ON THE HIGH SEAT OF "THE TREASURE OF THE LAW"
The Platform Sutra of the 6 th Patriarch, Hui Neng
Chapter I. Autobiography

Once, when the Patriarch had arrived at Pao Lin Monastery, Prefect Wei
of Shao Chou and other officials went there to ask him to deliver
public lectures on Buddhism in the hall of Ta Fan Temple in the City of
Canton.

In due course, there were assembled in the lecture hall Prefect Wei,
government officials and Confucian scholars, about thirty each, and
bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, Taoists and laymen to the number of about one
thousand. After the Patriarch had taken his seat, the congregation in a
body paid him homage and asked him to preach on the fundamental laws of
Buddhism. Whereupon, His Holiness delivered the following address:

Learned Audience, our Essence of Mind (literally, self-nature) which is
the seed or kernel of enlightenment (Bodhi) is pure by nature, and by
making use of this mind alone we can reach Buddhahood directly. Now let
me tell you something about my own life and how I came into possession
of the esoteric teaching of the Dhyana (or the Zen) School.

My father, a native of Fan Yang, was dismissed from his official post
and banished to be a commoner in Hsin Chou in Kwangtung. I was unlucky
in that my father died when I was very young, leaving my mother poor
and miserable. We moved to Canton and were then in very bad
circumstances.

I was selling firewood in the market one day, when one of my customers
ordered some to be brought to his shop. Upon delivery being made and
payment received, I left the shop, outside of which I found a man
reciting a sutra. As soon as I heard the text of this sutra my mind at
once became enlightened. [You don't have to be literate to be
enlightened. When you are chosen, you are the One.] Thereupon I asked
the man the name of the book he was reciting and was told that it was
the Diamond Sutra. I further enquired whence he came and why he recited
this particular sutra. He replied that he came from Tung Ch'an
Monastery in the HuangMei District of Ch'i Chou; that the Abbot in
charge of this temple was Hung Yen, the Fifth Patriarch; that there
were about one thousand disciples under him; and that when he went
there to pay homage to the Patriarch, he attended lectures on this
sutra.

He further told me that His Holiness used to encourage the laity as
well as the monks to recite this scripture, as by doing so they might
realize their own Essence of Mind, and thereby reach Buddhahood
directly.
It must be due to my good karma in past lives that I heard about this,
and that I was given tentaels for the maintenance of my mother by a man
who advised me to go to HuangMei to interview the Fifth Patriarch.
After arrangements had been made for her, I left for Huang Mei, which
took me less than thirty days to reach.

I then went to pay homage to the Patriarch, and was asked where I came
from and what I expected to get from him. I replied, "I am a commoner
from Hsin Chou of Kwangtung. I have travelled far to pay you respect
and I ask for nothing but Buddhahood."
"You are a native of Kwangtung, a barbarian? How can you expect to be a
Buddha?" asked the Patriarch.
I replied, "Although there are northern men and southern men, north and
south make no difference to their Buddha-nature. A barbarian is
different from Your Holiness physically, but there is no difference in
our Buddha-nature."
[Good people or evil people, their self-nature are the same, pure and
void.]
He was going to speak further to me, but the presence of other
disciples made him stop short. He then ordered me to join the crowd to
work.

"May I tell Your Holiness," said I, "that Prajna (transcendental
Wisdom) often rises in my mind. When one does not go astray from one's
own Essence of Mind, one may be called the 'field of merits'. I do not
know what work Your Holiness would ask me to do."

"This barbarian is too bright," he remarked. "Go to the stable and
speak no more." I then withdrew myself to the back yard and was told by
a lay brother to split firewood and to pound rice.

More than eight months after, the Patriarch saw me one day and said, "I
know your knowledge of Buddhism is very sound, but I have to refrain
from speaking to you lest evil doers should do you harm. Do you
understand?"
"Yes, Sir, I do," I replied. "To avoid people taking notice of me, I
dare not go near your hall."

