NORTH, HUI-NENG AND SOUTH, SHEN-HSIU
Sometimes people could colloquially refer to the Chan lineages as “South, Directly--North, Gradually”. Let us review the biographies of Great Masters Hui-Neng and Shen-Hsiu, the two chief disciples of the Fifth Patriarch, Hong-Jen.
Hui-Neng (638–713): his family name was Lu, a native of Xinzhou in the Nanhai region. His father had once served as a court official. For unknown reasons, the father was demoted; the family was exiled to the remote southern frontier where he passed away when his child was only three. Due to impoverishment, Hui-Neng had no education. Instead, he had to cut firewood in the forest, exchanged them at the market for rice to feed his mother day by day. He was frail and skinny. Later, when he engaged in hulling rice under Master Hong-Jen’s monastery, he had to strap stones to his back in order to gain enough weight to operate the pestle.
Shen- Hsiu (605–706): His last name was Li, a native of Bianzhou, in Kaifeng County of Henan Province. He was roburst and possessed a dignified presence. From his youth, he had mastered the classics and histories, excelling in Confucian and Daoist learning. Around the age of fifty, the reputation of the Fifth Patriarch motivated him to come and get instruction. The Fifth Patriarch appointed him as the Dharma Preceptor entrusting him with guiding several hundred monastics in their training.
In the year 684, Wu Zetian assumed control of the government; six years later she changed the dynastic name to Zhou and ascended the throne as Emperor. Being a devout patron of Buddhism, Wu Zetian invited Great Master Shen-Hsiu to Luoyang and honored him with the title of National Preceptor. In 701, at the age of over ninety, Great Master Shen-Hsiu entered the court. Emperor Wu Zetian herself knelt to welcome him. Despite such noble recognition, the great master remained extremely humble and broad-minded. He informed Wu Zetian that Hui-Neng in the southern region was the one who had received the robe and bowl transmission. However, when a royal edict was later sent summoning him to the capital, Hui-Neng declined it, citing his advanced age and poor health.
Great Master Shen-Hsiu was honored as the Advanced Dharma Master of Dual Capitals (Chang’an and Luoyang) and as National Preceptor to Triple Emperors (Wu Zetian, Tang Zhongzong , Tang Ruizong). He advocated the practices of “sitting meditation to cultivate concentration” and “mind abiding in purity contemplation”(One must regularly engage in sitting meditation to cultivate concentration and the mind should attach to nowhere to stay in serenity.)
We can skip over many details in those two great masters’ biographies. Yet, we address the significant issue, the two modes of spiritual practice deployed by the two renown Chan masters who were under guidance of the same original dharma master at the same time period. They are the approaches of Direct Path of Practice and the Gradual Path of Teaching.
The first difference is clearly expressed in the verses each composed to present their insight to the Fifth Patriarch, Hong-Jen.
This is the verse of Shen-Hsiu, who was the National Dharma Preceptor at the time, standing as the leading monastic among the assembly in the monastery:
“Body like a bodhi tree,
Mind like a bright mirror on stand.
Ceaselessly keep it well-polished,
No dust allowed to cling.”
The Northern Chan came to be known as the “Gradual Teaching,” a designation that traces directly back to Shen-Hsiu’s verse above.
And following is the verse offered by Hui-Neng, who then was still a lay practitioner pounding rice in the monastery, not admitted into the community for formal training yet.
“Originally, Bodhi has no root,
Also bright mirror, no stand,
Innately, not a single thing,
Where, then, could dust alight?”
The Southern Chan is regarded as the “Direct Teaching,” promoted by Hui-Neng, fifteen years after he had received the robe and bowl transmission from the Fifth Patriarch.
The foregoing offers the brief introductions to the two Great Masters Hui-Neng and Shen-Hsiu. The central objective of this writing, however, is to examine the two modes of cultivation, and likewise the two spiritual approaches commonly designated as:
Direct Teaching versus Gradual Teaching
Instantaneous Awakening versus Gradual Awakening
Shortcut Cultivation versus Step-by-Step Cultivation
The Definitive Dharma Teachings versus the Non-Definitive DharmaTeachings
Ultimate Prajñā truths versus Conventional Prajñā truths
First, we will study the life experiences and practices of the two great masters, Hui-Neng and Shen-Hsiu, that led them to the two respective modes of instruction and practices.
