Today’s Enlightening Entertainment will be presented in Chinese, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai and Spanish.

Greetings noble viewers. Today is the birthday of the great enlightened Master Hui Neng, the Sixth and Last Patriarch of Zen Buddhism. Dajian Hui Neng is a legendary name from Chinese Chan or Zen Buddhism. Also known as the sixth and last patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Hui Neng is considered by many to be the father of the school of “sudden” enlightenment, which favors the practice of meditation over the study of sutras as the pathway to inner realization.

There are many uplifting and wondrous legends associated with Hui Neng. They have been told and retold for many hundreds of years within the Zen and Buddhist traditions and also generally throughout China, as well as amongst spiritual practitioners of many a persuasion all over the world.

On this episode of Enlightening Entertainment, let us recall the story of how he became an enlightened Master. According to the Platform Sutra, which is a transcription of a series of lectures given by Master Hui Neng, Hui Neng was born in the year 638. His father had been a high government official, but unfortunately he lost his position. Banished to the countryside, the Lu family suddenly was reduced to extreme poverty thereafter. Then, further tragedy befell them when, in Hui Neng’s infancy, his father passed away, leaving only his mother and himself to etch out a humble living selling firewood in the small rural community.

Under these circumstances, Hui Neng had no choice but to grow up very quickly. It was particularly evident to his mother that he was a very intelligent child, for the way he conducted himself in his daily chores bespoke this. Although their circumstances meant that a formal education was out of the question, young Hui Neng’s “university” was the marketplace and the rural people whom he lived and dealt with every day. As they hustled and bargained, interacting in all the manner that a community tapestry entails, this became his precious living education. Even so, he remained illiterate at this time.

One day, while busy in the firewood market, he overheard these words spoken by a traveler: “Let your mind function freely, without abiding anywhere or in anything.” It was in this moment that Hui Neng said he gaining clarity of mind and insight of his true nature within. He immediately sought out the traveler, who had been reciting a passage from the Buddhist Diamond Sutra.

Hui Neng learned that in fact the traveler was a disciple of the Fifth Zen Patriarch Hung Jen, who lived five hundred miles to the north. Filled with a zest for further enlightenment, Hui Neng hastily made arrangements to secure the future welfare of his mother, and immediately headed for the Yellow Plum Mountain monastery, determined to meet with Master Hung Jen. The historical meeting was brief but decisive, and went like this:

“Where are you from young man?”

asked the Zen Master.

“I am a farmer from Hsin-Chou, and I want to be a Buddha.”

“You are a southerner, and southerners have no Buddha nature. How then can you expect to attain it?”

Retorted the Master. Unflinching, Hui Neng defiantly replied,

“There are southerners and northerners, but how can you make a distinction in Buddha nature?”

Secretly, Master Hung Jen was deeply impressed by Hui Neng’s reply. However, he made no outer indication that anything extraordinary had occurred during their meeting. Instead, he instructed that Hui Neng could indeed stay at the monastery. However, he was not allowed to attend dharma study in the Buddha hall but was set to laborious work pounding rice in the kitchen. Hui Neng humbly accepted and spent the next eight months in this role.

In this time, he was almost completely ignored by the disciples attending Diamond Sutra studies. This was precisely what the Master Hung Jen had intended, all the while discreetly observing from afar. The Fifth Patriarch then decided that the time had come for him to step down as head of the monastery and hand on the lineage on to one of his disciples. Hung Jen called his disciples together and announced his intentions to retire.

Needless to say, many in attendance were eager to know who the successor might be. Fully aware of this, Master Hung Jen further announced that whoever amongst them could compose a short verse concisely demonstrating an enlightened state, thus expressing the truth, would become the Sixth Patriarch. How did Hui Neng, a humble member of the monastery come be chosen as the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism? Our story in honor of Master Hui Neng’s birthday continues when we return. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Enlightening Entertainment. When Fifth Patriarch Hung Jen proposed that his disciples compose a short verse expressing true spiritual understanding, all of the disciples agreed amongst themselves that surely their head monk Shen Xiu was the most enlightened amongst them and was definitely up to the task. So, he alone was left to produce the definitive stanza. However, Shen Xiu chose instead to write the following on a wall near the meditation hall, secretly, in the middle of the night:

“This body is the Bodhi tree; The mind is a mirror bright: Carefully cleanse them hour by hour, And let no dust alight.”