The Patriarch one day assembled all his disciples and said to them,
"The question of incessant rebirth is a momentous one. Day after day,
instead of trying to free yourselves from this bitter sea of life and
death, you seem to go after tainted merits only (i.e. merits which will
cause rebirth). Yet merits will be of no help if your Essence of Mind
is obscured. Go and seek for Prajna (wisdom) in your own mind and then
write me a stanza (gatha) about it. He who understands what the Essence
of Mind is will be given the robe (the insignia of the Patriarchate)
and the Dharma (the esoteric teaching of the Zen school), and I shall
make him the Sixth Patriarch. Go away quickly.

"Delay not in writing the stanza, as deliberation is quite unnecessary
and of no use. The man who has realized the Essence of Mind can speak
of it at once, as soon as he is spoken to about it; and he cannot lose
sight of it, even when engaged in battle."

Having received this instruction, the disciples withdrew and said to
one another, "It is of no use for us to concentrate our mind to write
the stanza and submit it to His Holiness, since the Patriarchate is
bound to be won by ShenHsiu, our instructor. And if we write
perfunctorily, it will only be a waste of energy." Upon hearing this
all of them made up their minds not to write and said, "Why should we
take the trouble? Hereafter, we will simply follow our instructor, Shen
Hsiu, wherever he goes, and look to him for guidance."

Meanwhile, Shen Hsiu reasoned thus with himself. "Considering that I am
their teacher, none of them will take part in the competition. I wonder
whether I should write a stanza and submit it to His Holiness. If I do
not, how can the Patriarch know how deep or superficial my knowledge
is? If my object is to get the Dharma, my motive is a pure one. If I
were after the Patriarchate, then it would be bad. In that case, my
mind would be that of a worldling and my action would amount to robbing
the Patriarch's holy seat. But if I do not submit the stanza, I shall
never have a chance of getting the Dharma. A very difficult point to
decide, indeed!"

In front of the Patriarch's hall there were three corridors, the walls
of which were to be painted by a court artist, named Lu Chen, with
pictures from the Lankavatara Sutra depicting the transfiguration of
the assembly, and with scenes showing the genealogy of the five
Patriarchs for the information and veneration of the public.

When Shen Hsiu had composed his stanza he made several attempts to
submit it to the Patriarch, but as soon as he went near the hall his
mind was so perturbed that he sweated all over. He could not screw up
courage to submit it, although in the course of four days he made
altogether thirteen attempts to do so.

Then he suggested to himself, "It would be better for me to write it on
the wall of the corridor and let the Patriarch see it for himself. If
he approves it, I shall come out to pay homage, and tell him that it is
done by me; but if he disapproves it, then I shall have wasted several
years in this mountain in receiving homage from others which I by no
means deserve! In that case, what progress have I made in learning
Buddhism?"
At 12 o'clock that night he went secretly with a lamp to write the
stanza on the wall of the south corridor, so that the Patriarch might
know what spiritual insight he had attained.

The stanza read:

Our body is the Bodhi-tree,
And our mind a mirror bright.
Carefully we wipe them hour by hour,
And let no dust alight.

As soon as he had written it he left at once for his room; so nobody
knew what he had done. In his room he again pondered: "When the
Patriarch sees my stanza tomorrow and is pleased with it, I shall be
ready for the Dharma; but if he says that it is badly done, it will
mean that I am unfit for the Dharma, owing to the misdeeds in previous
lives which thickly becloud my mind. It is difficult to know what the
Patriarch will say about it!"
In this vein he kept on thinking until dawn, as he could neither sleep
nor sit at ease.

But the Patriarch knew already that Shen Hsiu had not entered the door
of enlightenment, and that he had not known the Essence of Mind.

In the morning, he sent for Mr. Lu, the court artist, and went with him
to the south corridor to have the walls there painted with pictures. By
chance, he saw the stanza. "I am sorry to have troubled you to come so
far," he said to the artist. "The walls need not be painted now, as the
Sutra says, 'All forms or phenomena are transient and illusive.' It
will be better to leave the stanza here, so that people may study it
and recite it. If they put its teaching into actual practice, they will
be saved from the misery of being born in these evil realms of
existence. The merit gained by one who practices it will be great
indeed!"
He then ordered incense to be burnt, and all his disciples to pay
homage to it and to recite it, so that they might realize the Essence
of Mind. After they had recited it, all of them exclaimed, "Well done!"

