The Last Passing of the Robe and Bowl
One day Hung-jen challenged his monks to compose a verse that expressed their understanding of the dharma. If any verse reflects the truth, Hung-jen said, the monk who composed it will receive the robe and bowl and become the Sixth Patriarch.
Shen-hsiu (Shenxiu), the most senior monk, accepted this challenge and wriote this verse on a monastery wall:
Our body is the bodhi tree
And our mind a mirror bright.
Carefully we wipe them hour by hour
And let no dust alight.
And our mind a mirror bright.
Carefully we wipe them hour by hour
And let no dust alight.
When someone read the verse to the illiterate Huineng, the future Sixth Patriarch knew Shenxiu had missed it. Huineng dictated this verse for another to write for him:
There is no bodhi tree
Nor stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?
Nor stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?
Hung-jen recognized Huineng's understanding but did not publicly announce him the winner. In secret he instructed Huineng on the Diamond Sutra and gave him Bodhidharma's robe and bowl. But Hung-jen also said that, since the robe and bowl were desired by many who didn't deserve it, Huineng should be the last to inherit them to keep them from becoming objects of contention.
The Last Patriarch
Hung-jen's caution is understandable in light of events of his time. Some of Hung-jen's other dharma heirs, including former senior monk Shen-hsui, established a new school of Ch'an in north China that emphasized gradual enlightenment, as opposed to the sudden realization experience favored by the Southern school.
The Northern school flourished for a time but eventually died out, whereas the Southern school survived and continued. Huineng, the Sixth and last Patriarch, is the dharma ancestor of all Zen.
Not the Wind, Not the Flag
Huineng left Hung-jen's monastery and remained secluded for 15 years. Then, deciding he had been secluded long enough, Huineng went to Fa-hsin Temple in Canton. He entered the temple and found two monks disputing a waving flag. The following exchange in recorded in the koan collection The Mumonkan, case 29 (Robert Aitken's translation):
Two monks were arguing about the temple flag waving in the wind. One said, "The flag moves." The other said, "The wind moves." They argued back and forth but could not agree.The Sixth Ancestor said, "Gentlemen! It is not the wind that moves; it is not the flag that moves; it is your mind that moves." The two monks were struck with awe.
The master of Fa-hsin recognized Huineng's insight and guessed that he was Hung-jen's mysterious heir and holder of Bodhidharma's robe and bowl. Huineng finally was recognized as the Sixth Patriarch. He taught for a time at Fa-hsin, then established his own monastery, Paolin, near Canton.
The Legacy of Huineng
Huineng's teachings focused on inherent enlightenment, sudden awakening, the wisdom of emptiness (shunyata), and meditation. His emphasis was on realization through direct experience rather than study of sutras. In legends, Huineng locks libraries and rips sutras to shreds. Yet the Diamond Sutra informed his understanding, and the only work written in Chinese to be graced with the title "sutra" is attributed to him.
Huineng was said to have died while sitting in zazen at the Nanhua Temple in Caoqi, where to this day a mummy said to be that of Huineng remains seated and robed.