Firstly, the fact that Hui-Neng, around the age of twenty-four, was still going into the forest every day to chop wood, bringing it to the market to trade for rice to nurture his mother. He was a filial son, content with poverty. In the Chinese autocratic monarchy, there was the saying: “With the ruler’s death orders, his courtiers must die; if not, they’re disloyal.” His father, a convicted mandarin, was exiled to a remote, desolate frontier wilderness where “monkeys howl and egrets call”. Hui-Neng received no privileges whatsoever, not even schooling. His family lived practically on the margins of society. It may well be the very tight poverty and illiteracy that prevented Hui-Neng from becoming entangled in written words, doctrinal reasoning, or overly analytical interpretations of the teachings, what historical texts call the “obstruction of acquired insight”, a hindrance to the awakening of a Zen practitioner.
One day, while delivering a load of firewood to a household, he happened to hear some reciting of a scripture passage: “Do not attach to form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and conditional phenomena. By abiding nowhere, the wondrous mind naturally arises.” At that very moment, Hui-Neng experienced a sudden awakening, recognizing that a path of liberation had revealed itself to him. Upon learning that the passage was from the Diamond Sutra and the 5th Patriarch Hung-Jen was then expounding it in Huangmei District, he found help to ensure that his mother would be properly cared. After having done those arrangements, he respectfully took leave of her and set out for Huangmei.
This was the first favorable cause and condition leading Hui-Neng back to Buddhism. Yet we note he was smart, keen-minded with advanced spiritual background. Myriad of people have recited or listened to the Diamond Sutra. But among them, could anyone arouse a strong, brave resolution as he did?
Historical records show that at the time of his birth, two mendicants from afar came to his home, bestowed upon him the name “Hui-Neng”, then departed without a trace. Other sources recount that when he was born, a fragrant scent filled the entire house. Such accounts suggest that he had cultivated virtuous roots in Buddhist teachings over many past lifetimes. As a result, in his adulthood, his viewpoint on human life may well have differed from that of Shen-Hsiu, for their living circumstances were markedly distinct.
Hui-Neng was fatherless at the age of three. In their quiet moments, he and his mother would inevitably recall the life of the beloved who had passed away. He came to understand that his father had been a man educated in the teachings of the sages, and a mandarin demoted, forced to leave the urban center and exiled to a remote frontier, a place of wilderness.
When revisiting historical records, we know that was the great turmoil time in China. The imperial court had fallen into decadence; the ruler no longer wielded real authority. Actual power rested in the hands of Wu Zetian, the favored concubine of the said above monarch. After his death, the crown prince ascended the throne and brought her back as queen consort. Later, Wu herself assumed the throne and became the emperor. The path by which she rose to the imperial throne was strewn with countless deaths. She had once strangled her own newborn daughter in order to falsely accuse the empress when she came to visit. She later caused the death of her own son, unwilling to relinquish the throne. Thus, in the later part of the seventh century, the Chinese dynasties had sunk into decay, and Chinese then were left to endure their own fragile and precarious fate, with no one to whom they could appeal for relief. We can therefore understand why Hui-Neng had no opportunity to study the classical teachings of the sages or to take part in public life. For him, Buddhism was the only possible path of liberation. This may also explain why, when Emperor Wu Zetian issued an edict inviting him to the capital to expand Buddhist teachings, he declined the summons.
The next fact further demonstrates Hui-Neng’s intelligence, sharp insight, and profound comprehension of the Buddha’s teachings even though he had never studied doctrine under anyone, nor read any scriptures, for he had never had the opportunity to attend school. This is seen in his exchange with the Fifth Patriarch during their first audience. As this episode has been well recorded in various historical sources, I will only mention it briefly here; those who wish to revisit it can easily find the accounts. On this matter, I would say that Hui-Neng had repeatedly engaged in “conteptualizing in accordance with the Dharma,” applying his own insight and reasoning to reflect upon himself and the nature of human life. Through such reflection, he recognized that all ordinary people equally possess the innate capacity for awakening. Hui-Neng also apprehended the ultimate nature of reality, the emptiness (śūnyatā) of all phenomena. One additional fact demonstrating that he had already planted deep wholesome roots in past lives and comprehended the Dharma’s essential meaning even before receiving instruction from any master is found in the poem he composed to express his spiritual attaining. That famous insight-verse shaped the cause of the “Chan Instantaneous Awakening Cult” in the entire historical trajectory of the Chinese Buddhist Chan later.
