Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch, did not actually appoint a successor before he died but installed, instead, The Platform Sutra as the authority of Zen, replacing the former method of transmission. Henceforth, the transmission of Zen, as representing the essence of the Law would be invested in The Platform Sutra. Citing from Yampolsky’s translation, namely, The Platform Scripture, Hui-neng before his death says the following to his ten disciples:
“You ten disciples, when later you transmit the Dharma, hand down the teaching of the one roll of the Platform Sutra; then you will not lose the basic teaching. Those who do not receive the Platform Sutra do not have the essentials of my teaching. As of now you have received them; hand them down and spread them among later generations. If others are able to encounter the Platform Sutra, it will be as if they received the teaching personally from me."
Hui-neng, it would appear, has made the focus of his teaching as a transmission, the very text itself. This fact is not ambiguous. He goes on to say:
“These ten monks received the teaching, made copies of the Platform Sutra, handed them down, and spread them among later generations. Those who received them have without fail seen into their own true natures."
Further still, from the above, we learn that copies of The Platform Sutra were actually transmitted and disseminated. The Sutra, thus, served as a kind of certificate of transmission. In section 38 of the Sutra, Hui-neng says that, “Unless a person has received the Platform Sutra, he has not received the sanction.” He then goes on to stipulate that the “place, date, and the name of the recipient must be made known, and these are attached to it [i.e., the Platform Sutra] when it is transmitted.”
Currently, there is little doubt that the so-called Zen transmission is not the same as the transmission of Hui-neng since it is not directly based on the transmission of The Platform Sutra. If anyone believes that the Zen transmission is a continuous one from the Buddha to selected disciples, the fact that Hui-neng insisted on a textual transmission closes the door on that belief.
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