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The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra With the Commentary of Tripitaka Master Hua English translation by the Buddhist Text Translation Society Buddhist Text Translation Society Dharma Realm Buddhist University Dharma Realm Buddhist Association Burlingame, California U.S.A. The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra Published and translated by: Buddhist Text Translation Society 1777 Murchison Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010-4504 © 2001 Buddhist Text Translation Society Dharma Realm Buddhist University Dharma Realm Buddhist Association First edition (Hong Kong) 1971 Second edition (USA) 1977 Third edition (USA) 2001 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 0-88139-316-9 Printed in Malaysia Addresses of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association branches are listed at the back of this book. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Huineng, 638-713. [Liuzudashi fa bao tan jing. English] The Sixth Patriarch's Dharma jewel platform sutra : with the commentary of Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, English translation by the Buddhist Text Translation Society. p. cm Includes index. Originally published: San Francisco : Sino-American Buddhist Association, 1977. ISBN 0-88139-316-9 (alk. paper) 1. Zen Buddhism-Early works to 1800. I. Hsüan Hua, 1908- II. Hsüan Hua, 1908- Liuzu fa bao tan jing qian shi. English. III. Buddhist Text Translation Society. IV. Title. BQ9299.H854 L613 2002 294.3'85--dc21 2001037450 Contents The Eight Guidelines of BTTS...................................................vii Editor’s Introduction.....................................................................xi Biography of the Venerable Master..........................................xiv Tripitaka Master Hua’s Introduction ........................................xxi Translator’s Introduction.......................................................... xxiii Reviewer’s Preface ................................................................... xxvi Foreword ........................................................................................ 1 Introduction.................................................................................... 3 The Five Previous Chinese Patriarchs................................... 9 A General Introduction.......................................................... 31 Chapter I. Action and Intention................................................. 51 Chapter II. Prajna ...................................................................... 115 Chapter III. Doubts and Questions.......................................... 169 Chapter IV. Concentration and Wisdom ................................ 203 Chapter V. Sitting in Ch’an ..................................................... 217 Chapter VI. Repentance and Reform...................................... 221 Chapter VII. Opportunities and Conditions ........................... 261 Bhikshu Fa Hai..................................................................... 266 Bhikshu Fa Ta ...................................................................... 269 Bhikshu Chih T’ung ............................................................ 284 Bhikshu Chih Ch’ang .......................................................... 292 Bhikshu Chih Tao ................................................................ 299 Bhikshu Hsing Szu............................................................... 309 Dhyana Master Huai Jang ................................................... 312 Dhyana Master Hsüan Chiao .............................................. 316 Dhyana Master Chih Huang ............................................... 322 One Member Of The Sangha.............................................. 328 Bhikshu Fang Pien ............................................................... 330 Master Wo Lun’s Verse ...................................................... 335 Chapter VIII. Sudden and Gradual.......................................... 337 Bhikshu Chih Ch’e............................................................... 354 Bhikshu Shen Hui ................................................................ 363 Difficult Questions............................................................... 369 Chapter IX. Proclamations ....................................................... 371 Chapter X. Final Instructions................................................... 379 General Index............................................................................. 431 People & Places Index.............................................................. 441 The Eight Guidelines of BTTS The Eight Guidelines of The Buddhist Text Translation Society 1. A volunteer must free him/herself from the motives of personal fame and profit. 2. A volunteer must cultivate a respectful and sincere attitude free from arrogance and conceit. 3. A volunteer must refrain from aggrandizing his/her work and denigrating that of others. 4. A volunteer must not establish him/herself as the standard of correctness and suppress the work of others with his or her fault-finding. 5. A volunteer must take the Buddha-mind as his/her own mind. 6. A volunteer must use the wisdom of Dharma- Selecting Vision to determine true principles. 7. A volunteer must request Virtuous Elders in the ten directions to certify his/her translations. 8. A volunteer must endeavour to propagate the teachings by printing Sutras, Shastra texts, and Vinaya texts when the translations are certified as being correct. Happily-Dwelling Conduct Happily-dwelling conduct is the Bodhisattva conduct, and the Bodhisattva conduct is itself the happily- dwelling conduct. One happily dwells in the doors of practice cultivated by Bodhisattvas. Both one’s body and one’s mind reside in the states of cultivation of the Bodhisattva Way, and do so happily, since that is what one likes to do. Editor’s Introduction The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra is the fundamental text of Ch’an Buddhism. It relates the life and teachings of Master Hui Neng, the Great Master the Sixth Patriarch, as set down by one of his disciples. During the seventh and eighth centuries under the T’ang Dynasty, Master Hui Neng taught the doctrines of no-thought and of sudden enlightenment, which, as expounded in this text, continue to be the heart of Ch’an wherever it is practiced. As such, these are the only teachings of a Chinese high monk which are regarded by Buddhists as a Sutra, that is, as a sacred text equal to those compiled by the earlier South Asian masters. Interest in Buddhism in general and in Ch’an in particular is now swiftly growing in the West, especially in America. Translations and re-translations of many of the central Buddhist texts have been appearing in consequence. A good deal of confusion has been an unfortunate by-product. Because Ch’an is so foreign to traditional Western thought, the rendering of Ch’an teachings into a Western language requires, even in the most literal translation, the virtual invention of a new vocabulary of concepts; and each new translation has tended to present a distinctly different rendition of the central Buddhist ideas. To elucidate them, commentaries are often added by the translators. But all of these translations and commentaries have been written by scholars who are not Buddhists. While that kind of non-membership is hardly important to a translator of ordinary xi philosophical writings, it becomes a severe stumbling-block for the translator of Ch’an teachings. For Ch’an is not a system of thought at all, but a special kind of moral and psychological work, aimed at a particular personal transformation which the Buddhists call enlightenment. Only one who through difficult practice has undergone that transformation can hope to teach Ch’an authoritatively and translate and comment on the sayings of other masters without having to resort to guesswork about what the sayings mean. Fortunately for students of the Way, an effort to establish an authoritative Buddhist canon in English has now been undertaken by Tripitaka Master Hsüan Hua and his American disciples. Master Hua stands in the direct line of orthodox Buddhist leadership as it has been handed down from the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. The present translation of The Sixth Patriarch’s Sutra, here presented in its second edition, was the first work of Master Hua to appear in America (the first edition appeared in 1971). The translation itself was carried out under the Master’s supervision by the Buddhist Text Translation Society, composed of the Master’s disciples who are scholars both of the Chinese language and of Buddhism. With his Western readers in mind, the Master has provided a running commentary to the Sutra text. The commentary was first spoken in a series of lectures in 1969. The Master’s sure and witty manner of making the most difficult concepts plain, already well known to Buddhists on both sides of the Pacific, has been rendered in English by his disciples with an eye to retaining the lively spoken style of the original. In his commentary, Master Hua’s method is to read a few lines from the Sutra text and then expound upon their meaning or expand on the doctrines in question, often by reference to xii contemporary American problems. This style of exposition follows the tradition of lecturing Sutras that has existed in China for many centuries. Until the appearance of this volume in its first edition, there had been in the West little or no record or even description of the verbal teachings of Buddhism.

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