At that time, the Patriarch was residing at Baolin Monastery in Caoxi, while Master Shenxiu was at Yuquan Monastery in Jingnan. The two traditions were then flourishing, and people commonly spoke of “Southern Huineng and Northern Shenxiu.” Thus arose the distinction between the sudden teaching of the South and the gradual teaching of the North.

[1] Yet students did not understand the essential purport of the school. The Master said to the assembly: “The Dharma is originally one school, though people are divided into north and south. The Dharma is of one kind, but realization may be swift or slow. How, then, can there be sudden and gradual? The Dharma itself has neither suddenness nor gradualness; people have sharp or dull faculties, and therefore there are the names ‘sudden’ and ‘gradual.’” Yet Shenxiu’s followers often ridiculed the Patriarch of the Southern school, saying, “He does not know a single character. What ability could he possess?” Shenxiu said, “He has attained wisdom without a teacher and has deeply realized the supreme vehicle. I am not his equal.”

“Moreover, our teacher, the Fifth Patriarch, personally transmitted to him the robe and Dharma. Could this have been without reason? I regret that I cannot go far away to draw near to him, for I vainly receive the favor of the state. None of you should remain here; you may go to Caoxi to seek clarification.” One day he instructed his disciple Zhicheng: “You are intelligent and wise. Go for me to Caoxi to hear the Dharma. Whatever you hear, remember it with all your heart, then return and tell me.” [2]

Zhicheng received the instruction and went to Caoxi. He joined the assembly in paying respects and making inquiries, without saying where he had come from. At that time the Patriarch told the assembly: “There is now a thief of the Dharma secretly present in this gathering.” [3] Zhicheng immediately came forward, bowed, and fully related the matter. The Master said, “You have come from Yuquan, so you must be a spy.” He replied, “I am not.” The Master said, “How can you say you are not?” He replied, “Before I spoke, I was; once I had spoken, I was not.” The Master said, “How does your teacher instruct the assembly?” He replied, “He constantly instructs the people to settle the mind and contemplate purity, and to sit for long periods without lying down.” The Master said, “To settle the mind and contemplate purity is illness, not Chan. Long sitting only constrains the body; what benefit does it bring to principle? Listen to my verse:”

Born, one sits and does not lie down; dead, one lies down and does not sit.

Dead, one lies down and does not sit. Originally this is a stinking bag of bones—why establish it as a practice? [4]

Zhicheng bowed again and said, “This disciple studied the Way for nine years under Master Shenxiu, yet gained no corresponding realization. Now, upon hearing the Venerable Master speak, I immediately accord with my original mind. The matter of birth and death is grave for this disciple. In your great compassion, Venerable Master, please give further instruction.” The Master said, “I have heard that your teacher instructs students in the Dharma of precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom. How does your teacher explain the forms of practice of precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom? Tell me.”

Zhicheng said, “Master Shenxiu teaches that refraining from all evil is called precepts; practicing all good is called wisdom; and purifying one’s own mind is called meditative stability. This is how he teaches. By what Dharma does the Venerable Master instruct people?” The Master said, “If I said that I had a Dharma to give people, I would be deceiving you. I merely untie bonds according to circumstances and provisionally call this samādhi.”

[5] “The precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom spoken of by your teacher are indeed inconceivable, but the precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom as I see them are different.” Zhicheng said, “Precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom can only be one kind. How can they differ?” [6] The Master said, “Your teacher’s precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom are for those of Mahāyāna capacity; my precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom are for those of the highest vehicle. Awakening and understanding differ, and realization may be swift or slow. Listen to what I say and see whether it is the same as his. The Dharma I teach does not depart from self-nature. To speak of Dharma apart from its essence is called teaching in terms of appearances, [7] and self-nature remains ever deluded. You must know that all myriad dharmas arise and function from self-nature. This is the true Dharma of precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom. Listen to my verse:”

When the mind-ground is free from wrong, this is the precepts of self-nature;

When the mind-ground is free from delusion, this is the wisdom of self-nature;

When the mind-ground is free from disorder, this is the meditative stability of self-nature;

Neither increasing nor decreasing, it is itself vajra;

The body comes and goes, yet fundamentally there is samādhi. [8]

Having heard the verse, Zhicheng repented and expressed his gratitude. He then presented a verse:

The illusory body of the five aggregates—how can illusion ever be ultimate?

