The Patriarch's autobiography
From The Sutra of Wei Lang (Hui-neng) — Sutra Spoken by the Sixth Patriarch on the High Seat of the Treasure of the Law, translated by Wong Mou-Lam, Shanghai 1930.
Once, when the Patriarch had arrived at Pao Lin Monastery, Prefect Wei Ch'ü of Shao Chou and other officials went there to ask him to deliver public lectures on Buddhism in the hall of Ta Fan Temple in the City (of Canton).
In due course, there were assembled (in the lecture hall) Prefect Wei, government officials and Confucian scholars, about thirty in number, and bhikshus, bhikshunis, Taoists and laymen, to the number of about one thousand. After the Patriarch had taken his seat, the congregation in a body paid him homage and asked him to preach on the fundamental laws of Buddhism. Whereupon, His Holiness delivered the following address:
'Learned Audience, our Essence of Mind which is the seed or kernel of enlightenment is pure by nature, and by making use of this mind alone we can reach Buddhahood directly. Now let me tell you something about my own life and how I came into possession of the esoteric teaching of the Dhyana School.'
The gatha contest
One day Shen Hsiu, the senior disciple, composed the following stanza and wrote it on the wall of the south corridor:
Our body is the Bodhi-tree,
And our mind a mirror bright.
Carefully we wipe them hour by hour,
And let no dust alight.
When the Patriarch saw this stanza, he praised the verse for its merit but knew at once that it had not arrived at the highest understanding. The author still 'stood outside the door,' he said.
That night, in the third watch, I asked one of the boys to take me to the corridor where the verse was inscribed. There I begged him to read it to me, for I could not read. Then I dictated a stanza of my own, which a kind-hearted official wrote upon the wall:
There is no Bodhi-tree,
Nor stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?
The transmission of the robe and bowl
The Patriarch, fearing the jealousy of the company, rubbed off the stanza with his shoe and said, 'Neither has this one realised the Essence of Mind.' But the next day, calling me secretly to his room, he expounded to me the Diamond Sūtra. When he came to the sentence, 'One should use one's mind in such a way that it shall be free from any attachment,' I at once became thoroughly enlightened, and realised that all things in the universe are the Essence of Mind itself.
Thereupon I made the following exclamation to the Patriarch:
Who would have thought that the Essence of Mind is intrinsically pure!
Who would have thought that the Essence of Mind is intrinsically free from becoming and annihilation!
Who would have thought that the Essence of Mind is intrinsically self-sufficient!
Who would have thought that the Essence of Mind is intrinsically free from change!
Who would have thought that all things are the manifestation of the Essence of Mind!
Knowing that I had realised the Essence of Mind, the Patriarch said, 'For him who does not know his own mind there is no use learning Buddhism. On the other hand, if he knows his own mind, and sees intuitively his own nature, he is a Hero, a Teacher of gods and men, a Buddha.'
Without my knowledge the transmission of the Dharma was completed in the third watch. The Patriarch added, 'You are now the Sixth Patriarch. Take good care of yourself, and deliver as many sentient beings as possible. Spread and preserve the teaching, and don't let it come to an end.'
On repentance and the formless precepts
'Learned Audience, by 'Repentance' we mean to repent of our past wrongs; to repent of all our past sins and evil deeds committed under delusion, ignorance, arrogance, dishonesty, jealousy, or other depraved qualities, so that they may never arise again. By 'forsaking' we mean to make a vow that we will commit no more sins hereafter; and we should never come back to them again.'
'Learned Audience, take refuge in the threefold body of Buddha within your own Essence of Mind. The Pure Dharmakaya is your nature; the Perfect Sambhogakaya is your wisdom; the Myriad Nirmanakayas are your actions. To take refuge in a Buddha outside one's Essence of Mind is to take refuge in nothing.'
Final instructions
In the seventh month of the year of Jen Tzu, the year of the Patriarch's parinirvana, he summoned his disciples and said to them: 'I am going to leave this world. Whatever questions you have to ask, ask them now, so that I may answer them.'
'Now I will leave you a stanza, called the stanza of the Self-natured Real Buddha. Future generations who understand its meaning will see their Essence of Mind and attain Buddhahood:
The Essence of Mind or Tathata (Suchness) is the real Buddha,
While heretical views and the three poisons are Mara.
Enlightened by Right Views, we call forth the Buddha within us.
When our nature is dominated by the three poisons we are said to be possessed by Mara;
But when Right Views eliminate from our mind the three poisons
Mara will be transformed into a real Buddha.'
Having heard this, all the disciples realised that the Patriarch was leaving them shortly. The Patriarch sat reverently until the third watch, when he suddenly said to his disciples, 'I am going,' and in a moment passed away. At that moment a peculiar fragrance pervaded his room, a lunar rainbow appeared which seemed to join up earth and sky, and the trees in the wood turned white. Birds and beasts cried mournfully.