{"collection":"Sacred Texts: Buddhism","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_bud_bb_bb30_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_bud_bb_bb30_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_bud_bb_bb30_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/bb/bb30.htm","summary":"This is a discourse from the *Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch*, a foundational Chan (Zen) Buddhist text recording the teachings of Huineng (638\u2013713 CE), the Sixth Patriarch of Chinese Chan Buddhism, delivered to his assembled disciples. The central argument is that Buddha-nature is not external but already resides within every person's own Mind-essence, and that seeking Buddhahood anywhere outside the mind is a fundamental error. The text expounds the Trikaya doctrine \u2014 the three bodies of Buddha (Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya) \u2014 reframing each not as metaphysical entities to be sought in scripture or ritual, but as aspects of one's own mind: pure awareness, moment-to-moment clarity free from delusion, and the transformative activity that arises from that clarity. A distinctively bold claim runs throughout: ordinary beings and Buddhas are not different in essence \u2014 the only difference is whether one's mind is clouded by discrimination and craving or sees its own nature directly. The passage champions the \"Sudden School\" of enlightenment, asserting that a single moment of clear self-recognition can undo ages of ignorance, over against gradual doctrinal practice. It closes with a verse warning that practitioners who seek Buddha through external doctrines or rites \"know not the place where the real Buddha is to be found.\"","tags":["Dwight Goddard","Taoism and Zen","Zen Buddhism"],"text":null,"title":"A Buddhist Bible: Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch: Chapter V...","tradition":"Sacred Texts: Buddhism","translated_text":null,"word_count":1569}