Sixth Patriarch Huineng 

(638 ~ 713 C.E.)

Ven. Jian Hu

taken from the lecture notes for Ven. Jian Hu talk, "The Illiterate Prodigy" at Stanford's "Buddhism in the Modern World" Series, 1/26/2006

The Illiterate Prodigy

HuiNeng was born into the Lu family in 638 A.D. His father died when he was young and his family was poor, so he did not have the chance to learn to read or write; he became a woodcutter. One day, while he was delivering firewood to an inn, he heard a guest reciting the Diamond Sutra and he immediately grasped its significance. Right then he decided to seek the Way of Buddhahood. The guest gave him ten taels of silver to provide for his mother, and HuiNeng embarked on his path. Thus began a remarkable page in Chinese Zen history.

After traveling for 30 days on foot, Huineng arrived at Huang Mei (Yellow Plum) Mountain, where the Fifth Patriarch Hongren presided. Master Hongren asked the newcomer, "Where are you from? What do you seek?"

Huineng replied, "I am from Ling Nan (South of the Peaks-today's Guangdong or Canton). I've come from far away to pay my respects to the master. I seek nothing else but to become a Buddha."

Hongren said, "You come from the South, that makes you a barbarian. How can you become a Buddha?"

Huineng replied, "People may come from north or south, but the Buddha nature has no north or south. The body of a barbarian is different from Your Reverence's, but what difference is there in our Buddha nature?"

Master Hongren knew he was special, but said harshly, "Don't say anymore. Go do chores in the rice mill." Whereupon Huineng stayed to chop wood and pound rice for eight months.

Bodhi Tree

One day, the Fifth Patriarch told the assembly of disciples, "Listen. The matter of birth and death is a great concern. All day long you only seek for (ephemeral) blessings, but do not seek to get out of the ocean of misery of birth and death. With your original nature deluded, how can blessings save you? Go now, look into your own wisdom, grasp your original prajna nature, and compose a gatha (poem) for me. If you're awakened to the Great Essence, I will transmit the robe and the Dharma to you, making you the Sixth Patriarch. Go immediately without delay! Thinking about it is of no use. People who realize their essential nature should see it the moment I mention it. They do not lose sight of it even if they're fighting on a battlefield."

However, the disciples said to each other, "We don't need to waste our effort writing gathas, surely the head monk and instructor, Venerable ShenXiu, will succeed and be the Sixth Patriarch. We'll just follow Shenxiu in the future!"

The well-respected and learned head monk, Shenxiu, was under great pressure to produce a gatha that would qualify him as the next patriarch. He eventually decided to write a poem anonymously on the wall in the middle of the night:

The body is a bodhi tree, The mind a standing mirror bright;

At all times polish it diligently,

And let no dust alight.

Bodhi is No Tree

This gatha on the wall created a stir among the disciples the next morning. When the Fifth Patriarch saw it, he told them, "Practice according to this gatha, you will not fall into the evil destinies, and you will receive great benefits. Light incense and pay respect to this gatha, recite it, and you will see your essential nature." All the disciples praised and memorized the gatha.

However, privately, the Fifth Patriarch told Shenxiu, "You have arrived at the gate, but haven't entered it. With this level of understanding, you still have no idea what the supreme bodhi mind is. Upon hearing my words, you should immediately recognize the original mind, the essential nature, which is unborn and unceasing. At all times, see it clearly in every thought, unhindered from everything. When you see the truth of one thing, you see the truth of everything. All phenomena are just as they are." The Patriarch asked Shenxiu to compose another gatha that shows true understanding. Shenxiu tried hard but couldn't come up with another verse.

When a young novice passed the rice mill chanting Shenxiu's gatha, Huineng immediately knew this verse lacked true insight. He went to the wall, and asked a district officer there to write a poem of his own for him. The officer was surprised, "How extraordinary! You are illiterate, and you want to compose a poem?" Whereupon Huineng said, "If you seek the supreme enlightenment, do not slight anyone. The lowest person may have great insights, and the highest person may commit foolish acts." With respect, the officer wrote Huineng's gatha on the wall for him, next to Shenxiu's. It read:

Bodhi is no tree

Nor standing mirror bright;

Since all is originally empty,

Where can the dust alight?

Huineng then went back to rice pounding. However, this gatha created a bigger stir; everyone was saying, "Amazing! You can't judge a person by his appearance! Maybe he will become a living bodhisattva soon!" However, when the Fifth Patriarch saw the commotion, he casually said, "This (author) hasn't seen the true nature either," and wiped the gatha off with his shoe.

The Mind Acts Without Attachment

The next day, Patriarch Hongren came to the mill and asked Huineng, "Is the rice ready??

Huineng said, "It has been ready for a long time. It is only waiting for the sieve." That night the Fifth Patriarch received Huineng in his abode, and expounded the Diamond Sutra to him. When they came to the passage, "the mind should cling to nothing when it acts," Huineng suddenly had a great enlightenment—that all dharmas are inseparable from the self nature. He exclaimed, "How amazing that the self nature is originally pure! How amazing that the self nature is unborn and undying! How amazing that the self nature is inherently complete! How amazing that the self nature neither moves nor stays! How amazing that all dharmas come from this self nature!"

The Fifth Patriarch told Huineng, "If one recognizes the original mind, the original nature, he is called a great man, a teacher of gods and humans, and a Buddha. "He passed the robe and begging bowl as a symbol of the Dharma Seal of the Sudden Enlightenment School to Huineng.

Escape

Since Huineng was lowly in social status and unlearned, the Fifth Patriarch had been protecting him from the jealousy of others since his arrival. Now that he had certified Huineng as the Dharma successor, he told Huineng to leave quickly and not to start teaching until much later. Hongren personally escorted Huineng to a river, and was about to ferry Huineng across, when Huineng said, "allow your disciple to row the boat."

Master Hongren said, "It should be the master that ferries the disciple across."

Huineng said, "When in delusion, the master ferries the boat; when awakened, one ferries oneself."

Wind Moves? Flag Moves?

Master Huineng eventually back to the south and hid with a group of hunters for 15 years, eating only the vegetables that were mixed in with the meat. He taught the Dharma to the hunters and set the trapped animals free whenever he got the chance.

The day had come for him to spread the Dharma, and he arrived at a monastery where the abbot, Master YinZong, was preaching the Parinirvana Sutra. Out in the courtyard, a flag was flapping in the wind, and two monks were arguing below. One said, "The wind is moving." The other said, "No, the flag is moving." They could not reach a conclusion. Huineng came forth and said, "Neither the wind nor the flag is moving. It is your minds that are moving."

When Master Yinzong heard these words, he questioned Huineng on the Dharma. Soon he was convinced that Huineng was the long sought-after Sixth Patriarch, and praised him, "My explanation of the sutra is like tile and gravel. Your elucidation of the Dharma is like pure gold." Yinzong ordained Huineng but venerated Huineng as his own master. Thus began the Sixth Patriarch Huineng's great teaching career.