the great Enlightenment.”
SUTRA SPOKEN BY THE SIXTH PATRIARCH Chapter I Autobiography of Hui-Neng O NCE when the patriarch had come to Paolam Monastery Prefect Wai of Shiu-chow and other officials came there to invite him to deliver public lectures on Buddhism in the hall of Tai-fan Temple in the city (Canton).
When the time came, there were assembled Prefect Wai, government officials and Confucian scholars about thirty each, bhikshu, bhikshuni, Taoists and laymen, nearly a thousand in all. After the Patriarch had taken his seat, the congregation in a body paid him homage and asked him to speak on the fundamental truths of Buddhism. Whereupon, His Eminence delivered the following address: — Learned Audience, our self-nature which is the seed or kernel of Bodhi (the Wisdom that comes with enlightenment) is pure by nature and by making right use of it we can reach Buddhahood directly. Let me tell you something about my own life and how I came into possession of this inner teaching of our Ch’an School.
My father, a native of Fan-yang, was dismissed from his official post and banished to become a commoner in Sun-chow in Kwang-tung. My father died when I was quite young leav- ing my mother poor and miserable, to my great misfortune. We moved to Kwang-chow (now Canton) and lived in very bad circumstances. I was selling firewood in the market one day when one of my customers ordered some to be sent to his shop. Upon delivery and payment for the same as I went outside I found a man reciting a Sutra. No sooner had I heard the text of this Sutra than my mind became at once enlightened. I asked the man the name of the book he was reciting and was told that it was the “Diamond Sutra” ( Vajracchedika ). I asked 498 SELECTIONS FROM CHINESE SOURCES him where he came from and why he recited this particular Sutra. He replied that he came from the Tung-tsan Monastery in the Wong-mui District of Kee-chow; that the Abbot in charge of this temple was Hwang-yan who was the Fifth Pa- triarch and had about a thousand disciples under him; and that when he went there to pay homage to the Patriarch, he found him lecturing on this Diamond Sutra. He further told me that his Eminence was in the habit of encouraging the laity as well as his monks to recite this scripture, as by so doing they might realise their own essence-of-mind and thereby reach Buddhahood directly.
It must be due to my good karma accumulated from past lives that I heard about this and that later on I was given ten taels for the maintenance of my mother by a man who ad- vised me to go to Wong-mui to interview the Fifth Patriarch. After arrangements had been made for my mother’s support, I left for Wong-mui which took me about thirty days to reach.
I paid homage to the Patriarch and was asked where I came from and what I expected to get from him. I replied that I was a commoner from Sun-chow in Kwang-tung and had travelled far to pay my respects to him, and then said, “I ask for nothing but Buddhahood.”
The Patriarch replied: “So you are a native of Kwang- tung, are you? You evidently belong to the aborigines; how can you expect to become a Buddha?”
I replied: “Although there are Northern men and Southern men, but North or South make no difference in their Buddha- nature. An aborigine is different from your Eminence phys- ically, but there is no difference in our Buddha-nature.”
He was going to speak further to me but the presence of other disciples made him hesitate and he told me to join the other laborers at their tasks. “May I tell Your Eminence,” I urged, “that Prajna (transcendental Wisdom) constantly rises in my mind. As one cannot go astray from his own nature one may be rightly called, ‘a field of merit’ (this is a title of honor given to monks as a monk affords the best of opportunities to others, ‘to sow the seed of merit’). I do not know what work Your Eminence would ask me to do.”
“This aborigine is very witty,” he remarked. “Go to the work-rooms and say no more.” I then withdrew to the rear SUTRA SPOKEN BY THE SIXTH PATRIARCH 499 where the work of the monastery was carried on and was told by a lay brother to split firewood and hull rice.
More than eight months after, the Patriarch met me one day and said, “I know that your knowledge of Buddhism is very sound, but I have to refrain from speaking with you lest evil men should harm you. Do you understand?” “Yes, Sir, I understand,” I replied. “And I will not go near your hall, lest people take notice of me.”
