Someone asked if I would talk about the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Ancestor during Sushin. So that's what I'm going to do. I don't think that I'll, of course, get through it, but there are many significant things in the sutra. I just want to talk a little bit about the sutra itself. Sutra is usually considered coming from the mouth of Buddha. And in India, of course, the sutras were not written down until about 400 years after Shakyamuni. And right around the time that Prajnaparamita sutras started to appear.

[01:01]

So Huineng is the sixth ancestor in China of the Zen school. And I know you know all this, but I just have to talk about it, reiterate it all. So Bodhidharma, Bodhidharma, Taiso Eka, Kanshi Sosan, Dai I Doshin, but with Huinong in China as the sixth ancestor. And the development of Zen from India to China took place during the time of the first five ancestors. And Huinong is considered the Buddha of China. Because all of the schools of Zen descend from Huino, Daikaneino, and especially the Soto school and the Rinzai school, but there were actually five or sometimes we consider seven schools of Zen.

[02:28]

But Rinzai and Soto, So we know, like the fountainhead of Zen in China. So this is why his words and his autobiography are considered Why there's actually this platform sutra is considered a sutra. It didn't come from India, it came from China. So since all of the sutras were supposed to have come from Buddha's mouth in India, which of course They didn't.

[03:31]

This is why we have, well, I'll explain it later. So, Hui Neng is considered a Buddha who appeared in China from a Chinese Buddha who appeared in China. So, therefore, it's called the Sutra in a kind of legitimate way. But, you know, when the Sutra started coming into to China from India, after people started writing a lot, they started comparing these sutras and they were all kind of contradictory. Did the Buddha actually say all these things? So we say that the sutras were written by Sambhogakaya Buddha. Sambhogakaya Buddha is Buddha's wisdom. expressed through various enlightened sages.

[04:36]

So we see Sambhogakaya is Buddha's wisdom. Nirmanakaya is the transformation body. Dharmakaya is the essence body. So this sutra appeared very early on in the 8th century. Huinong was his dates, exact dates, as far as we know. were born in 638. And so he practiced in the 7th century and part of the 8th century. So the sutra was first printed around 820.

[05:45]

And the sutra was, if people had a copy of the sutra, they were considered to have some kind of transmission from was much shorter. Sutras, Buddhist sutras have a way of expanding. When the Western scholars started to discover the Prajnaparamita texts, sutras, there was a sutra in a hundred thousand lines, slokas or lines, 25,000 lines, 50,000, 50 lines, and a whole list of my Prajnaparamita Sutras, the Diamond Sutra, the Heart Sutra, and the Sutra in one letter, the Sanskrit letter A. So they thought that the larger sutras were the originals, and then they were gradually reduced

[07:04]

for comprehension sake, but actually they realized that the sutras actually started out rather small and expanded as people kept adding things to them. So the Platform Sutra is no exception. was a kind of Buddhist scholar named Oral Stein, Sir Oral Stein, and quite an adventure, actually. There's a wonderful book about him that just came out recently. But he went to the Dunhuang Caves, which are kind of somewhere between in the Palmier Mountains, on a slope route between China and India. And these caves were, you know, built by, excavated and created by donors.

[08:06]

That part of the country was at one time very wealthy, and now it's all kind of desert and mountains. And the winds blow through the dust. But these caves are exceptionally wonderful. And there was one cave where they found a hidden doorway and treasures inside. And one of the things they found was the earliest copy of the Platform Sutra. And the earliest copy is called the Dunguan edition copy. the things that are in the later ones, the main version. So this has been added to, and it's also been a kind of political football, so to speak, because some of, as you'll see, I can explain that later as we go on, and we can see what is political, that was used for political purposes, to gain

[09:27]

recognition. So there are things in the platform sutra which are very questionable and there are things that are really quite solid. And you have to have a kind of discerning mind to separate it out. But the whole sutra is very interesting. And it's great to read. And it contains the primary understanding of prajna, dhyana, various Mahayana practices. And it seems to have been built or put together originally what it was. was an ordination ceremony. And that's kind of in the center, repentance and ordination ceremony.

[10:32]

And then around it grew out all of this other stuff. But it begins with the autobiography. So the autobiography This is my copy, this is my old copy. There's a lot of translations, a number of translations. I think this is the first Buddhist book I ever had. Somebody gave it to me, a person introduced me to it. Yeah, actually. And, you know, it's old translation. And everything that's translated about the Sutras is done differently by different authors. So anyway, this is the fullest, this is the main version of the Platform Sutra. So today, I'm going to hopefully, I don't know, we'll get through it, but start reading, start talking about the autobiography.