At midnight, the Patriarch sent for Shen Hsiu to come to the hall, and
asked him whether the stanza was written by him or not.
"It was, Sir," replied Shen Hsiu. "I dare not be so vain as to expect
to get the Patriarchate, but I wish Your Holiness would kindly tell me
whether my stanza shows the least grain of wisdom."
"Your stanza," replied the Patriarch, "shows that you have not yet
realized the Essence of Mind. So far you have reached the 'door of
enlightenment', but you have not yet entered it. To seek for supreme
enlightenment with such an understanding as yours can hardly be
successful.

"To attain supreme enlightenment, one must be able to know
spontaneously one's own nature or Essence of Mind, which is neither
created nor can it be annihilated. From ksana to ksana (thought-moment
to thought-moment), one should be able to realize the Essence of Mind
all the time. All things will then be free from restraint (i.e.,
emancipated). Once the Tathata (Suchness, another name for the Essence
of Mind) is known, one will be free from delusion forever; and in all
circumstances one's mind will be in a state of 'Thusness'. Such a state
of mind is absolute Truth. If you can see things in such a frame of
mind you will have known the Essence of Mind, which is supreme
enlightenment.
[Tathagata (ru lai) is our self-nature or Essence of Mind. When sutras
refer to It, try to understand it is not refering to Sakyamuni Buddha,
but your self-nature. This is the way to con most readers to believe
otherwise.]

"You had better go back to think it over again for couple of days, and
then submit me another stanza. If your stanza shows that you have
entered the 'door of enlightenment', I will transmit you the robe and
the Dharma."

Shen Hsiu made obeisance to the Patriarch and left. For several days,
he tried in vain to write another stanza. This upset his mind so much
that he was as ill at ease as if he were in a nightmare, and he could
find comfort neither in sitting nor in walking.

Two days after, it happened that a young boy who was passing by the
room where I was pounding rice recited loudly the stanza written by
Shen Hsiu.

As soon as I heard it, I knew at once that the composer of it has not
yet realized the Essence of Mind. For although I had not been taught
about it at that time, I already had a general idea of it.

"What stanza is this?" I asked the boy.
"You barbarian," he replied, "don't you know about it? The Patriarch
told his disciples that the question of incessant rebirth was a
momentous one, that those who wished to inherit his robe and Dharma
should write him a stanza, and that the one who had an understanding of
the Essence of Mind would get them and be made the sixth Patriarch.
Elder Shen Hsiu wrote this 'Formless' Stanza on the wall of the south
corridor and the Patriarch told us to recite it. He also said that
those who put its teaching into actual practice would attain great
merit, and be saved from the misery of being born in the evil realms of
existence."
I told the boy that I wished to recite the stanza too, so that I might
have an affinity with its teaching in future life. I also told him that
although I had been pounding rice there for eight months I had never
been to the hall, and that he would have to show me where the stanza
was to enable me to make obeisance to it.

The boy took me there and I asked him to read it to me, as I am
illiterate. A petty officer of the Chiang Chou District named Chang
Tih-Yung, who happened to be there, read it out to me. When he had
finished reading I told him that I also had composed a stanza and asked
him to write it for me.

"Extraordinary indeed," he exclaimed, "that you also can compose a
stanza!"
"Don't despise a beginner," said I, "if you are a seeker of supreme
enlightenment. You should know that the lowest class may have the
sharpest wit, while the highest may be in want of intelligence. If you
slight others, you commit a very great sin."
"Dictate your stanza," said he. "I will take it down for you. But do
not forget to deliver me, should you succeed in getting the Dharma!"

My stanza read:

There is no Bodhi-tree,
Nor stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is Void,
Where can the dust alight?
[All is Void. See Genesis 1 verses 1 and 2. In the beginning the earth
is Void.]

