The book transmission

Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch, did not actually appoint a successor before he died but made, instead, The Platform Sutra the authority of Zen which was his creation.  Citing from Yampolsky’s translation, The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, before his death Hui-neng 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" (p. 173). 

Hui-neng's 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.” 

Does the aforementioned add problems to the so-called Zen transmission history?  There is every reason to believe that it does.  To be sure, the Fifth Patriarch of Zen, Hung-jen, had a different method of transmission than Hui-neng.  Hung-jen emphasized the “Mind-to-Mind” transmission (i-hsin ch’uan-hsin).  In such a transmission, one awakened to the truth, directly, without recourse to any kind of scripture.  In the extant records, there is no evidence that Fifth Patriarch Hung-jen transmitted a special Sutra to Hui-neng.  Even to this day the Platform Sutra is not treated in high regard in modern circles of Zen.  It only achieved this special place briefly through Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch.  

On the other hand, the history of Zen teaches us that before Hui-neng the transmission was different. What was of great importance was awakening to the pristine nature of Mind, itself.  This alone is the imprimatur—not a text.  After one's spiritual sleep is ended by the direct acquaintance with the animative power of Mind there is no need to depend on anything except pure Mind.  Mind is self-sufficient, in other words.  Its journey has been from ignorance to enlightenment, finally validating itself. 

Comments

[aryaputta]

Frank:I think your response here is quite thoughtful in a real sense, although I wouldn't call most Zen "excrement" personally."

It takes scant little intellect to see the necessity of 'going to the source', and not commentary upon commentary upon bad sectarian translation.

However that most people are sheep, and "want to belong to X", they are as such religionists. Religion is secularized metaphysics for the common fool. There are no truth seekers upon the earth save a very few.

Millions of people are Mormons, Muslim dogs, etc. ; and perfectly (and temporarily) happy as such, ...finding a petty religion of no worth or wisdom to soothe the worldly spirit of the ignorant man is as easy as falling down a well.

Grass, flowers, and bugs thrive in the shit; I dont deny,...however as wisdom the better part of my beign, i prefer the unprocessed food (original article) to the processed food (i.e. shit, commentary, sectarian BS).

[Frank]

Aryaputta,

I think your response here is quite thoughtful in a real sense, although I wouldn't call most Zen "excrement" personally. I find Zen interesting, but I do notice a real difference of spirit and message from the original Buddha's words, despite reports to the contrary. A deep compassion for even the lowliest living, sentient beings pervaded the Buddha's words and actions and came FIRST, whereas "zennists" speak of murdering homeless cats, etc. to make their clever "look at me" zennisms. I've read a whole lot of Zen books, not just the trendy ones, and while they're interesting, there was no Buddha like the historical blue-eyed, compassionate Buddha.

[Uku]

Thank you for this great post! Hui-neng's Platform sutra have always been one of my favorites.

Gassho,
Uku

[aryaputta]

Jap and Chinese Zen is like drinking the $100 a pount Kapi coffee from Indonesia.

The wild cat eats ripe coffee beans, shits them out, and S.E. Rednecks gather his turns, and washes out the coffee beans and sells them to morons for $100 a pound in Europe and the USA.

I even hear you get the "hint" of the wild cat's shit in the taste of the coffee, .-- how refreshing.

The wiseman collects the beans himself , rather than being fascinated by catshit impregnated with coffee beans.

Moral? Research original buddhism, not the excrement of Asian commentarialists.

Zen is irrelavent.