Sixth Patriarch Huineng, one of the three great saints in the East

The Sixth Patriarch Huineng is known as the "Sage of Wisdom" and is the founder of the Southern School of Zen Buddhism. His ideas have had a profound impact on both Chinese philosophy and Buddhist culture. Together with "Tao Sage" Lao Tzu and "Virtuous Sage" Confucius , they are collectively called the three great sages of the East.

The true body of the sixth ancestor is in the Nanhua Temple

[Yu Meiren] Nanhua Temple

Wen/Long Zai Tian Poetry1p 1p 1p _p5

The holy place is blessed by God. The Sanskrit sound of the morning bell and the evening drum

Towering ancient trees and towering palaces with purple smoke

Hui Neng Dazhi meditation and enlightenment

The true meaning of the world is born. Bodhi treeless mirror is not a platform

Where can one's self-nature and pure heart get dusty

Huineng (638-713), common surname Lu, born on February 8th in the twelfth year of Tang Zhenguan (638 years) In Xinzhou (now Xinxing County, Guangdong ). He lost his father at the age of 3, and spent a long time selling firewood to support his mother. In the first year of Tang Longshuo (661), he worshipped , the fifth ancestor of Hongren, at Dongshan Temple in Huangmei, Qizhou (now part of Hubei Province).　　

Huineng's first arrival Dongshan Temple was assigned to pound rice,With perseverance and extraordinary understanding, he understood a lot of Buddhism.

Huineng and Shenxiu wrote the verses on the wall respectively.

Wuzu Hongren, in order to test the depth of the monks' meditation, ordered each of them to present the verses. When is a god show is the supreme seat of the monks, that is, as a verse:

The body is a bodhi tree, and the heart is like a mirror platform.

always wipe away, don’t get dusty.

chant the whole temple for a while. 弘忍 After watching it, he said to the monks that if future generations can practice in this way, they will win the victory and persuade them to recite it. Huineng heard the monk chanting this verse in the rice-crumbling room, but he didn't agree with him, so he made a verse and asked someone to write it on the wall (Huineng is said to be illiterate). The verse:

Bodhi has no tree, and the mirror is not a platform.

is nothing, where can the dust be!

Bodhi tree

Everyone is surprised to see this verse. When Hongren saw it, at night, Zhao Hui could try to pass on his Zen knowledge, and he was sent to Jiujiang Ferry. Asked him to go south for the time being to conceal him, and wait for the time to go. Therefore, after Huineng returned to Guangdong, he retired in Sihui and Huaiji and lived with hunters for 15 years. It was not until Tang Gaozong Yifeng first year (676) to reach Faxing Temple in Guangzhou. Listen to the scriptures. From time to time, there were strong winds that caused the monastery flags to move. One monk said it was moving by the wind and the other said it was moving. Huineng intervened and said, "It's not the wind or the flag, the heart of the benevolent." Everyone was surprised. Master Yinzong enquired that he was the heir of Zen , and he was delighted to admire him.On the eighth day of February, lawyer Zhiguang was invited to give him the ordination. Two months later, Huineng was under the bodhi tree in the temple, preaching for the four people, and opened the Dongshan Method.

In the spring of the second year of Yifeng (677), Huineng resigned to Baolin Temple in Caoxi

Nanhua Temple

(now Nanhua Temple in Shaoguan, Guangdong), more than a thousand people of Yinzong and Taoism See off. Shaozhou Laishi Weizhu admired his demeanor and led his colleagues to invite Huineng into the city to speak to the public in the Dafan Temple. The listeners included more than 30 Shaozhou officials, more than 30 Confucian scholars, and more than 1,000 monks, nuns, and lay people. Wei Wei asked Huineng's disciple Fahai (from Qujiang) to make a record, and then added the later French. This is the basic classic of Zen Buddhism " ". After that, Huineng spoke at Nanhua Temple for more than 30 years.

Huineng is the founder of Southern Buddhism Zen Buddhism. The main thrust of his thought is epiphany. He believes that everyone has Buddha nature in their hearts, and that people's true nature is Buddha. There is no need to recite meditation and practice for many generations, and don’t need to donate a lot of money. You only need to realize it in an instant, and you can "see nature and become a Buddha."

This thorough subjective idealism thought of "put down the butcher knife and become a Buddha standing on the ground" has a great influence on Chinese Buddhism . Song and Ming Confucianism is derived from Zen's epiphany theory of "pointing directly at the human heart, seeing one's nature as a Buddha". He believes that "the lower people have the upper wisdom" "Tanjing" affirms the wisdom of the masses, and completely opposes the historical viewpoint that the masses are regarded as "below fools."

Huineng has made great achievements in the sinicization of Buddhism, the transformation of Indian Zen into Chinese Zen, and the development of Southern Zen Buddhism: it made Buddhism universally adaptable in China and easy to spread, so that the flowers have five branches. It was prosperous for a while.

Bodhi tree