One day the Patriarch assembled all his disciples and said to them: “The question of incessant rebirth is a very momentous one, but instead of trying to free yourselves from that bitter sea of life and death, you men, day after day, seem to be going after tainted merits only. Merit will be of no help to you if your essence of mind is polluted and clouded. Go now and seek for the transcendental wisdom that is within your own minds and then write me a stanza about it. He who gets the clearest idea of what Mind-essence is will be given the insignia of the Patriarch; I will give him the secret teaching of the Dharma, and will appoint him to be the Sixth Patriarch. Go away quickly, now, and do not delay in writing the stanza; delibera- tion is quite unnecessary and will be of no use. The one who has realised Essence of Mind can testify to it at once as soon as he is spoken to about it. He cannot lose sight of it, even if he were engaged in a battle.”
Having received this instruction, the disciples withdrew and said to one another, “There is no use of our making an effort to write a stanza and submit it to His Eminence; the Pa- triarchship is bound to go to Elder Shin-shau, our Master, any- way. Why go through the form of writing, it will only be a waste of energy.” Hearing this they decided to write nothing, saying, “Why should we take the trouble to do it? Hereafter we will simply follow our Master Shin-shau wherever he goes and will look to him for guidance.”
Shin-shau reasoned within himself, “Considering that I am their Master, none of them will take part in competition. I wonder whether I should write a stanza and submit it to His Eminence, or not. If I do not, how can the Patriarch know how deep or how superficial my knowledge is? If my object is to get the Dharma, my motive is pure. If it is to get the Patriarchship, then it is bad; my mind would be that of a worldling and my action would amount to a theft of the Pa- 500 SELECTIONS FROM CHINESE SOURCES triarch’s holy seat. But if I do not submit the stanza, I will lose my chance of getting the Dharma. It is very difficult to know what to do.”
In front of the Patriarch’s hall there were three corridors the walls of which were to be painted by a court artist named Lo-chun, with pictures suggested by the Lankavatara Sutra de- picting the transfiguration of the assembly, and with scenes showing the genealogy of the five Patriarchs, for the informa- tion and veneration of the public. When Shin-shau had com- posed his stanza he made several attempts to submit it, but his mind was so perturbed that he was prevented from doing it. Then he suggested to himself, “It would be better for me to write it on the wall of the corridor and let the Patriarch find it himself. If he approves it, then I will go to pay him homage and tell him that it was done by me; but if he disap- proves it, — well, then I have wasted several years’ time in this mountain receiving homage which I did not deserve. If I fail, what progress have I made in learning Buddhism?”
At midnight of that night, he went secretly to write his stanza on the wall of the south corridor, so that the Patriarch might know to what spiritual insight he had attained. The stanza read: — "Our body may be compared to the Bodhi-tree; While our mind is a mirror bright.
Carefully we cleanse and watch them hour by hour, And let no dust collect upon them.”
As soon as he had; written it he returned at once to his room, so no one knew what he had done. In the quiet of his room he pondered: “When the Patriarch sees my stanza tomor- row, if he is pleased with it, it will show that I am (spirit- ually) ready for the Dharma; but if he disapproves of it, then it will mean that I am unfit for the Dharma owing to mis- deeds in previous lives and karmic accumulations that so thickly becloud my mind. What will the Patriarch say about it? How difficult it is to speculate.” He could neither sleep nor sit at ease; and so in this vein he kept on thinking until dawn.
In the morning the Patriarch sent for Lo, the court artist, to have the walls painted with pictures and went with him to the south corridor. The Patriarch noticed the stanza and said to the artist, “I am sorry to have troubled you to come so far, but the walls do not need to be painted now. The Sutra says.
SUTRA SPOKEN BY THE SIXTH PATRIARCH 501 ‘All forms and phenomena are transient and illusive’; we will leave the stanza here so that people may study the stanza and recite it. If they put its teachings into actual practice, they will be saved from the misery of being born in evil realms of exist- ence. Any one who practices it will gain great merit.” The Pa- triarch ordered incense to be burnt before it, and instructed all his disciples to pay homage to it and recite it, so that they might realise Essence of Mind. After his disciples had recited it, they all exclaimed, “Well done!”
That midnight the Patriarch sent for Shin-shau and asked if he had written the stanza. Shin-shau admitted that he had written it and then added: “I am not so vain as to expect to get the Patriarchship, but I wish Your Eminence would kindly tell me whether my stanza shows the least grain of wisdom.”