When he had written this, all disciples and others who were present
were greatly surprised. Filled with admiration, they said to one
another, "How wonderful! No doubt we should not judge people by
appearance. How can it be that for so long we have made a Bodhisattva
incarnate work for us?"
Seeing that the crowd was overwhelmed with amazement, the Patriarch
rubbed off the stanza with his shoe, lest jealous ones should do me
injury.

He expressed the opinion, which they took for granted, that the author
of this stanza had also not yet realized the Essence of Mind.

Next day the Patriarch came secretly to the room where the rice was
pounded. Seeing that I was working there with a stone pestle, he said
to me, "A seeker of the Path risks his life for the Dharma. Should he
not do so?" Then he asked, "Is the rice ready?"
"Ready long ago," I replied, "only waiting for the sieve." He knocked
the mortar thrice with his stick and left.

Knowing what his message meant, in the third watch of the night I went
to his room. Using the robe as a screen so that none could see us, he
expounded the Diamond Sutra to me. When he came to the sentence, "One
should use one's mind in such a way that it will be free from any
attachment," I at once became thoroughly enlightened, and realized that
all things in the universe are the Essence of Mind itself.
[If your mind is kept at neutral, you would not go wrong to either
side. Maintaining this neutrality of mind at all time will enlighten
you to Buddha-knowledge.]

"Who would have thought," I said to the Patriarch, "that the Essence of
Mind is intrinsically pure! Who would have thought that the Essence of
Mind is intrinsically free from becoming or annihilation! Who would
have thought that the Essence of Mind is intrinsically self-sufficient!
Who would have thought that the Essence of Mind is intrinsically free
from change! Who would have thought that all things are the
manifestation of the Essence of Mind!"
Knowing that I had realized the Essence of Mind, the Patriarch said,
"For him who does not know his own mind there is no use learning
Buddhism. On the other hand, if he knows his own mind and sees
intuitively his own nature, he is a Hero, a 'Teacher of gods and men',
'Buddha'."
[For him who does not know his own mind there is no use learning
Buddhism---Your mind is the Buddha or God or Allah or Tao etc etc.]

Thus, to the knowledge of no one, the Dharma was transmitted to me at
midnight, and consequently I became the inheritor of the teaching of
the 'Sudden' School as well as of the robe and the begging bowl.
"You are now the Sixth Patriarch," said he. "Take good care of
yourself, and deliver as many sentient beings as possible. Spread and
preserve the teaching, and don't let it come to an end. Take note of my
stanza:

Sentient beings who sow the seeds of enlightenment
In the field of causation will reap the fruit of Buddhahood.
Inanimate objects void of Buddha-nature [stone, metal, mountain, liquid
etc.]
Sow not and reap not.

He further said, "When the Patriarch Bodhidharma first came to China,
most Chinese had no confidence in him, and so this robe was handed down
as a testimony from one Patriarch to another. As to the Dharma, this is
transmitted from heart to heart, and the recipient must realize it by
his own efforts. From time immemorial it has been the practice for one
Buddha to pass to his successor the quintessence of the Dharma, and for
one Patriarch to transmit to another the esoteric teaching from heart
to heart. As the robe may give cause for dispute, you are the last one
to inherit it. Should you hand it down to your successor, your life
would be in imminent danger. Now leave this place as quickly as you
can, lest someone should do you harm."
[ It is clear the Transmission Line is the Only TRUTH that most people
disbelieve. It is because it was transmitted from one to one. Now it is
transmitted to many. Whether Hui Neng transmitted to one or 43, no one
knows. Only the receipent/s knew. If they wrote on them (I have no
knowledge of their writings) you may know them.]
"Whither should I go?" I asked.
"At Huai you stop and at Hui you seclude yourself," he replied.

Upon receiving the robe and the begging bowl in the middle of the
night, I told the Patriarch that, being a Southerner, I did not know
the mountain tracks, and that it was impossible for me to get to the
mouth of the river (to catch a boat).
"You need not worry," said he. "I will go with you." He then
accompanied me to Kiukiang, and there ordered me into a boat. As he did
the rowing himself, I asked him to sit down and let me handle the oar.