Turning back toward suchness, the Dharma still is not pure.

The Master approved it and again said to Zhicheng: “Your teacher’s precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom encourage those of lesser capacities and understanding; my precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom encourage those of great capacities and understanding. If one realizes self-nature, one establishes neither bodhi nor nirvāṇa, neither liberation nor knowledge and views. When not a single dharma can be obtained, then one can establish the myriad dharmas. If you understand this meaning, it may also be called bodhi and nirvāṇa, and may also be called liberation and knowledge and views. One who sees self-nature may establish or not establish; coming and going freely, without obstruction or hindrance; acting in response to circumstances, answering in response to words; universally perceiving transformation bodies without departing from self-nature—such a one attains sovereign spiritual powers and samādhi as play. This is called seeing self-nature.” [9]

Zhicheng again asked the Master, “What is the meaning of not establishing?” [10] The Master said, “Self-nature is free from wrong, free from delusion, and free from disorder. Thought after thought, prajñā contemplates and illumines; it constantly departs from dharma appearances and is free and at ease, able to move freely in every direction. What is there to establish? Self-nature realizes itself; sudden awakening is sudden cultivation, and there are no gradual stages. [11] Therefore, do not establish any dharma. All dharmas are quiescent and extinguished. [12] What sequence could there be?” Zhicheng bowed and wished to serve him constantly, without slackening morning or evening. (Zhicheng was from Taihe in Jizhou.)

The monk Zhiche was from Jiangxi. His family name was Zhang, and his personal name was Xingchang. In his youth he was chivalrous and given to martial exploits. After the Southern and Northern schools had divided, although the leaders of the two schools had put aside all sense of self and other, their followers competed in generating attachment and aversion. At that time, disciples of the Northern school set up Master Shenxiu as the Sixth Patriarch, and, resenting that the Patriarch’s transmission of the robe was known throughout the land, they instructed Xingchang to assassinate the Master. The Master, knowing their minds, foresaw the matter and placed ten taels of gold beside his seat.

When night had fallen, Xingchang entered the Patriarch’s room, intending to harm him. The Master stretched out his neck to meet the blow. Xingchang struck with his blade three times, but caused no injury at all. The Master said, “A proper sword does not strike wrongly; a wrongful sword does not strike properly. I owe you only gold, not my life.” Xingchang fell down in shock. After a long while he revived, begged forgiveness, repented of his fault, [13] and immediately wished to leave home and become a monastic.

The Master then gave him the gold and said, “Go for now. I fear that the followers may turn about and harm you. On another day, you may change your appearance and return; I shall then receive you.” Xingchang accepted the instruction and fled away that night. Later he sought out monastics, left home, received the full precepts, and practiced diligently.

One day, remembering the Master’s words, he came from afar to pay his respects. The Master said, “I have long been thinking of you. Why have you come so late?” He replied, “Yesterday I received the Venerable Master’s forgiveness for my offense. Though I have now left home and practice austerities, it is still difficult to repay your kindness. Only transmitting the Dharma and liberating sentient beings could repay it. This disciple has often read the Nirvāṇa Sūtra but does not understand the meaning of permanence and impermanence. I beg the Venerable Master, in your compassion, to explain it briefly.”

The Master said, “What is impermanent is Buddha-nature; what is permanent is the discriminating mind concerning all good and evil dharmas.” He said, “What the Venerable Master says greatly contradicts the sūtra text.”

The Master said, “I transmit the Mind-Seal of the Buddha. How could I dare contradict the Buddhist sūtras?” He said, “The sūtra says that Buddha-nature is permanent, yet the Venerable Master calls it impermanent. All good and evil dharmas, even bodhicitta, are impermanent, yet the Venerable Master calls them permanent. This is contradictory and only increases the student’s doubts.”

The Master said, “In the past, when I heard the nun Wujinzang recite the Nirvāṇa Sūtra once, I immediately explained it to her. Not a single word or meaning was inconsistent with the sūtra text. And in explaining it to you, I will likewise never give two different accounts.” He said, “This student’s understanding is shallow and obscure. I hope the Venerable Master will give a detailed explanation.”