“To attain supreme enlightenment,” replied the Patriarch, "one must be able to know spontaneously one’s own self-nature which is neither created nor can it be annihilated. From one momentary sensation to another, one should always be able to realise Essence of Mind; then all conceptions of the mind will be free of any graspings by the mind. As one thing is being realized as to its reality, so the mind will reflect all circum- stances and conditions as being a state of naturalness. This means that the mind in its pure state is truthful. For if the mind is able to see things truthfully in their pure state it sees them to be the same as its own essential nature of Supreme Enlightenment. You had better return now and think it over for a couple of days and then submit another stanza. In case the new stanza shows that you have entered ‘the door of en- lightenment,’ I will transmit to you the robe and the Dharma.”
Shin-shau made obeisance to the Patriarch and went away. For several days he tried in vain to write another stanza, which upset his mind so much that he was as ill at ease as though he was in a nightmare; he could find comfort neither in sitting nor walking.
Two days after, it happened that a boy who was passing by the room where I was hulling rice, was loudly reciting the stanza written by Shin-shau. As soon as I heard it I knew at once that its composer had not yet realised Essence of Mind. Although at that time I never had had instruction about it, I already had a general idea of it. “What stanza is this,” I asked the boy. “You aborigine,” he said, “don’t you know 502 SELECTIONS FROM CHINESE SOURCES about it? The Patriarch told his disciples that the question of rebirth was a momentous one, and those who wished to inherit his robe and the Dharma should write him a stanza and the one who had the true idea of Mind-essence would get them and become the Sixth Patriarch. Elder Shin-shau wrote this ‘formless’ stanza on the wall of the south corridor and the Pa- triarch told us to recite it. He also said that those who put its teachings into actual practice would attain great merit and be saved from being bom in the evil realms of existence.”
I told the boy that I wished to leam the stanza also, so that I might have the benefit of it in future life. Although I had been hulling rice for eight months, I had never been to the hall, so I asked the boy to show me where the stanza was writ- ten, so that I might make obeisance to it. The boy took me there and as I was illiterate, I asked him to read it to me. A petty officer of the Kong-chow District, named Chang Fat- yung, who happened to be there, then read it clearly. When he had finished reading, I told him that I also, had composed a stanza and asked him to write it for me. “Extraordinary,” he exclaimed, “that you, also, can compose a stanza.”
“If you are a seeker of supreme enlightenment, you will not despise a beginner,” I said.
“Please recite your stanza,” said he, “I will write it down for you, but if you should succeed in getting the Dharma, do not forget to deliver me.”
My stanza read as follows: By no means is Bodhi a kind of tree.
Nor is the bright reflecting mind, a case of mirrors.
Since mind is emptiness, Where can dust collect?
Later on seeing that a crowd was collecting, the Patriarch came out and erased the stanza with his shoe lest jealous ones should do me injury. Judging by this, the crowd took it for granted that the author of it had also not yet realised Mind- essence.
Next day the Patriarch came secretly to the room where the rice was being hulled and seeing me at work with the stone pestle, said, “A seeker of the Path risks his life for the Dharma. Should he do so?” 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 went away.
SUTRA SPOKEN BY THE SIXTH PATRIARCH 503 Knowing what his signal meant, in the third watch of the night, I went to his room. Using his robe as a screen so that no one would 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 sud- denly became thoroughly enlightened and realised that all things in the universe are Mind-essence itself.
I said to the Patriarch, “Who could have conceived that Mind-essence is intrinsically pure! Who could have conceived that Mind-essence is intrinsically free from becoming and anni- hilation! That Mind-essence is intrinsically self-sufficient, and free from change! Who could have conceived that all things are manifestations of Mind-essence!”
Thus at midnight, to the knowledge of no one, was the Dharma transmitted to me, and I consequently became the in- heritor of the teachings of the “Sudden” School, and the pos- sessor of the robe and the begging-bowl.
