The Debate at Huatai

Text

At the great assembly at Huatai, Shenhui challenged the followers of the Northern School: "When Shenxiu says 'at all times, keep polishing'—who is it that polishes? If the mirror-mind is fundamentally pure, then polishing is unnecessary. If it is impure, then polishing is futile because the impurity is not in the mirror but in the one who looks for impurity. The Sixth Patriarch's verse says: fundamentally there is not a single thing—where could dust alight? This is not a denial of practice. It is an affirmation of the ground on which all practice rests." The assembly fell silent. Shenhui said: "Your silence is a better answer than your debate was."

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Heze Shenhui

Lineage: Early Chan

By Heze Shenhui

• On Sudden Enlightenmentsermon

From Jingde Chuandenglu

• On Gradual Cultivation
• Watch the Mind
• On Sudden Enlightenment
• Before Thinking Arises
• The One Who Has No Rank
• The Arrow on High
• Meeting the Poet Li Ji
• Just This Is It
• Cold Ashes, Dead Tree
• The Encounter with Linji

Sources

• contentZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation

  Zen project editorial

  Shenhui Yulu; Jingde Chuandenglu, Vol. 5, Shenhui chapter

  Jingde Chuandenglu: The Debate at Huatai