Huike

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Huìkě (慧可) is the Second Patriarch of Zen. He succeeded his master Bodhidharma.

[edit] Legend

Whenever the monk Shenguang asked Bodhidharma a question, he would receive only silence.
To demonstrate to Bodhidharma his sincere desire to learn from him, Shenguang stands in deep snow in the middle of the night.
Bodhidharma tells Shenguang that he is pursuing the Dharma in a "petty frame of mind," whereupon Shenguang takes out a knife, cuts off his left arm and offers it to Bodhidharma, which is why monks who came after him perform the gassho with only one hand.
Now convinced of Shenguang's sincerity, Bodhidharma accepts Shenguang as a disciple and renames him Huike.^[1]

[edit] History

Huike records that Huike's arm was cut off by bandits.^[2]

[edit] References

1. ^ Broughton, Jeffrey L. (1999). The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen. Berkeley: University of California Press, 3–4. ISBN 0520219724.
2. ^ Broughton 1999:62

Preceded by Bodhidharma

Chinese Ch'an Patriarch

Succeeded by Sengcan