The Master said, “Do you know? If Buddha-nature were permanent, then why speak of all good and evil dharmas? Even through countless eons, there would not be a single person who aroused bodhicitta. Therefore, when I speak of impermanence, I am precisely speaking of the Buddha’s teaching of the path of true permanence.”

“Furthermore, if all dharmas were impermanent, then every single thing would have a self-nature capable of undergoing birth and death, while the nature of true permanence would have places where it did not extend. Therefore, when I speak of permanence, I am precisely speaking of the Buddha’s meaning of true impermanence. The Buddha compared ordinary beings and followers of non-Buddhist paths, who cling to false permanence, with adherents of the two vehicles, who take permanence to be impermanent; together they form the eight inverted views. Thus, in the definitive teaching of nirvāṇa, he refuted those partial views and revealed true permanence, true bliss, true self, and true purity.” [15]

“You now cling to the words while turning your back on the meaning. You mistake annihilationist impermanence and a fixed, dead permanence for the Buddha’s perfectly subtle final teaching. Even if you read it a thousand times, what benefit would there be?” Xingchang suddenly attained great awakening and spoke this verse:

Because I held to a mind of impermanence, the Buddha taught a nature of permanence.

Those who do not understand skillful means are like gathering pebbles from a spring pond.

Now, without exerting effort, Buddha-nature appears before me. [16]

It was not bestowed by the Master; nor have I gained anything.

The Master said, “You are now thorough; you should be called Zhiche.” Zhiche bowed in gratitude and withdrew.

The Master saw that difficult questions from the various schools all arose from malicious minds. [17] Many gathered beneath his seat, and, out of compassion, he told them: “Those who study the Way should completely eliminate every good thought and evil thought. [18] There is no name that can be named; name it self-nature. The nature of nonduality is called true nature. Upon the basis of true nature, all Dharma gates are established. Upon hearing these words, you must immediately see for yourselves.” Hearing this, everyone bowed and requested to serve him as their teacher.

(Note: What follows is an exposition of the meaning by the Second Patriarch.)

[1] Within this school, there is direct pointing to the source of mind: in its very substance it is empty and quiescent. Even mind cannot be grasped; how then could there be any Dharma? Sudden and gradual are illusory discriminations arising in the mind. They are merely skillful means, adapted to people’s sharp or dull faculties, for the sake of remedying them.

To divide south from north, distinguish sudden from gradual, compare literacy with illiteracy, and weigh strengths against weaknesses—viewed from within this school, all such matters are contemptible and shameful. I should be too occupied with compassion for them to hate or resent them. Master Shenxiu, being in the North, could not avoid maintaining a place of practice; yet he never himself claimed to be a Patriarch. Later, his followers called themselves the Seventh Patriarch, thereby making him the Sixth Patriarch by implication. Those in his school did not understand the larger principle and instead burdened Master Shenxiu’s pure virtue. Yet this was not enough to burden a worthy person.

From his instructions to Zhicheng and the others, one can know his mind. A true student of the Way must always be as open-hearted as a valley. Anyone who sets up views of victory and defeat, self and other, is not a true student of the Way. The people of the Northern school simply lacked affinity with the Sixth Patriarch; how could they be forced? Master Shenxiu alone sent Zhicheng because his capacity had already matured.

We need not rigidly divide the Southern and Northern schools into superior and inferior. It is like a school: secondary school is secondary school, and university is university. Their distinction is evident; why stir up further afflictions? Yet recently some people have again raised great disputes, claiming that the Buddhist Dharma has fortunately survived without falling into decline entirely because of the Northern school’s practical cultivation, unlike the Southern school, which values only empty talk. Rather than failing in an attempt to paint a tiger, they say, one should specialize in a single gate, cultivate the precepts, cultivate purity, and so forth.

Alas, what kind of words are these! Chan Master Heze established the essential principle and clarified right and wrong for all who study the Way under heaven. Is this still not understood? The Buddha-Dharma is the Dharma of nonduality, and that which is most ultimate is an unshakable truth. Without understanding this principle, how can one speak of entering Buddhism? The methods adopted by the various schools are all expedient means before entering the gate; ultimately, reaching home is their destination. Now, for one returning home, whether by carriage, horse, foot, or boat, all are conditioned expedient means, while the purpose of returning home is not two.

