Huineng and Shenxiu were both disciples of the Fifth Patriarch Hongren. Shenxiu was the elder brother and Huineng was the junior brother. Later, the two brothers founded the Northern and Southern sects of Zen Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty respectively.

Huineng and Shenxiu are both disciples of the fifth ancestor Hongren. Shenxiu is the senior brother and Huineng is the junior brother. Later, the two brothers founded the Northern and Southern sects of Zen Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty. Although Huineng’s Buddhist teachings are more profound, they are not suitable for ordinary people!

First of all, Huineng's verse comes from Shenxiu. It was Huineng who saw the verse left by Shenxiu on the bedroom wall and discovered the flaw in it: regarded Buddhism as a concrete thing, and then Huineng revised and improved it, and then came up with the "Bodhi" that has been passed down to this day.

Huineng's verses

Comparing Huineng's and Shenxiu's verses, it is not difficult to find that Shenxiu compares Buddhism to the most holy thing in the heart. It is a step-by-step process to pay homage to it every day and wipe it away from dust.

And the Sixth Patriarch Huineng compared Buddhism to an abstract thing, and this thing itself is spotless and does not need to be wiped at all. Everything is in Buddhism. This is a direct sublimation process.

Regardless of whether the thoughts are profound or not, the purpose of Buddhist disciples is to achieve enlightenment. So the question is, whose method can enable many Buddhist disciples to understand Buddhism?

Shenxiu verses

Huineng tells us that if we want to achieve the Tao, we must take our time, insist on studying the Dharma every day, and move closer to the Dharma, step by step, and eventually the quantity will produce qualitative changes, and we will achieve the Tao.

And Huineng tells us that attaining the Tao is a direct enlightenment and a moment of sublimation, but it does not tell us how to achieve enlightenment and how to sublimate.

Therefore, compared to Huineng’s methods, Master Shenxiu’s ideas are more suitable for ordinary people!