By contrast, Shen-Hsiu’s life appears to have been smoother and more fortunate. His family background was a little in the historical records. When young, he was trained in the classical teachings of Confucius and Laozi. Thus, he embodied the moral virtues and refined conduct held in esteem and traditional standards by the sages, that earned him the regard of the Fifth Patriarch. He was appointed as Dharma Preceptor in charge of the monastic community who all revered him. When the time came to present a verse to the Fifth Patriarch, they all unanimously requested him to do it on their behalf. However, because he had extensively studied the scriptures and the teachings from the ancient sages, and because he had assumed the role of instructor at too early a stage, before having attained genuine awakening, it could be that condition preventing him from entering the “Atakkāvacara”, what beyond conceptual reasoning, verbal and thinkable expression.
The virtue of Shen-Hsiu was standing out in his ability of “self-knowing” after the Fifth Patriarch told the assembly to present insight-verses for the selection of the next Dharma heir. He remained unsettled and deeply troubled for many nights, not liking to write the verse, fully aware what he grasped was not yet complete. Yet the circumstances compelled him to do so on behalf of the sangha. Having hesitated, he then was to do that. Upon the completion, he did not dare to show it to the Patriarch. Each time he resolved to come, he got cold sweat. Finally, in the deep of night, he slipped out to write it on the wall, unseen by anyone.
The following morning, the community was abuzz, stirred by the stanza. Reading it, the Patriarch quietly knew its author. But he went with the assembly in delicately treating Shen-Hsiu by instructing them to recite the verse and cultivate in accordance with it. When the night fell, he called Shen-Hsiu into his quarters and asked, “Did you compose that verse?” Shen-Hsiu honestly replied, “Yes, Master, I did, but not for the Patriarchate. I just show my experience so you will offer further instruction.”
The Patriarch informed he had not realized his true nature yet, told him to go back, reflect further, and present another verse. Shen-Hsiu again went days without eating or sleeping. Simultaneously, Hui-Neng’s stanza suddenly appeared on the wall. The assembly grew even more agitated. The two poems sharply opposed to each other. The Patriarch read the second one and knew its author at once. With sharp reaction, he quickly erased it, saying, “Not yet recognizing the nature.” The assembly obeyed and kept reciting the first one.
One day, when seeing no one around, the Patriarch walked with his staff to the rear house where he found Hui-Neng too skinny to press the pestle down to pound the rice, and had to strap a stone on his back for enough weight. Compassionately, the Patriarch said, “For the Dharma, one must suffer so much like that? Is rice white now?” Hui-Neng replied, “Yes, Master, it only needs to be sifted.” The Patriarch tapped the stone mortar three times, tok, tok, tok, then silently left. They understood each other through this brief exchange. Others nearby could hear it, but hardly got it.
In the third watch of that night, Hui-Neng quietly went to the Master’s room. The Patriarch was waiting for him, silently closing, locking the door, and covering the wall with a wide robe so that no one could peek inside. In a low voice, he began to interpret the Diamond Sutra. Humbly and silently, Hui-Neng knelt at the Patriarch’s feet, fully attentive, listening with his whole heart-mind that became settled, utterly serene and luminous. Upon hearing the lines, “Do not attach to form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and conditional phenomena. By abiding nowhere, the wondrous mind naturally arises.” A flash of insight suddenly illuminated:
Who could know our true nature is hereditarily non-arising and non-ceasing,
Who could know our true nature is naturally pure and crystal-clear,
Who could know our original true inherently encompasses all dharmas,
Who could know our true nature is innately serene,
Who could know our true nature genetically gives rise to all phenomena.
The Patriarch, observing the radiant countenance of Hui-Neng, quietly realized that he had enlightened. Right away, he conferred the robe and bowl to signify the Dharma succession and instructed Hui-Neng to self-seclude and delay teaching the Dharma publicly for a time.
Recalling the preconditions and causal effects leading to Hui-Neng’s full enlightenment aims at helping us to understand his Direct Teaching Method for Instantaneous Awakening. It appears that he had applied in practice the embracement of Patriarch Bodhidharma:
Non-speech and wordless,
Far off traditional discourses, the unique transmission
Directly strikes through human heart-mind.
Realizing Buddha Nature, enlightened promptly.
In the Platform Sūtra, Chan Master Fa-Hai, one of Patriarch Hui-Neng’s disciples, recorded his Master’s teachings in which the Direct Teaching and Practice guiding tenet is seen as follows:
“No Thought is the principles,
No Form, the essence,
and Non-Abiding, the groundwork.”
