The Robe and Bowl Transmission to Huineng

Text

The Fifth Patriarch came to the threshing room at midnight. He found Huineng hulling rice. He asked, 'Is the rice ready?' Huineng said, 'The rice has long been ready—it only needs to be sifted.' The Fifth Patriarch struck the mortar three times with his staff and left. Huineng understood the meaning and went to the patriarch's room at the third watch. The Fifth Patriarch used his robe to shield them from view and expounded the Diamond Sutra. When he reached the phrase 'produce a mind that abides nowhere,' Huineng was greatly awakened and exclaimed, 'Who would have thought that self-nature is originally pure! Who would have thought that self-nature is originally complete!' The Fifth Patriarch then transmitted the robe and bowl to him, saying, 'You are now the Sixth Patriarch. Guard this teaching well.'

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Respondent
  Dajian Huineng
• Speaker
  Daman Hongren

Lineage: Early Chan

By Daman Hongren

• On Maintaining Awareness of Mindsermon
• Guard the One Mindproverb
• True Pearl in Muddy Waterproverb
• Two Verses, One Fieldproverb

From Platform Sutra

• Your Original Face
• It Is Your Mind That Moves
• Platform Sutra: On Self-Nature
• Platform Sutra: No-Thought, No-Form, No-Abiding
• Think Neither Good Nor Evil
• There Is No Mirror Stand
• Without Thinking Good or Evil
• Not the Flag, Not the Wind
• Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liùzǔ Tánjīng)

Sources

• contentWikisource — English-language free library

  Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, account of transmission

  Platform Sutra: The Robe and Bowl Transmission to Huineng