SIXTH PATRIARCH

The Intuitive Sects of Mahayana Buddhism are Ch'an in China and, later, Zen in Japan.  In their view, scholarly research, the reading of books, the doing of good works, the performance of rituals, and so on, are not only of little merit, but often a hindrance to true insight.  To illustrate this, there is the story of Hui-neng, an illiterate country boy, who went on to become the Sixth Patriarch of Ch'an Buddhism.

Hui-neng's first "conversion" took place while he was still a youth.  One day while he was selling firewood in the market, he heard a man reading a Sutra, a Buddhist lesson.  No sooner had he heard the text of the Sutra than he became enlightened.  Traveling to the Tung-tsen monastery, he was received by the Fifth Patriarch who asked him where he came from and what he expected to get from him.  Hui-neng replied that he was a commoner from Sun-chow and said that he asked for nothing but Buddhahood.

The boy was then sent to the granary of the monastery, where for many months he worked as a laborer hulling rice.  One day the Patriarch assembled his monks and, after reminding them of the uselessness of merit as compared to liberation, told them to go and "seek the transcendental wisdom within your minds and write me a stanza about it.  He who gets the clearest idea of what Mind-Essence is, will receive the insignia and become the Sixth Patriarch."

Only one of the monks wrote a poem on the wall for the poems.  It stated:

The body is a Bodhi tree,
The mind a standing mirror bright.
At all times polish it diligently,
And let no dust alight.

After an attendant read this  poem aloud to him, Hui-neng asked him to write another poem on the wall next to the other one.  It stated:

Bodhi is originally without any tree;
The bright mirror is also not a stand.
Originally there is not a single thing;
Where could any dust be attracted?

When the Fifth Patriarch read this second poem, knowing it was by Hui-neng, he passed the robe and begging bowl , symbols of the Dharma Seal of Enlightenment, to him and  Hui-neng became the Sixth Patriarch.