P. Yampolsky, trans., The Platform Sutra of Hui-neng (125-153)

Summary by Jai Daemion. Edited by Mark Unno.

The Master Hui-neng is expounding the Dharma of the Great Perfection of Wisdom (at the Ta-fan Temple). The master begins by describing his early life, his initial awakening through a single hearing of a recitation of the Diamond Sutra and his quest for enlightenment through the teaching of the Fifth Patriarch, Hung-jen (in Huang-mei). After revealing his original mind in a verse, Hui-neng is selected to be the Sixth Patriarch and in this sutra relays the 'platform' of accumulated Buddhist wisdom and practice. (Section numbers, below, are as in the text).

(13)(15) Meditation (ting) and wisdom (hui) are interactively linked in circular, mutual causality. Hui-neng states, "meditation is the substance of wisdom (the lamp is the substance of light); wisdom is the function of meditation" (the light is the function of the lamp) (p.135, 137). This teaching addresses the tendency of sentient beings to create a duality between wisdom (as a function of mind) and meditation (as a function of no-thought, wu-nien). Hui-neng emphasizes that both wisdom and meditation (only) co-exist: when one is present, the other is also present. Thus there is no one-way, linear chain of causality: neither causes the other because both are functions of each other. Where this is seen as paradoxical, the mind is (still) "not good" (i.e., deluded). Hui-neng deplores 'teaching' from within the entrapment of duality and delusion and uses this common differentiation (in section 17) as a key to understanding oneness, while emphasizing that "the practice of self-awakening does not lie in verbal arguments" (p.136). Thus, if this framing of meditation and wisdom appears to be solely an intellectual argument, then one is still deluded and has not achieved no-thought. In this way, even this discussion of wisdom and meditation can be seen as an invitation to recognize the limitations of rhetoric and word, and to utilize no-thought to achieve non-abiding, even when processing intellectual argument.

(19) The concept of "sitting" in meditation (tso-ch'an) means "without any obstruction anywhere, outwardly and under all circumstances, not to activate thoughts" (p.140). This requires being in ch'an (meditation) - the state of exclusion of all external form (situation, environment, context, etc.), in order to achieve formlessness. Meditation cannot be forced or artificial: when it is natural, we are already in meditation. This might suggest that it is, paradoxically, impossible to achieve meditation through an act of intentional effort - i.e., 'trying to meditate.' However this paradox is resolved (such as by not trying to meditate, ny trying not to try to meditate or by not trying not to meditate), meditation (ting) occurs when outward exclusion of form is achieved, and one is "untouched on the inside." "Even though there is form on the outside, when internally the nature is not confused, then, from the outset, you are of yourself pure and of yourself in meditation" (p.140). This is ch'an-ting (samadhi) or Ch'an meditation.

(25) "Self-nature contains the ten thousand things - this is 'great' (p.146). As all things are within the self-nature in an unbounded, undifferentiated way, there is no need to look elsewhere; there is no need to be distracted, 'stained,' or attached to the 'ten thousand things.' Likewise, judging external or internal phenomena as evil or good (or any other dualistic judgment) prevents regarding all things as "just like the empty sky" (p.147). Using will to make the mind empty (i.e., trying to meditate, as above) results in stagnation. Hui-neng emphasizes that "the capacity of the mind is vast and wide, but when there is no practice it is small" (p.147); he deplores those who speak of emptiness but do not practice it. This is yet another statement of the movement away from moralistic meditational practices, and toward the more dynamic practice of Zen.