Actually, the triple “no-form,” “non-abiding,” and “no-thought” are the only one intimately connected and inseparable. This guiding practice is drawn from the very core of the Diamond Sūtra. This is easy to understand, since Hui-Neng attained awakening through the Diamond Sūtra.
When staying in the mind of non-thought, we don’t abide anywhere, we cling to nothing and no-form. This approach goes straight into the ultimate Prajñā truth. Mind true nature is purity, stillness, and unity. The true nature of all phenomena is also tranquil (nameless, wordless, non-attributable), immaculate and immobile. Experiencing the non-thought corresponds to undergoing equality, emptiness, illusoriness of all dharmas and their nonmotile suchness state.
Patriarch Hui-Neng taught meditative concentration and wisdom, Samādhi and Prajñā, are originally One Single Essence, not two. Samādhi is the substance of wisdom; wisdom is the function of Samādhi. They immerse into each other. He used the metaphor of a lamp and its light. The lamp is the form of illumination. And the light is the application or function of the lamp. Two different names but only one essence. So are medidtative concentration and insight.
Below the Sixth Patriarch Hui-Neng, there were thirty-three Dharma-attained disciples. Among them, five stood out for flourishing Chan Buddhism later and exerting great influence throughout Chinese Buddhism:
- Chan Master Nanyue Huairang.
From this Dharma lineage arose the Linji (Rinzai) School and the Guiyang School. - Chan Master Qingyuan Xingsi.
From his Dharma lineage emerged the Caodong (Sōtō) School, the Yunmen School, and the Fayan School. - Chan Master Yongjia Xuanjue,
author of the Song of Enlightenment (Zhēngdào Gē) and the well-known Yongjia Chan Collection. - Chan Master Nanyang Huizhong,
who later served as National Preceptor. - Chan Master Hézé Shenhui,
who defined the school’s essential doctrines and established the Southern School of Chan as the orthodox lineage.
Notably, from those two great masters Nanyue Huairang and Qingyuan Xingsi, Chan Buddhism produced countless renowned Chan masters who spread the teachings of instantaneous awakening. Chan became the most widespread and popular Dharma tradition especially in the Tang and Song dynasties. It was expanded to Vietnam, Japan, and Korea. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, Chan began to decline and gradually yielded its place to the Pure Land Cult. Now, Chan Buddhism has largely been fading and no longer holds the influence it once did, but it remains a compelling theme for the fourfold Buddhists community.
Now let’s go back to Great Venerable Shen-Hsiu.
Not much devotion of historical records to him. It could be he was not the official successor to the Patriarchate. Yet in his own time, he was a renowned master and the National Preceptor under three Chinese monarchs: Empress Wu Zetian, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, and Emperor Ruizong of Tang. When he was invited to the capital by Emperor Wu Zetian, he was over ninety years old. The chronicles record that Most Venerable Shen-Hsiu recommended Most Venerable Hui-Neng as the rightful heir to the Patriarch lineage. So, the latter was summoned to the capital spreading the Dharma. However, he declined the imperial invitation. That demonstrates Shen-Hsiu’s noble character: rather than being jealous, he admired Hui-Neng’s virtue and wisdom.
Another event illustrates Most Venerable Shen-Hsiu’s deep sincerity in seeking for the Dharma. He was the” person of understanding both himself and others”. He often told the assembly:
“The Sixth Patriarch has attained the Unconditioned Wisdom (the one that arises naturally without teachers’ instructions). He has fully realized the Utmost and Supreme Dharma. I cannot compete with him. Also, he received the Esoteric Dharma and Robe directly from our Master, the Fifth Patriarch. Those cannot be achieved without causes. I feel sorry not being able to travel far to be close to him. I might as well accept partial waste of the Emperor’s gratitude. You should not remain attached to staying here but instead, go to Caoqi to study with him.”
One day, Most Venerable Shen-Hsiu told his close disciple Zhi- Cheng: “You are keen and intelligent. Please go to Caoqi, on my behalf, to listen to the Dharma, and wholeheartedly remember everything you’ve seen and heard. When returning, recount it all to me.” Obeying the master’s instruction, Zhi-Cheng went to Caoqi, joined the monastic community to study without a word about his coming.
One day, Patriarch Hui-Neng said to the great assembly: “There is now a Dharma thief within this assembly.”
At that moment, monk Zhi-Cheng stepped forward, prostrated, and explained the reason for his presence.
The Sixth Patriarch said: “You come from the Jade Spring Monastery but didn’t announce yourself beforehand. You’re a spy.”