Now, while still on the road, people first raise disputes, distinguish fast from slow, choose between boats and carriages, and forget the purpose for which they set out. Hence arise views of good and evil and distinctions of superior and inferior. They do not realize that these have nothing whatever to do with the Buddha-Dharma. Even if one rigorously upholds the Dharma and sincerely does good, one is only somewhat nearer to entering Buddhism by comparison; when it comes to the root, one is still separated by a thousand mountains and ten thousand waters.

This is precisely why the Northern school could not inherit the school and continue the patriarchal lineage. Why? It merely departs from Dharma or clings to Dharma.

The sūtra says, “To be free from all appearances is to be called all Buddhas.” How clear and pure this is! Moreover, when the patriarchal position is transmitted in succession, how could its purpose be for any individual? Why would Huangmei have shown special favor to the Sixth Patriarch alone? Why transmit the robe at midnight—could it have been out of personal feeling? And how would the Sixth Patriarch have dared privately to receive it and flee? It was precisely because this matter concerns the establishment of the true guiding principle and the discernment of right and wrong for practitioners throughout the land. Those who see this see something of great importance.

Those under Master Shenxiu’s instruction—how could they understand this? And if the robe and bowl were things to be fought over by force, what could not be fought over? Moreover, those of his lineage would not necessarily have been willing to cultivate honestly and genuinely; they would merely have stirred up empty debate. As for the present decline of the Chan school, it truly has other causes.

First, the environment is unfavorable: those who genuinely cultivate the Way have no means of support, so one cannot harshly condemn the conduct of funerary rites and repentance services as a livelihood. Second, there are too few places where meditation retreats are held, and they have become ever more remote from the world. Third, qualified teachers are becoming scarcer by the day; they are either old or in seclusion. Fourth, the habitual tendencies of beginners are objectionable and make them difficult to approach. For example, a group of Chan practitioners may proclaim that they have already transcended birth and death, their faces full of Chan affectation and their behavior mad and eccentric. They are truly disagreeable; no wonder worldly people disparage them.

But when has the Buddhadharma ever wavered in the slightest? Take a factory as an analogy: there are many people and many complicated affairs, and unworthy persons are unavoidable. I ask only whether its products are excellent; I need not ask what sort of people it employs. How can one give up eating for fear of choking? This matter concerns the future of the true Dharma. There is no need to speak of merit and virtue, but why create karma? Do not, for a momentary gratification, commit this offense of slandering the Dharma and thereby sink forever into the hells, life after life.

[2] This cannot be understood through oral transmission or verbal instruction alone, though these may still serve as auxiliary conditions. If one knows that the mindlessness involved can be retained in memory, how could it be like an affair that can be passed on in words? The Way is realized by oneself; all dharmas are merely guiding causes.

[3] Did the Sixth Patriarch not know that these words of his might seem like a narrow view? Yet those who understand know that this is precisely where his compassion lies. He wished especially to draw people forth and awaken them; it also expresses the meaning that the straightforward mind is the place of practice.

[4] The mind is originally without abiding, yet one speaks of abiding because the person has not yet seen the original reality of non-abiding. One therefore has no choice but to make provisional use of Dharma.

If one has already understood abiding in non-abiding, then abiding in this way is sufficient. Why speak again of abiding mind, thereby adding to one’s affliction? Purity is an aspect of the original essence. Since the person has not yet seen original purity, one has no choice but to employ contemplation. But if one has already understood it ultimately, then it is originally thus; why speak again of contemplating purity, thereby adding to one’s affliction? Non-abiding purity is the Buddha’s essence; contemplation, abiding, and sitting are functions of Dharma. Without relying on these functions, how could one enter Buddhahood? Once their purpose has been fulfilled, they should be relinquished. If one greedily clings to Dharma, the spiritual radiance instead becomes difficult to manifest; that is illness, not Chan.

Therefore, deliberately stopping, letting be, or extinguishing are not yet illnesses at the outset; only when one persists in grasping them and refuses to let them go do they become illnesses.

