On Receiving the Succession

Text

When Trần Nhân Tông named Pháp Loa as his successor, a senior monk in the assembly said: 'Pháp Loa is young. The Trúc Lâm school is young. This may be too much responsibility for one who has not yet seasoned.' Pháp Loa replied: 'You are right that I am young. You are right that this is great responsibility. These two facts are precisely why the founder placed this weight here — not to crush me, but to season me. A sword is tested by cutting, not by resting in the scabbard.' Trần Nhân Tông, hearing this, smiled and said: 'The sword is already sharp. Pháp Loa, take the seat.' He then composed a verse of transmission and passed the patriarchal robe and bowl.

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Pháp Loa
• Subject
  Trần Nhân Tông

Lineage: Trúc Lâm

By Pháp Loa

• Discipline Is the Dharma Bodysermon

From Thiền Uyển Tập Anh (Anthology of the Garden of Vietnamese Zen)

• On the Impermanence of Dynasties
• The Illusory Nature of Power
• Verse Composed in Vietnamese (Chữ Nôm)
• The Duty of the National Preceptor
• The King Tests the Third Patriarch
• The Dharma Is Not Separate from Mind
• Silent Transmission

Sources

• contentCuong Tu Nguyen — medieval Vietnamese Buddhism scholarship

  Cuong Tu Nguyen

  Thiền Uyển Tập Anh, Pháp Loa section; Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Trần period; after Cuong Tu Nguyen (1997), pp. 176–195

  Thiền Uyển Tập Anh (Anthology of the Garden of Vietnamese Zen): On Receiving the Succession