[11:44]

Okay. China. And so he says, once when the patriarch had arrived at Paolin Monastery, Prefect Y of Xinjiao and other officials went there to ask him to deliver public lectures on Buddhism in the hall of the Taifan Temple in the city of Canton. by government officials and Confucian scholars, about 30 each, and Bhikkhus, Bhikkhunis, Taoists, and laypeople, to the number of about 1,000. And they didn't have this. After the patriarch had taken his seat, the congregation in Abadi paid him homage and asked him to preach on the fundamental laws of Buddhism.

[12:53]

Whereupon, His Holiness delivered the following address. Learned audience. Now, he doesn't know whether they're learned or not, but he still addresses them as learned audience. Our essence of mind, literally our self-nature, which is the seed or kernel of enlightenment, or bodhi, is pure by nature. And by making use of this mind alone, we can reach Buddhahood directly. So essence of mind is the way it's expressed here as big mind, or essence of mind, or dharmakaya, or there are many ways to express this. I like the term essence of mind, actually. And bodhi, of course, is enlightenment. So essence of mind is pure by nature, and by making use of this mind alone, we can reach Buddhahood directly.

[13:56]

Now let me tell you something about my own life and how I came into possession. I don't like the word possession. How I came into the transmission of the esoteric teaching of the dhyana or the Zen school. As we know, dhyana means meditation in Sanskrit. My father, a native of Fanyang, was dismissed from his official post and banished to be a commoner in Sunqiao in Guangdong. I was unlucky in that my father died when I was very young, leaving my mother poor and miserable. We moved to Guangdong, I'm sorry, Guangqiao, which is Canton, and were then in very bad circumstances. I was selling firewood in the market one day. Now there are different, usually people, I think most people seem to think he was about 24 years old.

[14:59]

Other people think he was a little boy. 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. Thereupon, I asked the man the name of the book he was reciting and was told that it was the Diamond Sutra, the Vajracchedika, or Diamond Cutter. I further inquired whence he came and why he received this particular sutra. He replied that he came from Dung Sang Monastery in the Wang Mu Yi district of Qichao, and that the abbot in charge of this temple, Huang Yan, the fifth patriarch, Dai Man Kun, to you, that there were about 1,000 disciples under him.

[16:08]

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. So one of the characteristics of the Sixth Ancestor is that he doesn't make such a distinction between monks and laypeople. And one of his messages is that laypeople are just as the Dharma is just as available to lay people as to monks, which is kind of unique in that time. The Diamond Sutra is a companion sutra to the Heart Sutra. We haven't done that yet.

[17:21]

He further told me that His Holiness used to encourage the laity as well as the monks to recite the 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 ten tales for the maintenance of my mother by a man who advised me to go to Wang Mui to interview the fifth ancestor. After arrangements had been made for her, I left for Wang Mui, which took me less than 30 days to reach. If you've ever been to China, good. I then went to pay homage to the ancestor and was asked where I came from and what I expected to get from him.

[18:33]

I replied, I am a commoner from Sunjiao in Guangdong. So Sunjiao in Guangdong, it's like the south of China and the south, That part of Southern China was considered like barbarians, what we would call in the olden days, Okies and Arkies. We don't do that anymore. But that kind of attitude. I replied, I am a commoner from Sunchao, Guangdong. I have traveled far to pay you respect, and I ask for nothing but Buddhahood. Didn't want money or anything. You are a native of Guangdong, a barbarian.

[19:39]

Now, most of the Sutra translations say this. How can you expect to be a Buddha? And that leaves it there. Dōgen uses a different translation. I don't know where he gets his translation exactly, but he translates it as, people from Guangdong had no Buddha nature. How can you expect to, You expect to be a Buddha. So this is a very key sentence. People from Guangdong have no Buddha nature. So Dogen in his fascicle, Buzhou, which means Buddha nature, uses no Buddha, he emphasizes no Buddha nature.

[20:42]

That's too much to go into now. That's very significant because it's something like, does the dog have buddha nature? The dog has no buddha nature. So it's very much like no eyes, no ears, no nose. It's kind of like the heart sutra. No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue. If you don't say no buddha nature, then there's, it's like buddha nature is emptiness. Buddha nature is no. So if you say buddhanature, that's dualistic. Having buddhanature is dualistic. So don't get in, you know, people from Guangdong are buddhanature. There's nothing to attain.