“You are now the Sixth Patriarch,” said His Eminence. “Take good care of yourself and deliver as many sentient beings as possible. Spread the teaching; keep the teaching alive; do not let it come to an end. Listen to my stanza: ‘Sentient beings who sow seed of Enlightenment In the field of causation, will reap the fruit of Buddhahood.
Inanimate objects which are void of Buddha-nature Sow not and reap not.’ ” His Eminence further said: “When Patriarch Bodhidharma first came to China, few Chinese had confidence in him and so this robe has been handed down as a testimony from one Patri- arch to another. As to the Dharma, as a rule it is transmitted from heart to heart and the recipient is expected to understand it and to realise it by his own efforts. From time immemorial, it has been the practice for one Buddha to pass on to his suc- cessor the quintessence of the Dharma, and for one Patriarch to transmit to another, from mind to mind, the esoteric teach- ing. As the robe may give cause for dispute, you will be the last one to inherit it. If you should again hand it down to a successor, your life would be in imminent danger. You must now leave this place as quickly as you can, lest some one should harm you.”
50 4 SELECTIONS FROM CHINESE SOURCES I asked him, “Where shall I go?” and he replied, “Stop at Wei and seclude yourself at Wui.”
As it was the middle of the night when I thus received the begging-bowl and the robe, I told the Patriarch that as I was a Southerner I did not know the mountain trails and it would be impossible for me to get down to the river. “You need not worry,” he replied, “I will go with you.” He then accompanied me to the Kiu-kiang landing where we got a boat. As he started to do the rowing himself, I asked him to be seated and let me handle the oar. He replied, “It is only right for me to get you across.” (This is an illusion to the sea of birth and death which one has to cross before the shore of Nirvana can be reached.) To this I replied, “ (So long as I was) under illu- sion, I was dependent on you to get me across, but now it is different. It was my fortune to be born on the frontier and my education is very deficient, but I have had the honor to inherit the Dharma from you; since I am now enlightened, it is only right for me to cross the sea of birth and death by my own effort to realise my own Essence of Mind.”
“Quite so, quite so,” he agreed. “Beginning with you (Ch’an) Buddhism will become very widespread. Three years from your leaving me I shall pass from this world. You may start on your journey now; go as fast as you can toward the South. Do not begin preaching too soon; (Ch’an) Buddhism is not to be easily spread.”
After saying good-bye, I left him and walked toward the South. In about two months I reached the Tai-yu Mountain where I noticed several hundred men were in pursuit of me with the intention of recovering the robe and begging-bowl. Among them, the most vigilant was a monk of the name of Wei-ming whose surname was Chen. In lay-life he had been a general of the fourth rank. His manner was rough and his temper hot. When he overtook me, I threw the robe and the begging-bowl on a rock, saying, “This robe is nothing but a testimonial; what is the use of taking it away by force?” When he reached the rock, he tried to pick them up but could not. Then in astonishment he shouted, “Lay Brother, Lay Brother, (Hui-neng, although appointed the Sixth Patriarch, had not yet formally been admitted to the Order), I have come for the Dharma; I do not care for the robe.” Whereupon I came from my hiding place and took the position on the rock SUTRA SPOKEN BY THE SIXTH PATRIARCH 505 of a Patriarch. He made obeisance and said, “Lay Brother, I beg you to teach me.”
“Since the object of your coming is for the Dharma,” said I, “please refrain from thinking about anything and try to keep your mind perfectly empty and receptive. I will then teach you.” When he had done this for a considerable time, I said, “Venerable Sir, at the particular moment when you are thinking of neither good nor evil, what is your real self-nature (the word is, physiognomy)?”
As soon as he heard this he at once became enlightened, but he asked, “Apart from these sayings and ideas handed down by the Patriarchs from generation to generation, are there still any esoteric teachings?”
“What I can tell you is not esoteric,” I replied, “If you turn your light inward, you will find what is esoteric within your own mind.”
“In spite of my stay in Wong-mui,” said he, “I did not realise my own self-nature. Now, thanks to your guidance, I realise it in the same way a water-drinker knows how hot and how cold the water is. Lay Brother, I am now your disciple.” I replied, “If this is the case, then you and I are fellow dis- ciples of the Fifth Patriarch. Please take good care of yourself.” He paid homage and departed.
