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Platform Sūtra (Goddard, A Buddhist Bible, 1932) — selected chapters

Platform Sūtra

Tang (compiled by Fahai)

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## §1 The Patriarch's autobiography *From* A Buddhist Bible, *edited by Dwight Goddard (1932). Goddard's recension is a lightly edited rendering of the Wong Mou-Lam English text, presented with chapter divisions and modernised spelling. The voice is the same — a faithful, plain-English Hui-neng with sectarian framing softened.* When the Patriarch arrived at Po-lam Monastery, Prefect Wei and other officials of Shao-chou requested him to deliver public lectures upon the Dharma in the great hall of Tai-fan Temple. There assembled an audience of officials, scholars, monks, nuns, Taoists, and laymen — perhaps a thousand in all. After the Patriarch had taken his seat, his hearers paid him homage and begged him to expound the fundamental teachings of the Buddhist religion. Thereupon his Holiness delivered the following discourse: 'Learned Audience, our Essence of Mind, which is the seed of enlightenment, is pure by nature; and by making use of this mind alone we may directly attain to Buddhahood. Listen, then, while I tell you something of my own life and how I came into possession of the secret teaching of the Dhyana school.' ## §2 The gatha contest The head-monk Shen-hsiu wrote a verse upon the wall of the south corridor: *The body is the tree of Bodhi,* *The mind is like a clear mirror standing.* *Take care to wipe it always diligently,* *And allow no grain of dust to cling.* The Patriarch saw the verse and praised it for its merit, but he privately knew that the writer had not yet seen into the Essence of Mind. That night, in the third watch, the boy Hui-neng asked an attendant to read the verse aloud, and dictated his own answering verse, which a sympathetic official wrote upon the wall: *There is no Bodhi-tree at all,* *Nor any clear mirror standing.* *Since the very nature of all is empty,* *Where can a grain of dust find lodgement?* ## §3 The transmission of the robe and bowl The Patriarch, fearing that the rest of the company would grow jealous, rubbed the verse off with his shoe and said, 'This one, too, has not yet seen the Essence of Mind.' But the next day he sent for Hui-neng in secret and expounded to him the Diamond Sūtra. When he came to the line, 'A Bodhisattva should use his mind in such a way that it is free from every attachment,' Hui-neng was thoroughly enlightened, and saw that all things in the universe are the Essence of Mind itself. He exclaimed: *Who could have known that Self-nature is intrinsically pure!* *Who could have known that Self-nature is free from arising and ceasing!* *Who could have known that Self-nature is intrinsically complete in itself!* *Who could have known that Self-nature is intrinsically free from change!* *Who could have known that Self-nature is the source of all things!* Knowing that the boy had awakened, the Patriarch said, 'If a man does not know his own mind, the study of Buddhism is of no avail. But if he knows his own mind and sees intuitively his own nature, he is a hero, a teacher of gods and men, a Buddha.' Thus the Dharma was transmitted to Hui-neng in the third watch, in secrecy. The Patriarch said, 'You are now the Sixth Patriarch. Guard the Dharma well, and deliver all sentient beings as widely as you can. See that the lineage is not extinguished.' ## §6 On repentance and the formless precepts 'Learned Audience, by Repentance is meant the renouncing of all one's past wrong-doings — sins and evils committed in delusion, in ignorance, in arrogance, in dishonesty, in jealousy, and in other depraved states — so that they may never arise again. By Forsaking is meant the firm vow that no further sins shall be committed in the future.' '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 manifold Nirmanakayas are your actions. To take refuge in a Buddha outside your own mind is to take refuge in nothing at all.' ## §10 Final instructions In the seventh month of the year Jen-tzu the Patriarch summoned his disciples and said, 'I shall soon depart from this world. Whatever questions you have, ask them now, that I may answer.' Then he gave them a final stanza, called the Stanza of the Self-natured Real Buddha: *The Essence of Mind, the Suchness, is the only true Buddha;* *Heretical views and the three poisons are the only Mara.* *Where Right Views are awakened, the Buddha within is called forth;* *Where the three poisons reign, we say that Mara possesses us.* *But when Right Views drive out the three poisons,* *Mara himself is transformed into a Buddha.* Having spoken thus, the Patriarch sat reverently until the third watch, then said quietly to his disciples, 'I am going,' and in a moment was gone. A strange fragrance filled the chamber; a lunar rainbow seemed to join earth and sky; the trees of the grove turned white; and the birds and beasts cried in lamentation.

tr. Wong Mou-Lam, ed. Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist Bible (Goddard, ed., 1932)

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From Platform Sūtra

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