[21:45]

So how can you expect to be a Buddha?" asked the ancestor. And I replied, although there are Northern men, Northern people and Southern people, North and South make no difference to their Buddha nature, which is right. Barbarian is different from your holiness physically, but there is no difference in their Buddha nature. And Doug had questioned that as well. It's also people from the South are Buddha nature. There is not even anything, there is no North or South. There's simply right now South Buddha nature. So he was going to speak further to me.

[22:54]

But the presence of other disciples made him stop short, and he ordered me to join the assembly to work. And then, may I tell your holiness, said I, that prajna, which is innate wisdom, often arises 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 don't know what work your holiness would ask me to do. So it's kind of, you know. So field of merits means I am actually a monk. So this barbarian is too bright. He's smart. Go to the stable and speak no more. I then withdrew myself to the backyard and was told by a lay brother to split firewood into common rice.

[24:00]

I haven't been to the Sixth Ancestors Temple, but I understand, and I've seen photographs. You know, Chinese like to do this. There are these kind of little depressions in the ground, in the rock, which is They say, well, this is where the sixth ancestor was standing, you know. So more than eight months after, the ancestor 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, now there's George Bush, how'd he got in there? 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 yourself. This is a later addition to the sutra. The ancestor one day assembled all his disciples and said to them, the question of incessant rebirth is a momentous one.

[25:14]

Day after day, instead of trying to free yourselves from this bitter sea of birth and death, you seem to go after tainted merits only. That is merits that will cause rebirth. Actually, karma. This is what he's talking about. How do you free yourself from creating karma? Yet merits will be of no help if your essence of mind is obscured. So go and seek prajna, which is wisdom, in your own mind, and then write me a stanza One who understands what the essence of mind is will be given the rope, the insignia of the patriarch, and the dharma, the esoteric teaching of the Zen school. And I shall make him the sixth ancestor. So go away quickly. Delay not in writing this stanza, as deliberation is quite unnecessary and of no use.

[26:16]

In other words, you either know it or you don't. If you have to dig it out, It won't work. So the person who has realized the essence of mind can speak of it at once, as soon as that person has spoken to about it, and cannot lose sight of it, even when engaged in battle. So this is what we talk about all the time, actually. We talk about how do you take your practice into the world? Even when you're engaged in battle, or even in the middle of the marketplace. In other words, If you know your essence of mind, you can't lose it even in the marketplace. 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 this stanza and submit it to His Holiness, since the Patriarchate is bound to be won by Xin Zhao.

[27:17]

our instructor. Now Xinqiao was probably my age, or younger, and was the leader of the assembly. He was a well-known scholar and practitioner. And so, you know, everybody expected 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, Xinqiao, wherever he goes and look to him for guidance. Meanwhile, Xinqiao 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.

[28:22]

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 patriarchy, then it would be bad. In that case, my mind would be that of a worldling and my action would amount to robbing the ancestors' holy seat. But if I do not submit this stanza, I shall never have a chance of getting the Dharma. A very difficult point to decide. Indeed, in front of the Ancestors Hall, there were three corridors, the walls of which were to be painted by a court artist named Lo Chun, with pictures from the Lankavatara Sutra. Lankavatara Sutra is the sutra that was supposed to have been transmitted by or brought to China by Bodhidharma.

[29:26]

Difficult to read, but I don't want to go into that. Depicting the transfiguration of the assembly and with scenes showing the genealogy of the five patriarchs, When Xin Zhao 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 slid it all over. He could not screw up courage to submit it, although in the course of four days, he made altogether 13 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. It would be better for me to write it on the wall of Buddha.

[30:28]

If he approves of it, I shall come out to pay homage and tell him that it is done by me. But if he disapproves of 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 ancestor might know what spiritual insight he had attained. And the stanza read, first of all, this is the famous stanza. Our body is the Bodhi tree. Our mind is a mirror bright. Carefully, we wipe them hour by hour and let Wang Wulong, who translated this, is the only person who puts this into poetry.

[31:32]

Everyone else puts it into prose. So, as soon as he had written it, he left it 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 sickly be cloud 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. Poor guy. But the patriarch knew already that Hsinchu had not entered the door of enlightenment and that he had not known the essence of mind. In the morning, he sent for Mr. Lo, the court artist, and went with him to the South Corridor to have the walls there painted with pictures.