Some time after I reached Tso-kai, but as evil-doers were again persecuting me, I took refuge in Sze-wui where I staid with a party of hunters for fifteen years. They used to put me to watch their nets, but when I found living creatures en- tangled in them I would set them free. At meal time I would put vegetables in the same pan in which they cooked their meat. Some of them questioned me and I explained to them that I could only eat vegetables. Occasionally I talked to them in a way that befitted their understanding. One day I be- thought myself that I ought not to pass so secluded a life all the time; I felt that the time had come for me to propagate the Dharma. Accordingly I left there and went to the Fat- shin Temple in Canton.
At the time I reached that temple, the monk Yen-chung, Master of Dharma, was lecturing on the Maha Parinirvana Sutra. It happened one day when a pennant was being blown about by the wind, that two monks entered into a dispute as to what was in motion, the wind or the pennant. As they 506 SELECTIONS FROM CHINESE SOURCES failed to settle their difference, I suggested that it was neither; that what actually moved was their own mind. The whole group was surprised by what I said and the Master Yen-chung invited me to a seat of honor and questioned me about various knotty points in the Sutra. Seeing that my answers were precise and accurate, that they inferred more than book knowledge, he said to me, “Lay Brother, you must be an extraordinary man. I was told long ago that the inheritor of the Fifth Patriarch’s robe and Dharma had come to the South; very likely you are the man?”
To this I politely assented. He made obeisence and cour- teously asked me to show to the assembly the robe and begging- bowl which I had inherited. He further asked what instructions I had received at the time the Fifth Patriarch had transmitted the Dharma to me.
I replied, “Apart from a discussion on the realisation of Mind-essence, he gave me no other instruction. He did not refer to Dhyana nor to Emancipation.” The Master asked, “Why not?” I replied, “Because that would mean two kinds of Dharmas. That is not the Buddha Dharma, for the Buddha Dharma is not dual in its nature. He then asked, “What is the Buddha Dharma that is not dual in its nature?”
I replied, “The Maha Parinirvana Sutra which you are ex- pounding teaches that Buddha-nature is the only way. For example: in that Sutra King-ko-kwai-tak, a Bodhisattva, asked the Buddha whether those who commit the four serious sins, or the five deadly sins, or ate heretics, etc., would thereby root out their ‘element of goodness’ and their Buddha-nature. Bud- dha replied, ‘There are two kinds of ‘goodness-elements’: an eternal element, and a non-etemal. Since Buddha-nature is neither eternal nor non-eternal, therefore, the Buddha’s essen- tial nature is not to be regarded as ‘eradicated,’ it is to be regarded as already, ‘non-duality’. There are good natures and evil natures but Buddha’s essential nature belongs to neither; it is non-dual. From the point of view and prejudices of or- dinary people, there is a difference between the physical sense- ingredients and the mental and conscious ingredients, but en- lightened men know that they are not dual in nature. It is that nature of non-duality that is Buddha-nature.”
Master Yen-chung was pleased with my answer. Putting his hands together in token of respect, he said, “My interpretation SUTRA SPOKEN BY THE SIXTH PATRIARCH 507 of the Sutra is as worthless as a heap of debris, while your discourse is as valuable as pure gold.” Subsequently he con- ducted a ceremony of initiation, receiving me into the order, and then asked me to accept him as a pupil.
Thenceforth under the Bodhi-tree I have discoursed about the teachings of the Fourth and Fifth Patriarchs. Since the Dharma was transmitted to me in Tung Mountain, I have gone through many hardships and often my life seemed to be hang- ing by a thread. Today I have had the honor of meeting Your Highness, and you, officials, monks and nuns, Taoists and lay- men, in this great assembly. I must ascribe this good fortune to our happy connection in previous kalpas, as well as to our common accumulated merits in making offerings to various Bud- dhas in our past incarnations. Otherwise we would have had no chance of hearing the teachings of the “Sudden” School of Ch’an and thereby laying the foundation of our present success in understanding the Dharma.
This teaching is not a system of my own invention, but has been handed down by the Patriarchs. Those who wish to hear the teaching should first purify their own minds; and after hearing it, each must clear up his own doubts, even as the Sages have done in the past.