Zhi-Cheng replied: “Reverend Master, that is not so.”
The Patriarch asked: “Why not?”
Zhi-Cheng answered: “Before I explained myself, it seemed that way. But now that I have spoken, it is no longer so.”
The Great Master then asked: “How does your teacher instruct his assembly?”
Zhi-Cheng replied: “My teacher often teaches the assembly ‘abiding in the mind and contemplating purity; sitting constantly without lying down.’”
The Patriarch said: “Always abiding the mind in purity contemplation is a kind of sickness, not meditation. To sit endlessly is only to bind the body. Such a practice benefits nothing to you. Listen to my verse:”
“When alive, only sitting without lying,
When dead, only lying without sitting,
A heap of rotten bones and flesh,
Unable to achieve the Path!”
Monk Zhi-Cheng prostrated and said: “I humbly studied the Path under Most Venerable Shen-Hsiu for nine years, yet not much progressive. But today upon hearing the Master’s words just once, my original mind immediately became clear. Birth and death matter to me now. I earnestly beg the Master’s compassionate heart and give me further instruction.”
Patriarch Hui-Neng said: “I’ve heard that your master instructs his practitioners the Morality, Concentration, and Wisdom (Śīla–Samādhi–Prajñā). How does he explain the characteristics and practice of the three?”
Monk Zhi-Cheng replied: “Most Venerable Shen-Hsiu told us: ‘Do not commit any evil, that is Morality. Keep the mind thinking itself be pure, that is Concentration. Do all wholesome deeds, that is Wisdom.’ And Yes, Master, how do you instruct us?
The Patriarch said: “If claiming to have a kind of Dharma to teach people, that would be deceiving you. I only respond to each person’s spiritual capacity and help untie his bonds. Such means are provisionally called ‘Samādhi.’ What your teacher’s explanation of Morality, Concentration, and Wisdom is profound and beyond conception. Mine is different.”
Zhi-Chen raised a question: “Since precepts, concentration, and wisdom are fundamentally one, what accounts for their apparent differences?”
Patriarch Hui-Neng replied: “Your master’s Morality, Concentration, and Wisdom guide people of the Great Vehicle. Mine lead those of the Supreme Vehicle. The insight and intepretation differ; the realization might be fast or slow. When I expound the Dharma, I do not separate from the original nature. Separating the true nature while preaching causes confusion about it. That’s the teaching of the appearance. Know that all Dharmas arise from the original nature. That’s the True Dharma of Morality, Concentration, and Wisdom. Now listen to my verse:”
“When the mind does no wrong, it is Precepts nature,
When the mind is not deluded, it is Wisdom nature,
When the mind is unmoved, it is Concentration nature,
Unadded, undiminished, it is Diamond nature,
Neither coming nor going, it is true samādhi”.
Zhi-Cheng, hearing this, bowed to thank the Patriarch and respectfully offered his verse:
“Body of five-skandha is illusory,
No ultimate purpose for illusion.
Back to the Suchness nature,
Still clinging to Dharma, mind is not calm.”
The Patriarch approved and said, “When realizing the self-nature, there is no need to establish Bodhi, nor a view of liberation. There is not even a single Dharma to attain. Only in this way can the myriad Dharmas be truly established. Those who’ve seen the original nature may establish them all. If not, it makes no difference. They move freely, without obstruction or stagnation.. When action is needed, they do it; when speech is needed, they speak it. They manifest transformation-bodies everywhere while never departing from their own self-nature. This is true superpower of freedom and non-hindrance.”
After hearing the Patriarch’s words, Zhi-Cheng bowed in reverence and voluntarily vowed to serve as his attendant, staying by his side morning and evening from that day onward.
Ever since the emergence of the two separate Cults, the two Leaders themselves made no distinctions or criticisms, but their disciples gave rise to feelings of rivalry, partiality, and resentment. The followers of the Northern Cults themselves had established Venerable Shen-Hsiu as the Sixth Patriarch, yet feared that people might discover the Fifth Patriarch’s actual transmission of the robe and bowl. They sent Hsing-Ts’ung to secretly assassinate the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-Neng.
The accounts of Great Masters Hui-Neng and Shen-Hsiu showed they both were fellow disciples, gentle in temperament, free of competitiveness and envy, treating each other with mutual respect and support. However, some in Great Master Shen-Hsiu’s circle of disciples harbored jealousy and blind adoration to their own master. With the desire to claim the position of Sixth Patriarch for Shen-Hsiu, they repeatedly formed malicious intentions and sought to harm Hui-Neng. The first time was when several hundred people, led by monk Huệ Minh, pursued Patriarch Hui-Neng. Yet even though the robe and bowl were left on a boulder in the middle of the forest, no one could lift them. Hui-Neng escaped from the danger and did transform Huệ Minh’ s mind.
