as Mahāprajāpatī considered
her as their instructor."[92]
Although Seng-kuo agreed, she herself had a few doubts [about the
validity of the rituals that had been observed in China regarding
women leaving the household life]. Therefore she asked the central
Asian missionary monk Gunavarman [who was an expert on the subject].[93]
He agreed with her understanding of the situation.
She further inquired of him, "Is it possible to go through the ritual
[of accepting the full monastic obligation] a second time?"
Gunavarman replied, "[The Buddhist threefold action of] morality,
meditation, and wisdom progresses from the slight to the obvious.
Therefore, receiving the monastic obligations a second time is of
greater benefit than receiving them only once."
[Four years later] in the tenth year (433), Nan-t'i, the ship captain,
brought eleven more nuns from Sri Lanka, including one named Tessara.[94]
The first group of nuns, who by this time had become fluent in
Chinese, requested the Indian missionary monk Sanghavarman to preside
over the ritual for bestowing the monastic rules on women at the
ceremonial platform in Southern Grove Monastery.[95] That day more
than three hundred women accepted once again the full monastic obligation
[this time from both the Assembly of Monks and the Assembly
of Nuns].
One time, in the eighteenth year (441), when she was thirty-four
years old, Seng-kuo sat in meditation for a whole day. [Because she
had sat so long and her body was still and lifeless like dry wood] the
administrator of the meditation hall tried to rouse her but could not
and therefore said that she had died.
[96] Alarmed, she summoned the
other officers of the convent who, on examining Seng-kuo, perceived
that her body was cold and stiff. Her breath was so slight as to be
unnoticed, and they were on the point of carrying her away when she
opened her eyes and talked and laughed like her usual self. Thereupon,
those foolish ones [who had doubted her] were startled into
accepting her achievements in meditation.
It is not known how or when she died.
[87]
Chi Commandery. See map.
[88]
Another example of both karma and holiness.
[89]
As lifeless as dry wood: this type of meditation in which one is insensible
to the world was condemned as inferior by others in the Chinese Buddhist
tradition who said that it was the "trance of cessation" of the Disciples' Vehicle,
but Pao-ch'ang seems to have approved of it. See Seng-chao's
Chu weimo-chieh
ching (Commentary to the Vimalakīrti scripture)
T. 38:344.c.
[90]
Nan-t'i, the Sri Lankan boat captain also mentioned in the biography of
Gunavarman in Kao seng chuan.
[91]
This paragraph is here attributed to the nuns from Sri Lanka. There is
nothing in the text itself, however, to indicate a change of speaker at this
point, and it is not impossible that the quotation should be continued as part
of Seng-kuo's previous speech. From the biography of the nun Hui-kuo (biography
14), we know that the Chinese nuns had a general understanding of the
problem, so one may imagine that Seng-kuo herself also understood the problem
and is restating it. The following sentence beginning "Although Seng-kuo
agreed . . ." is sufficiently ambiguous that one may not use it to make a categorical
decision about the identity of the speaker of the previous paragraph. It
is also possible that the long quotation here attributed to the nuns from Sri
Lanka should be broken off from Seng-kuo's first speech at some other point
that the one chosen here.
[92]
Eight special prohibitions: First, a nun, even if she has one hundred
years' seniority, must pay respects and offer a seat to a monk, even if he is
newly received into the monastic life. Second, a nun is never to curse or slander
a monk. Third, a nun is never to speak of a monk's transgressions, but a
monk may speak of hers. Fourth, a novice, after having trained in the six precepts
of a novice, must receive all the monastic precepts from the monks.
Fifth, if a nun has transgressed any of the monastic rules, she must make her
confession at the semimonthly confession ceremony in front of both assemblies,
i.e., of monks and of nuns. Sixth, a nun must seek out an instructor in
the precepts from among the monks every half month. Seventh, a nun must
not spend the summer retreat in the same location as the monks. Eighth, after
the summer retreat a nun must find a confessor from among the monks
(Horner, Women, pp. 119-120; Cullavagga, X, I, 4, no. 6).
The Buddha himself said that, if women had not entered the homeless life,
the True Law would have lasted a thousand years, but because they had, the
True Law would last only five hundred years. The Buddhists say that there are
three ages of Buddhism, that of the True Law lasting five hundred years, the
Counterfeit Law lasting five hundred or a thousand years (depending on the
sources), and the age of decay and dissolution lasting ten thousand years. Buddhist
tradition holds Ānanda, a cousin and disciple of the Buddha, responsible
for persuading the Buddha to allow women to enter the homeless life.
Ānanda, a very likable figure, was held responsible for many of the internal
problems or quarrels that beset Buddhism from the first. Another of Ānanda's
supposed failures is that, when the Buddha told him that he, the Buddha,
could, by his magic powers, remain alive for innumerable years, Ānanda did
not request him to do so. Therefore, the Buddha died. Yet another of Ānanda's
faults is that after the death of the Buddha, Ānanda showed the Buddha's
concealed penis to women. (One of the thirty-two marks of a great holy man
is that his penis is concealed within a sheath like that of a horse.) Ānanda
defended his action saying that he did it in the hope that the women would
therefore be ashamed of their own female body and would aspire to attain a
masculine body in a future rebirth. Because Ānanda is often contrasted unfavorably
with another of the Buddha's disciples, one must suspect sectarian
rivalries among followers of the Buddha. (
Ta chih tu lun [Great perfection of
wisdom commentary])
T. 25, no. 1059, and the French translation by
Lamotte,
Traité 1:96-97.)
[93]
Gunavarman, lit. San-tsang (three baskets) of Buddhism: doctrine,
commentary, and monastic rules. San-tsang is used as an address of honor.
Gunavarman arrived in the southern capital in 431 and died there the same
year. See Répertoire, p. 252. Biography in Kao seng chuan 3:340.a.ff; and
Ch'u san-tsang chi chi (Collected notes on the translation of the Buddhist
scriptures into Chinese), 104.b.11ff.
[94]
This is a tentative reading for the Chinese transcription T'ieh-sa-lo.
Another possible choice is Dewasara.
[95]
Sanghavarman arrived in the southern capital in 433 (or 423) and
worked until 442 when he returned to the west. See Répertoire, p. 281. Biography
in Kao seng chuan 3:342.b; and in Ch'u san-tsang chi chi (Collected
notes), 104.c.5.
[96]
This type of meditation in which one is insensible to the world was criticized
as inferior by others in the Chinese Buddhist tradition who said that it
was the trance of cessation of the Disciples' Vehicle, but Pao-ch'ang seems to
have approved of it. See Seng-chao's Chu wei-mo-chieh ching (Commentary
to the Vimalakīrti scripture), T. 38:344.c. See Biographies 27, 29, and 31.
This type of trance was approved by the Taoists. See Watson, Complete
Works of Chuang Tzu, pp. 36 (ch.2), 116 (ch.11), and 237 (ch.22).