At the end of the address, the assembly felt rejoiced, made obeisance and departed.
Chapter II Discourse on Repentance At one time there was a large gathering of literary men and commoners gathered from Kwong-chow, Shiu-chow and other places, to listen to the Patriarch’s words at his monastery of Tso-kai. The Patriarch ascended his platform and delivered the following address: — Come, good people. In Buddhism we should start from our Essence of Mind. Let us purify our minds always and from one momentary sensation to another. Let us follow the Path by our own effort, recognise our own Essence-body, realise that our own mind is Buddha, and free ourselves by a voluntary observance of the disciplinary rules, — then this gathering will 508 SELECTIONS FROM CHINESE SOURCES not be in vain. You have all come from distant places and your gathering here shows the affinity that exists among us. Let us now sit down together in the Indian fashion. First I will light the five kinds of incense that belong to your essential nature, then I will show you what is meant by “Formless Repentence.”
When they were seated the Patriarch continued: — The first is the Sila Incense (Behavior), which symbolises that our minds are free from all taint of misdeeds, evil, jealousy, avarice, anger, spoilation and hatred. The second is Samadhi Incense, which symbolises that our mind is serene under all circumstances — favorable or unfavorable. The third is Prajna Incense, which means that our minds are free from all impediments; that we constantly seek to realise our Mind-essence with wisdom; that we refrain from all evil; that we do all kinds of good acts with no attachment to the fruit of such action; and that we are re- spectful toward our superiors, considerate of our inferiors, and sympathetic for the destitute and those in trouble. The fourth is the Incense of Liberation, which means that our minds are in such a perfectly free state that they cling to nothing and bother themselves neither with good nor evil. The fifth is the Incense of “Knowledge gained because of the attainment of Liberation.” When our minds cling to neither good nor evil, we should take care not to let them go to the other extreme of vacuity and remain in a state of inertia. At this point we should study and seek to broaden our knowledge so that we can understand our own minds, thoroughly understand the prin- ciples of Buddhism, be considerate of others in our dealings with them, get rid of the idea of “self” and “existence,” and realise that up' to the time when we obtain enlightenment (Bodhi) our true nature (Tathata) is immutable.
Learned Audience: — This five-fold Incense perfumes us from within; we should not seek it without. Now I want to explain to you this Ritual of Repentance which is designed to expiate our sins whether committed in the present, the past or future lives; and whether physical, or by word, or by thought. (In Buddhist thought, sin is considered not in a legal sense as some- thing to be punished, or forgiven, or atoned for by sacrifice, but in its cause-and effect aspect of Karma and its maturing.)
Please follow me carefully and repeat together what I am going -to say. May we, disciples (from such and such a village).
SUTRA SPOKEN BY THE SIXTH PATRIARCH 509 be always free from the taint of ignorance and delusion. We repent of all our past, present and future sins and evil deeds committed under delusion or in ignorance. May their karma be expiated at once and may they never rise again.
May we, disciples (from such and such a village), be always free from taint of arrogance and dishonesty. We repent of all our past, present and future evil deeds done in an arrogant or dishonest spirit. May their karma be expiated at once and may they never rise again.
May we, disciples (from such and such a village), be al- ways free from taint of envy and jealousy. We repent of all our past, present and future evil deeds done in an envious or jealous spirit. May their karma be expiated at once and may they never rise again.
As you will notice, there are two aspects to this repentance ritual: One refers to repentance for past sin; we ought to re- pent for all our past sins and evil deeds committed under de- lusion or ignorance, arrogance or dishonesty, jealousy or envy, so as to put an end to all of them. This is one aspect of re- pentance. The other aspect refers to future conduct. Having realized the evil nature of our transgression we make a vow that hereafter we will put an end to all evil deeds committed under delusion or ignorance, arrogance or dishonesty, envy or jealousy, and that we will never sin again. This is the second aspect of repentance. On account of ignorance and delusion, common people do not always appreciate that in repentance they must not only feel sorry for their past sins, but must also refrain from sinning in the future. Since they often take no heed as to their future conduct, they commit the same sins over again almost before the past ones are expiated. How can we call that repentance?
