Table of Contents
Also translated and with commentary by Red Pine
Lao-tzus Taoteching
The Diamond Sutra
The Heart Sutra
The Platform Sutra
The Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra
of the Direct Teaching of the Southern School
of the Supreme Mahayana, The Platform Sutra
Delivered at Tafan Temple in Shaochou by the Sixth Patriarch, Master Hui-neng, in one volume, compiled and recorded by Fa-hai, recipient of the Formless Precepts and advocate of the Dharma.
1. Master Hui-neng took his seat in the lecture hall of Tafan Temple to expound the teaching of Mahaprajnaparamita and to transmit the Formless Precepts. Seated below him on that occasion were more than ten thousand monks, nuns, and laypeople, along with Magistrate Wei Chu of Shaochou and more than thirty officials and thirty scholars. Together they asked the Master to explain the teaching of Mahaprajnaparamita.
The magistrate then instructed the Masters disciple Fa-hai to make a record to pass down to future generations so that students of the Way who carry on its guiding principle and who transmit it to others might have this testament as their authority.
2. When he spoke this Platform Sutra, Master Hui-neng said, Good friends, purify your minds by reciting the teaching of Mahaprajnaparamita. Then the Master stopped speaking, while he purified his own mind.
After a long time, he spoke again, Good friends, please listen. My kind-hearted father was originally from Fanyang. But he was dismissed from office and banished to Lingnan and lived in Hsinchou as a commoner. My father died when I was quite young. And my widwed and destitute mother moved to Nanhai, where I experienced hardship and poverty and sold firewood in the marketplace.
Then one day a shopkeeper ordered a load of firewood brought to his store. After he took the delivery and paid me, I walked toward the door and met a customer reciting the Diamond Sutra out loud. As soon as I heard the words, my mind felt clear and awake, and I asked the man, Where did you get this scripture youre reciting?
He said, On Huangmei Countys East Fengmao Mountain in Chichou Prefecture, when I was paying my respects to the Fifth Patriarch, Master Hung-jen. His congregation included more than a thousand disciples. And while I was there, I heard him tell the monks and laypeople that just by memorizing the Diamond Sutra they would see their natures and immediately become buddhas.
As soon as I heard this, I felt drawn by something from a past life. I said goodbye to my mother and left for Huangmeis Fengmao Mountain to pay my respects to the Fifth Patriarch, Master Hung-jen.
3. Master Hung-jen asked me, Where are you from? And what exactly do you hope to get from me by coming to this mountain to pay your respects?
I answered, Your disciple is from Lingnan, a commoner of Hsinchou. The reason I came all this way to pay my respects is I want to be a buddha. I dont want anything else.
The Master scoffed, But youre from Lingnan and a jungle rat as well. How can you possibly be a buddha?
I replied, People come from the north or south, not their buddha nature. The lives of this jungle rat and the Masters arent the same, but how can our buddha nature differ?
The Master was about to say something more to me. But when he saw his attendants standing there, he didnt say anything else and sent me to join the sangha workforce. A novice then led me to the milling room, where I pedaled a millstone for more than eight months.
4. One day, the Fifth Patriarch suddenly called all of his disciples together. After they had assembled, he said, Ive told you that the greatest concern for a human being is life and death. But you disciples spend your days making offerings, just looking for ways to reap merit and not for a way out of the bitter Sea of Sansara. If youre blind to your own nature, how can you find the doorway to merit? Go back to your rooms and look into yourselves. Those of you who are wise, make use of the prajna wisdom of your own nature. Each of you write me a gatha. When I read your gathas, if any of you understands what is truly important, I will give you my robe and my Dharma and appoint you the Sixth Patriarch. Hurry, as if there were a fire!
5. Having received these instructions, his disciples headed back to their rooms and said to one another, Theres no need for us to clear our minds and trouble ourselves about writing a gatha to show the abbot. The venerable Shen-hsiu is our precept instructor. After he receives the Dharma, we can look to him. Why should we write a gatha? So they all stopped worrying about it, and no one dared to submit a poem.
At that time, in front of the Patriarchs Hall, there was a three-section-long corridor. Because people left offerings at the foot of the wall, the abbot wanted to cover it with scenes from the Lankavatara Sutra and paintings of the five patriarchs transmitting the robe and the Dharma as a record to be passed down to future generations. The painter Lu Chen had inspected the wall and was going to begin work the following day.
6. The venerable Shen-hsiu thought, No one is going to submit a mind-poem, because Im their precept instructor. But if I dont submit one, how can the Patriarch tell if the understanding of my mind is deep or not? It would be right for me to show the Patriarch a poem that reveals my understanding, as long as what I wanted was the Dharma. But it would be wrong, as long as what I wanted was the patriarchship. I would be no better than a fool who thinks he can usurp the position of a sage. But if I dont submit a mind-poem, Ill never receive the Dharma. As he considered this, he kept thinking, What a predicament!
Finally at midnight, without letting anyone know, he went to write his poem on the middle of the south corridor wall in hopes of obtaining the robe and the Dharma. When the Patriarch sees my gatha and reads these words, he thought, if he comes to find me, the moment I see him, I will tell him I wrote it. But when he sees my gatha, if he says its not good enough, it will be because Im deluded and the obstruction of my past karma is too great, and Im not ready to receive the Dharma. The Masters mind is impossible to fathom. I may as well stop worrying about it. So the venerable Shen-hsiu held up a lantern and wrote his gatha on the middle of the south corridor wall at midnight, and no one saw him. His gatha went:
The body is a bodhi tree
the mind is like a standing mirror
always try to keep it clean
dont let it gather dust.
7. After Shen-hsiu wrote this gatha, he returned to his room unseen and lay down. At dawn, the Fifth Patriarch sent for the court artist, Lu Chen, to come to the south corridor to paint scenes from the Lankavatara. The Fifth Patriarch suddenly saw this gatha. After he read it, he told Lu, Youve gone to so much trouble and come so far, we will pay you thirty thousand cash, but we wont need any images now. The Diamond Sutra says, All images are illusions. It would be better if we kept this gatha for deluded people to recite. If they rely on it for their practice, they wont fall into the three unfortunate states of existence, and it will be a great help to anyone who cultivates the Dharma.
