After Huineng received the bowl and robe from the Fifth Patriarch, he was pursued by monks, one of the most avid pursuers was a monk named Hui-ming. Hui-ming followed Huineng until Huineng threw down the bowl and robe onto a rock to evade his followers, and declared that the bowl and robe are nothing but symbols, but Hui-ming showed his hands, and stated that he had come only for the dharma.
Since the object of your coming is the dharma," said I, "refrain from thinking of anything and keep your mind blank. I will then teach you." When he had done this for a considerable time, I said, "When you are thinking of neither good nor evil, what is at that particular moment, venerable sir, your real nature [original face]?"
As soon as he heard this he at once became enlightened. But he further asked, "Apart from those esoteric sayings and esoteric ideas handed down by the patriarchs from generation to generation, are there any other esoteric teachings?"
"What I can tell you is not esoteric," I replied. "If you turn your light inwardly, you will find what is esoteric within you."
Turning the light inward is kensho (in Japanese), Jianxing 见性 (in Chinese), it is to see one's nature. The only esoteric mystery is that of one's own being. With awareness turned inside, we realize our nature is no-nature, we see our buddha-nature. We transcend form with transcendental wisdom, and have the realization of non-duality. (This is represented in the Five Dhyani Buddhas where each Buddha represents an element, as well as a transcendental wisdom - the four elements and four wisdoms being the eight consciousnesses, where the eighth is emptiness, and the fifth and central element in the center of the four is the space element, represented by Vairocana Buddha who is symbolic for emptiness/sunyata). This is the realization of emptiness is form, form is emptiness.
The Sixth Patriarch, Huineng, would eventually feel its time to propagate the law. He went to Fa-hsin temple in Canton. A Bhikshu Yin-tsung, master of the dharma, was lecturing on the Mahaparinirvana-sutra, and he invited Huineng to take a seat of honor and answer various questions about the sutras. Huineng provided accurate answers that showed something beyond mere book knowledge, and was asked for what other the realization of the essence of mind, was passed on from the Fifth Patriarch.
The Sixth Patriarch instructed that the Mahaparinirvana-sutra, which explains buddha-nature is the only way. He quoted a story where a Bodhisattva (King Kao Kuei-teh) questions Buddha:
"[...]There are two kinds of elements of goodness, the eternal and the noneternal. Since buddha-nature is neither eternal nor noneternal, therefore their element of goodness is not eradicated. Now Buddhism is known as having no two-ways. There are good ways and evil ways, but since buddha-nature is neither, therefore Buddhism is known as having no two ways. From the point of view of ordinary folks, the component parts of a personality [skandhas] and factors of cosnciousness (dhatus) are two separate things, but enlightened men understand that they are not dual in nature. Buddha-nature is non-duality."
The above quotes were taken from The Diamond Sutra & The Sutra of Hui-neng, translated by A. F. Price & Wong Mou-lam.
Submitted February 05, 2019 at 09:37AM by Dillon123 http://bit.ly/2SqjgtT
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