Ta-chu Hui-hai

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Ta-chu Hui-hai (8th cent. CE). Pupil of Ma-tsu Tao-i, who cared for his teacher in his old age. While doing so, he produced the manuscript of a work on sudden enlightenment, which Ma-tsu read. He exclaimed, ‘Here is a great pearl, the perfect and bright illumination which penetrates everywhere without impediment.’ For that reason Hui-hai became known as Ta-chu, great pearl. His work was edited by Miao-hsieh and appeared as Tun-wu ju-tao yao-men lun, in which the southern school of Ch'an is integrated with the Mahāyāna sūtras.