"It is only right for me to carry you across," he said (an allusion to
the sea of birth and death which one has to go across before the shore
of Nirvana can be reached).
To this I replied, "While I am under illusion, it is for you to get me
across; but after enlightenment, I should cross it by myself. (Although
the term 'to go across' is the same, it is used differently in each
case). As I happen to be born on the frontier, even my speaking is
incorrect in pronunciation, (but in spite of this) I have had the honor
to inherit the Dharma from you. Since I am now enlightened, it is only
right for me to cross the sea of birth and death myself by realizing my
own Essence of Mind."
"Quite so, quite so," he agreed. "Beginning from you the Dhyana School
will become very popular. Three years after your departure from me I
shall leave this world. You may start on your journey now. Go as fast
as you can towards the South. Do not preach too soon, as Buddhism is
not so easily spread."
After saying good-bye, I left him and walked towards the South. In
about two months' time, I reached the Ta Yu Mountain. There I noticed
that several hundred men were in pursuit of me with the intention of
robbing me of my robe and begging bowl.

Among them there was a monk named Hui Ming, whose lay surname was
Ch'en. He was a general of the fourth rank in lay life. His manner was
rough and his temper hot. Of all the pursuers, he was the most vigilant
in search of me. When he was about to overtake me, I threw the robe and
begging bowl on a rock, saying, "This robe is nothing but a symbol.
What is the use of taking it away by force?" (I then hid myself).
When he got to the rock, he tried to pick them up, but found he could
not. Then he shouted out, "Lay Brother, Lay Brother, (for the Patriarch
had not yet formally joined the Order) I come for the Dharma, not for
the robe." Whereupon I came out from my hiding place and squatted on
the rock. He made obeisance and said, "Lay Brother, preach to me,
please."
"Since the object of your coming is the Dharma," said I, "refrain from
thinking of anything and keep your mind blank. I will then teach you."
When he had done this for a considerable time, I said, "When you are
thinking of neither good nor evil, what is at that particular moment,
Venerable Sir, your real nature (literally, original face)?" [When you
are thinking of neither good nor evil, your mind is neutral. A neutral
mind is the self-nature, inside your body. Know this self-nature is to
know the TRUTH.]

As soon as he heard this he at once became enlightened. But he further
asked, "Apart from those esoteric sayings and esoteric ideas handed
down by the Patriarch from generation to generation, are there any
other esoteric teachings?" "What I can tell you is not esoteric," I
replied. "If you turn your light inwardly, you will find what is
esoteric within you." "In spite of my staying in Huang Mei," said he,
"I did not realize my self nature. Now thanks to your guidance, I know
it as a water-drinker knows how hot or how cold the water is. Lay
Brother, you are now my teacher." I replied, "If that is so, then you
and I are fellow disciples of the Fifth Patriarch. Take good care of
yourself." In answering his question whither he should go thereafter, I
told him to stop at Yuan and to take up his abode in Meng. He paid
homage and departed.

Sometime after I reached Ts'ao Ch'i. There the evildoers again
persecuted me and I had to take refuge in Szu Hui, where I stayed with
a party of hunters for a period as long as fifteen years.

Occasionally I preached to them in a way that befitted their
understanding.
They used to put me to watch their nets, but whenever I found living
creatures therein I set them free. At meal times I put vegetables in
the pan in which they cooked their meat. Some of them questioned me,
and I explained to them that I would eat the vegetables only, after
they had been cooked with the meat.

One day I bethought myself that I ought not to pass a secluded life all
the time, and that it was high time for me to propagate the Law.
Accordingly I left there and went to the Fa Hsin Temple in Canton.

At that time Bhikkhu Yin Tsung, Master of the Dharma, was lecturing on
the Maha Parinirvana Sutra in the Temple. It happened that one day,
when a pennant was blown about by the wind, two Bhikkhus entered into a
dispute as to what it was that was in motion, the wind or the pennant.
As they could not settle their difference I submitted to them that it
was neither, and that what actually moved was their own mind. The whole
assembly was startled by what I said, and Bhikkhu Yin Tsang invited me
to take a seat of honor and questioned me about various knotty points
in the Sutras.