Learned Audience: Having repented of our sins, we should take the following all-embracing vows: Listen very carefully: — Our Mind-essence is potentially an infinite number of sen- tient beings. We vow to bring them all unto deliverance.
We vow to get rid of the evil passions of our minds, inex- haustible though they seem.
We vow to learn the countless systems of Dharma in our Mind-essence.
We vow to attain the Supreme Buddhahood of our Mind- essence.
5 io SELECTIONS FROM CHINESE SOURCES We have now vowed to deliver an infinite number of sen- tient beings; but what does that mean? It does not mean that I, Hui-neng is going to deliver them. And who are these sentient beings, potential within our minds? They are the de- lusive mind, the deceitful mind, the evil mind, and such like — all these are sentient beings. Each of them has to be delivered by one-self by means of his own Essence of Mind; only by his own deliverance, is it genuine.
Now, what does it mean, “delivering oneself by one’s own Essence of Mind?” It means the deliverance of the ignorant, delusive, and the vexatious beings that spring up within our own mind, by means of Right Views. With the aid of Right Views and Prajna, the barriers thrown up by these delusive and ignorant beings may be broken down; so that each of us will be in a position to deliver himself by his own efforts. The false will be delivered by truthfulness; the delusive by enlight- enment; the ignorant by wisdom; and the malevolent by benev- olence; such is genuine deliverance.
As to the vow; “to get rid of the inexhaustible evil pas- sions,” that refers to the transcendence of our unreliable and illusive thinking faculty by the transcendental Wisdom (Prajna) of our Mind-essence. As to the vow: “to learn the countless systems of Dharma”; there will be no true knowledge until we have been brought face to face with our Essence of Mind, by our conforming to the orthodox Dharma on all occasions. As to the vow, “to attain Supreme Buddahood”; I wish to point out that when we are able to control our minds to follow the true and orthodox Dharma on all occasions, and when Prajna always rises in our minds, so that we can hold aloof from both ignorance and enlightenment, and can do away with falsehood as well as truth, then we may consider ourselves as having real- ised our Buddha-nature, or, in other words, having attained Buddhahood.
Learned Audience: we should always bear in mind that we are following the Path for thereby strength is added to our vows. Now, since we have all taken the four-fold vows, I will teach you the Ritual of the three-fold Guidance.
We take “Enlightenment” as our Guide, because it is the fruit of both merit (Punya) and Wisdom (Prajna).
We take “Orthodoxy” as our Guide, because it is the best way to get rid of desire.
SUTRA SPOKEN BY THE SIXTH PATRIARCH 511 We take “Purity” as our Guide, because it is the noblest quality of mankind.
Hereafter let Shakyamuni, the Enlightened One, be our guide and on no account should we listen to the suggestions of Mara, the evil one, or any heretic. We should testify to our- selves by constantly appealing to the “Three Gems” of our Essence of Mind, in which I advise you to take refuge. They are: Buddha, which stands for Enlightenment; Dharma, which stands for Orthodoxy; Sangha, which stands for Purity.
To take refuge in Enlightenment so that evil and delusive notions do not arise, so that desire decreases, discontent be- comes unknown, and lust and greed no longer bind us — this is the fruitage of Punya and Prajna. To take refuge in Ortho- doxy so that from momentary sensation to another we will be free from wrong views — this is the best means of getting rid of desires. To take refuge in Purity so that no matter under what circumstance we may be, we will not become contami- nated by wearisome sense objects, by craving nor by desire — this is the noblest quality of mankind. To practise the “Three- fold Guidance” as thus outlined means to take refuge in one’s Mind-essence. Ignorant people often take the “Three-fold Guidance” without understanding it. They say that they take refuge in Buddha: do they know where he is? If they cannot conceive Buddha, how can they take refuge in him? Would not such an assertion amount to self-deception? Each of you should examine this point for himself, so that his energy may not be misapplied through ignorance. The Sutra distinctly says that each should take refuge in the Buddha within himself. It does not refer to any other Buddhas, hence if we do not take refuge in the Buddha of our own Mind-essence, there is no- where else for us to go. Having cleared this point, let each of us take refuge in the “Three Jewels” of his own mind/ With- in, each should control his own mind; without, each should be