Lingyun Zhiqin

Lingyun Zhiqin (靈雲志勤, fl. 9th c.) is named in the *Jǐngdé Chuándēng Lù* as a Dharma heir of Guishan Lingyou — and so a member of the Guiyang house rather than the Linji line — best known for the awakening story preserved in the lamp records and recycled in the *Wúménguān* and *Bìyán Lù* commentary tradition^[1]. After a long period of practice he was walking in the mountains one spring morning when the sudden sight of peach blossoms precipitated his decisive insight; his enlightenment verse, "For thirty years I sought a swordsman; how many times the leaves have fallen, how many times the buds have bloomed; but since one look at the peach blossoms, even now I have no more doubts," became one of the most-quoted attestations in the tradition that awakening can be triggered by any sensory occasion when the practitioner is ready^[2].