Originally, the minds of all people possess Buddha-nature. Broadly surveying the Chan teachings of the various masters and all the scriptural texts, and tracing their most appropriate principle to its source, there is none that does not speak of the original true Buddha within one’s own nature. When Bodhidharma came from the West, he directly pointed to the human mind: see one’s nature and become a Buddha. This means that one’s own true Buddha does not lie outside one’s single intrinsic nature. Yet people do not trust themselves, and so they race about seeking outwardly.

They suppose that, apart from the true Buddha of their own nature, there is another Buddha. Therefore, all Buddhas and patriarchs expound the Dharma in order to have people awaken to their own original true Buddha, which need not be sought externally. Yet because Dharma sayings of every kind are numerous and disparate, they instead cause students to become confused about their own intrinsic nature, leaving them with no point of entry into awakening. Only Bodhidharma’s Bloodstream Treatise and Huangbo’s Essentials of the Transmission of Mind are the most essential discourses. They can directly verify one’s own Buddha-nature and make it easy for people to understand. Compared with seeking teachers and visiting masters, searching through old papers, sitting in meditation, and traveling on foot, which wildly waste one’s effort, they differ by ten thousandfold. This is no small benefit.

Preface by Elder Jiandu, Ren Zhe, in the guiyou year of the Shaoxing era.