Upon seeing the stanza in the morning, Master Hung Jen immediately knew it to be the work of Shen Xiu. He praised it, and instructed the disciples to contemplate upon it. However he said no more. In the course of his duties, Hui Neng had also seen the verse. Quietly, when no one else was around, he composed a verse. He asked another, as he was illiterate, to write it beside Shen Xiu’s. It read:

“There is no Bodhi tree; The bright mirror is nowhere shining: Since there is Void from the first, Where can the dust alight?”

Master Hung Jen immediately knew that the new verse was written by Hui Neng. He had Hui Neng meet with him secretly and bestowed upon him the robe and alms bowl that had belonged to Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch. Master Hung Jen said to him, “If one recognizes the original mind and the original nature, he is called a great man, teacher of gods and humans, and a Buddha.”

He then imparted the silent dharma transmission to Hui Neng, indeed making him the Sixth Patriarch. In fact, it was at their very first meeting that Master Hung Jen sensed that he had finally met a worthy successor. Hoping to protect Hui Neng, he had placed him in the role of servant. Even now that he was absolutely sure that Hui Neng was the one, Master Hung Jen advised him to flee back to the south to continue shielding him from the anger of the others.

Hung Jen knew that his formal disciples would not accept his choice of successor, some of them having their practice obscured by pride and ego. The news did actually reach some of the monks, shortly after Hui Neng had left. Filling with annoyance they immediately they gave chase, wanting to retrieve Bodhidharma’s sacred relics that symbolized the patriarchate. With this in mind, before Hui Neng left on his way, he agreed with Hung Jen that he would need to be the last patriarch in order to stop Bodhidharma’s robe and bowl from becoming items of contention.

The motivation for securing such a position itself could taint others on the true path. One of the faster monks caught up with Hui Neng but was overcome by his spiritual presence. Instead of attempting to abduct the “prize,” he humbled himself before the new Master. Hui Neng then spoke to him, “Not thinking of good, not thinking of evil, tell me what was your original face before your mother and father were born?”

The monk, seeing beyond the distinctions of the mind to his true original face or pure inner state, gained enlightenment through Hui Neng. But the new Patriarch knew that others were not yet ready. Thus, he withdrew from the world, protecting his life and therefore the Dharma. He retreated quietly in the jungle for the next 16 years.

Afterward, Hui Neng decided it was time to visit the Fa-Hsing Temple in present-day Canton, China. Upon entering the temple, he observed a group of monks debating vigorously as follows: One monk said, “The temple flag is flapping!”

The next monk said, “No! It is the wind that is flapping.” A third monk interjected and informatively announced, “The flapping is due to interactions – cause and effect! Hui Neng then entering, announced calmly, “Only minds are flapping!” All present were completely astonished and rushed off with news of the arrival of this man with astounding insight.

The Master of the Fa-hsing Temple eventually realized that indeed it must be Hung Jen’s mysterious successor and happily invited him to lecture there. Hui Neng accepted and later established his own temple at Paolin, not far from the Fa-Hsing temple. He also finally became formally recognized as the Sixth Patriarch. To this very day an image of Hui Neng remains seated in lotus position at Nanhua Temple in Caoqi, China, since his passing in the year 713.

It is said that his soul departed from the Earth while he was seated thus in meditation. Master Hui Neng’s legacy is one which placed immense value on inherent enlightenment, and attaining it not through scriptures or outer rituals, but rather through meditation and direct spiritual experience.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often spoken of the Sixth Patriarch Master Hui Neng and his teachings on many occasions. The following is an excerpt from a lecture given in Hong Kong on July 7, 1989. It is about an exchange between Master Hui Neng and one of his disciples.

Shen Hui asked him, “Master, do you see anything in your meditation?” Did he ask this question? (Yes.) That’s right! It proves that he did meditate. Then how did Hui Neng reply? “I see things but also don’t see anything in my meditation.”

What he meant was: we can’t be enlightened just by folding our legs. We can’t be enlightened by practicing any kind of nonsensical methods. No. There has to be an invisible Dharma lineage.

One has to practice a correct method in order to get enlightenment.

I mean, at that time we reserve a special time to find the Buddha Nature within ourselves.

That’s meditation. Then, after a while, we’ll be used to it; then we can meditate while walking, living, sitting, and lying down That’s why the Sixth Patriarch Master Hui Neng said that “Zen does not rely on sitting.”

In honor of the birthday of the great Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Master Hui Neng, we wish that his legacy will shine on in helping to awaken many souls.

Thank you for joining us today on Enlightening Entertainment. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News, here on Supreme Master Television. May every chapter of your life be graced by the Divine.