Sacred Texts: Buddhism

A Buddhist Bible: Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch: Chapter V...

Dwight GoddardTaoism and ZenZen Buddhism

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This is a discourse from the *Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch*, a foundational Chan (Zen) Buddhist text recording the teachings of Huineng (638–713 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 — the three bodies of Buddha (Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya) — 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 — 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."

A Buddhist Bible: Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch: Chapter V...

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