With some consideration, it appears after Hui-Neng’s enlightenment, he possessed extraordinary power shown in several scattered events:
- He placed the robe and bowl on a large rock and said: “The robe and bowl symbolize trust and lineage transmission. You think they could be seized by force?”
Actually, Huệ Minh was unable to lift them.” - When Zhi-Chen secretly came to study the Dharma without informing anyone. Patriarch Hui-Neng knew it.
- When Patriarch Hui-Neng approached Chen A-Xian to request land for enlarging Baolin Monastery, he asked only for an area of “the size of a meditation mat.” Hui-Neng remarked that his mat was quite large. Chen A-Xian agreed. At that moment, Hui-Neng spread out his meditation mat, which miraculously expanded to cover the entire Tàoxī region.
- Later, a northern faction sought to honor Shen-Hsiu as the Sixth Patriarch and therefore conspired to send Xing-Zhang to assassinate Patriarch Hui-Neng. Hui-Neng knew of this in advance. When Xing-Zhang swung his sword at Hui-Neng while he was in deep meditation, his strikes passed through as if cutting into empty space. the Patriarch then offered him some gold, saying that he owed him only a debt of gold, not a debt of life. Xing-Zhang was moved. Later, he returned to become a disciple of the Patriarch.
About the different interpretation of the essential path of practice: Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom, what Great Master Shen-Hsiu taught are from the scriptures, effectively dividing the Triplet into three distinct disciplines. The Patriarch, however, expounded on their ultimate meaning, showing that the Trio are unified within the true mind.
Not committing to wrong actions, it’s well-preserved Moral Precepts and the True Mind.
Not being agitated, it’s consistent Meditative Concentration and the True Mind.
Not being ignorant, it’s illuminating Wisdom and the True Mind.
Simply abiding in the Original Nature, the True Mind, naturally come the Perfection of Virtue, Concentration and Wisdom.
From the few facts shown above, we know that thanks to many special causes and conditions, Patriarch Hui-Neng attained enlightenment, and delivered well-attuned Buddhist Dharma to those with sharp capacities. Master Shen-Hsiu, on the other hand, practiced and taught the doctrine strictly in according to the scriptures. What he learned, personally applied them and gave guidance to others were suitable for the majority of practitioners with average spiritual background. They were living in the world, subject to greed, anger, and delusion, even going so far as to pursue the robe and bowl and to conspire to have Hui-Neng assassinated...
The results of these two Zen lineages were as follows:
- The “Gradual Teaching” Sect in the North, founded by Great Master Shen-Hsiu, shone brilliantly and flourished for a short time. It was highly regarded by emperors, their court, and the people, but after a few generations it gradually declined.
- The “Direct Teaching” Sect in the South, founded by Patriarch Hui-Neng, was humble and transmitted quietly through many generations of creative Chan masters. Later, it developed the practice of “Gongan (koan) and “Huatou” forming the groundwork of the Patriarchal Chan Lineage. Eventually, it faded when the Pure Land Cult emerged, offering suitable teachings for practitioners of average faculties.
Reviewing historical events, we note that whenever there is emergence, there is decline;, whenever there is a rise, there is a fall. They are like undulating waves that move across the face of the sea. So is the life ocean. No matter how ceaseless motions of the waves, the sea remains the sea itself, Likewise, the essence of the Buddhist Dharma continually manifests in the world and never vanishes. Yet without the Sangha Gem, there would be no one to interpret and bring it to light for all beings..
Schools and lineages, Zen masters, various means of Dharma teachings are all conditioned phenomena. They arise and cease. The Utmost Truth, however, is unconditioned, eternal, and does not come and go.
Today, moved by the sense of gratitude for the ancients, and guided by my own feelings, joyful and sorrowful, I humbly recount the old events. Should there be any errors or shortcomings, I respectfully ask the past great Zen masters for the forgiveness.
Bhikkhuni Thích Nữ Triệt Như
Sunyata Monastery, Oct 27, 2021
English version by Ngọc Huyền
Link to Vietnamese article: https://tanhkhong.org/a2816/triet-nhu-snhp032-nam-hue-nang-bac-than-tu
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