[32:32]

By chance, he saw the stanza, I'm 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 of phenomena are transient and elusive. 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 burned and all of 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 ancestor sent for Hsinchou to come to the hall and asked him whether the stanza was written by him or not. It was, sir," replied Xinchao. 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.

[33:36]

Your stanza, replied the Patriarch, shows that you have not yet realized the essence of mind. So far you have reached To attain supreme enlightenment, one must be able to know spontaneously one's own essence of nature or essence of mind, which is neither created nor can it be annihilated. From moment to moment, one should be able to realize the essence of mind all the time. All things will then be free from restraint or emancipated. Once on the Tathagata, another name for the essence of mind, suchness, actually. Once the tatata or suchness, another name for 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.

[34:40]

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. I had better go back to think it over again for a couple of days and then submit me another stanza. If your stanza shows that you have entered the door of enlightenment, I'll transmit to you the robe and the bowl." Since Hsinchu 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 in neither sitting nor in walking. Two days after, it happened that a young boy also was passing by the room where I was pounding rice. Recited loudly the stanza written by Xinqiao. As soon as I heard it, I knew at once that the composer of it had 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?

[35:41]

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 wish to inherit his robe and garment 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 ancestor. Elder Hsing-xiao wrote this formless stanza on the wall of the South Corridor. The patriarch told us to recite it. He also said that those who put his 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 his teaching in future life. I also told him that I thought I had been pounding rice for eight months. I had never seen, although I had been doing that, I'd never seen, been to the hall, and that he would have to show me where the stanza was in order for me to make obeisance to it.

[36:42]

The boy took me there, and I asked him to read it to me, as I am illiterate. So this is the questionable thing. One of the major points of the sutra is that Huineng is illiterate. So he knows everything intrinsically. So everything that he expresses comes from inside. A petty officer of the Kong Chao district named Chong Tak Yung, who happened to be there, read it out to me. When he had finished reading, I told him that I also had composed this stanza and asked him to write it for me. Extraordinary indeed, he exclaimed. 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.

[37:57]

If you slight others, you commit a very great sin. Dictate your stanza, said he. I'll take it down for you, but don't forget to deliver it, should you succeed in getting the Dharma. My stanza read, there is no Buddha nature. There is no buddha tree, nor stand of a mirror bright. Since all is void, where can there rest a light?" So this is a step further from Xinxiao's stanza. Xinxiao's stanza talks about practice, and Hui Neng's stanza talks about realization. And the way, you know, there's many contradictory things going on here.

[38:59]

It looks like, you know, the ancestors are saying, although this is not, although Hsinchu's stanza, it doesn't express enlightenment through the door of enlightenment. He wants everybody to recite it and they will all be liberated if they understand it. On the other hand, he's saying, it's not yet. And when he knows stanza, well, he actually erases it and says, I never got to that part yet, but he erases it. And he says, but this is the stanza that he actually by itself falls short, but together they make a complete understanding of practice and enlightenment.

[40:10]

It's not necessarily that one is right and one is wrong. They both express the Dharma, but they're complementary. So when he had written this, all the 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 appearances. How can it be that for so long you made a Bodhisattva incarnate work for us? Seeing that, the crowd was overwhelmed with amazement. The patriarch rubbed off the stanza with his shoe, as jealous ones to do may injury. He expressed the opinion, which they took for granted, that the author of this stanza had not, had also not yet realized the essence of mind. So next day, I just want to say something about Shen Xiu and Wei Nam.

[41:20]

And Hsinchu, after all this happened, he went north and propagated what's called the Northern School of Zen, which is called the Gradual School. And Huineng went south and developed what was called the Southern School. But actually, this is all propaganda, because they were both really good, enlightened people. People who wanted to promote Huineng added this kind of stuff. Anyway, the next day, the ancestor 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?

[42:24]

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. How much time do we have?

[43:31]

We usually finish at 11. According to the schedule we finish at 11. 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? I just want to say something about it. Who would have thought that the essence of mind is intrinsically free from change? Which doesn't mean there's no change. Everything's changing, but simply free from change.

[44:35]

So, knowing that I had realized the essence of mind, the ancestor said, for one who does not know their own mind, there is no use learning Buddhism. On the other hand, if one knows their own mind and sees intuitively their own nature, that person is a teacher of gods and men, or a Buddha. 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 ancestor 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. Spiritual beings who sow the seeds of enlightenment in the field of causation, in other words, in the nitty gritty of life, will reap the fruit of Buddhahood.

[45:48]

Inanimate objects void of buddha nature So.

[45:55]

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