Seeing that my answers were precise and accurate, and that they showed
something more than book-knowledge, he said to me, "Lay Brother, you
must be an extraordinary man, I was told long ago that the inheritor of
the Fifth Patriarch's robe and Dharma had come to the South. Very
likely you are the man."

To this I politely assented. He immediately made obeisance and asked me
to show the assembly the robe and the begging bowl which I had
inherited.

He further asked what instructions I had when the Fifth Patriarch
transmitted me the Dharma. [transmission of the HEART-to-HEART SEAL]
"Apart from a discussion on the realization of the Essence of Mind," I
replied, "he gave me no other instruction, nor did he refer to Dhyana
and Emancipation."
"Why not?" he asked.
"Because that would mean two ways," I replied. "And there cannot be two
ways in Buddhism. There is one way only."
He asked what was the only way.
I replied, "The MahaParinirvana Sutra which you expound explains that
Buddha-nature is the only way. For example, in that Sutra King
KaoKuei-Teh, a Bodhisattva, asked Buddha whether or not those who
commit the four acts of gross misconduct [killing, stealing, carnality
and lying] or the five deadly sins [patricide, matricide, setting the
Buddhist Order in discord, killing an Arhat, and causing blood to flow
from the body of a Buddha], and those who areicchantika (heretics)
etc., would eradicate their 'element of goodness' and their
Buddha-nature.

Buddha replied, 'There are two kinds of 'element of goodness', the
eternal and the non-eternal. Since Buddha-nature is neither eternal nor
non-eternal, therefore their 'element of goodness' is not eradicated.
Now Buddhism is known as having no two ways. There are good ways and
evil ways, but since Buddha-nature is neither, therefore Buddhism is
known as having no two ways. From the point of view of ordinary folks,
the component parts of a personality (skandhas) and factors of
consciousness (dhatus) are two separate things: but enlightened men
understand that they are not dual in nature. Buddha-nature is
non-duality."
[When meditate think neither good nor evil things. Keep a neutral mind.
This is non-duality.]

Bhikkhu Yin Tsung was highly pleased with my answer. Putting his two
palms together as a sign of respect, he said,
"My interpretation of the Sutra is as worthless as a heap of debris,
while your discourse is as valuable as genuine gold."

Subsequently he conducted the ceremony of hair-cutting for me (i.e.,
the ceremony of Initiation into the Order) and asked me to accept him
as my pupil.
Thenceforth, under the Bodhi-tree I preached the teaching of the Tung
Shan School (the School of the Fourth and the Fifth Patriarchs, who
lived in Tung Shan).

Since the time when the Dharma was transmitted [this is the SEAL
transmission] to me in Tung Shan, I have gone through many hardships
and my life often seemed to be hanging by a thread.

Today, I have had the honor of meeting you in this assembly, and I must
ascribe this to our good connection in previous kalpas (cyclic
periods), as well as to our common accumulated merits in making
offerings to various Buddhas in our past reincarnations; otherwise, we
should have had no chance of hearing the above teaching of the 'Sudden'
School, and thereby laying the foundation of our future success in
understanding the Dharma.

This teaching was handed down from the past Patriarchs, and it is not a
system of my own invention. Those who wish to hear the teaching should
first purify their own mind, and after hearing it they should each
clear up their own doubts in the same way as the Sages did in the
past."

At the end of the address, the assembly felt rejoiced, made obeisance
and departed.

[ Learned Audience, our Essence of Mind (literally, self-nature) which
is the seed or kernel of enlightenment (Bodhi) is pure by nature, and
by making use of this mind alone we can reach Buddhahood directly.]
[ The Truth is already spoken here in the opening address of the sutra.
Bodhi self-nature is pure by nature. Know this self-nature, and
meditate on It, you will have Buddha-knowledge. With the transmission
SEAL, you will return back to the source.]
[Hui Neng was chosen to inherit the Dharma to tell us, we need not be
literate to gain enlightenment. This is all FATE or DESTINY. We are
like actors on a world stage.]

Bald eagle wrote: