Sutra of Huineng Extract 001

The Sixth Patriarch Huineng

"The Master said, 'The physical body of a human being is a city. The eyes, ears, nose, and tongue are gates. There are five outer gates and one inner gate, the gate of the consciousness. Mind is the ground, nature is the ruler. The ruler lives on the ground of the mind. As long as essential nature is there, the ruler is there; when nature is gone, the ruler is not there. When essential nature is there, body and mind exist; when essential nature is gone, the body decomposes. Buddhahood is actualized within essential nature; do not seek it outside the body.

If your own nature is confused, you are an ordinary person; if your own nature is awakened, you are a Buddha.

Kindness and compassion are Avalokiteshvara, joyfulness and dispassion are Mahasthamaprapta; competence and purity are Shakyamuni, impartiality and directness are Amitabha. Egoism toward others is the polar mountain, greed is the water of the oceans, afflictions are the waves, viciousness and malevolence are violent dragons, falsehoods and illusions are ghosts and spirits, worldly passions are fish and turtles, craving and wrath are hells, follies are animals.Good friends, always practice the ten virtues, and heaven will be there. Get rid of egoism toward others, and the polar mountain will topple. Eliminate greed, and the ocean waters will dry up. If afflictions are not there, the waves die out.

When viciousness and malevolence are eliminated, fish and turtles are gone. On the ground of your own mind, the Buddha of awareness radiates abundant light, outwardly illuminating the six gates, pure enough to penetrate the heavens. When your own essential nature is inwardly illuminated, the three poisons are eliminated; punishments like the hells vanish all at once, so inside and out are clear through and through, no different from the West. If you do not do this practice, how can you get there?' Hearing this explanation, the great assembly clearly saw essential nature. All of them bowed and praised its excellence, chanting, 'May all living beings in the universe who hear this realize understanding at once.' "

Sutra of Huineng