Now one speaks of sitting for long periods without lying down. I ask: how long must one sit before stopping? It is the mind that restrains the body. Since the mind is not yet empty, the obstruction of Dharma still remains. Not only will one fail to see the Buddha essence, perfectly luminous and profoundly still; even the Buddha’s vast and unobstructed functioning will be constrained and unable to arise. How then can one transcend birth and death? Moreover, prolonged sitting establishes the view of duration, and restraining the body creates distinctions of merit and fault. In such anxious uncertainty, even the dead method of abiding mind and contemplating purity will be difficult to accomplish, let alone the ultimate realization.

The Sixth Patriarch spoke for those of ultimate capacity. But for people whose wild minds have not ceased, who are inverted, perverse, and confused, one cannot avoid using Dharma as a remedy. A disorderly country requires severe laws; as their situations differ, the methods employed also differ. How could there be any fixed Dharma?

[5] Precepts carry the sense of prohibition, but they apply only to evil; one does not speak of precepts in relation to goodness. To guard against evil in its fruition, one establishes precept rules, precept marks, and the like. But to guard against evil in its causes, samādhi and wisdom themselves are the precepts. If people attain samādhi and awaken wisdom at the causal stage, clearly comprehending cause and effect, there will be no process of entering evil and then observing precepts against evil.

Esoteric Buddhism takes samādhi and wisdom as the great precepts. This is truly studying the precepts, and those who attain the essence of precepts cannot be compared with those who merely practice their outward forms.

The three virtues are originally one essence. The expedient practices of beginners differ from directly realizing the essence of precepts; how could there be a fixed Dharma? Yet these people divide them into three separate parts and place undue emphasis on phenomenal forms; their account is not yet complete. They do not know that the three dharmas cannot be cultivated separately: to attain one is to attain all three, and the full three are one. There has never been samādhi without wisdom and precepts, nor precepts without samādhi and wisdom.

The same is true of wisdom. Moreover, the three dharmas are originally only provisional designations. If one can truly realize the original nature, the three dharmas become secondary matters. As soon as the Sixth Patriarch opens his mouth, he breaks their bondage to Dharma, saying that originally there is no Dharma. Since the original nature is pure, how can one falsely claim to have Dharma to give others, thereby further confusing them? Yet since they have mistakenly accepted the bondage of karma, he now follows expedient means in explaining it, using illusion to control illusion and not dispensing with provisional names. It is precisely in such places that his strength is most evident; one may also glimpse something of the fundamental source. Its meaning is subtle indeed.

[6] Precepts, samādhi, and wisdom are, in name, originally but one. Yet people have eighty-four thousand dispositions, and Dharma gates accordingly are immeasurable. How can one cling to a single one?

[7] Precepts, samādhi, and wisdom are all established from mind. If the mind has no faults or afflictions, there is no need for precepts. Precepts directed at results seek through attachment to appearances; hence this is called teaching in terms of appearances. In speaking to those of lesser capacity, one cannot avoid proceeding from appearances back to intrinsic nature. For those of superior capacity, however, one begins directly from intrinsic nature: first return to empty quiescence, and everything is resolved. This is the simplest, purest, swiftest, most direct, and most ultimate way: once it is resolved, all is resolved. Thus one may know that the three thousand dignified deportments and eighty thousand subtle practices were originally established for those of dull faculties. Yet they cannot be discarded; this is what is called an expedient means.

[8] In these five lines of verse, the essential point is that the mind contains neither wrong nor delusion nor confusion; yet the point of departure still lies in intrinsic nature. When one sees the vajra of intrinsic nature, neither increasing nor decreasing, one attains the proper experience of samādhi. Though there is coming and going, one is entirely free. This is the precept of no-precept: inwardly realizing the essence of precepts while outwardly fully observing their forms. This is to seek the cause from the fruition, to begin at the root. It varies according to the person; there is no fixed Dharma. What benefit is there in so much contention?

[9] Beginning with the phrase “if one realizes one’s intrinsic nature” and ending with “this is called seeing one’s nature,” this entire long passage of instruction is fully elaborated and clearly indicated by the Sixth Patriarch. What further doubt can there be? This passage should be read until thoroughly familiar, then contemplated at all times and never forgotten. But one must recognize that this too is still teaching in terms of appearances; one must not grasp it and thereby add to the illness of Dharma. This is precisely the meaning of not establishing any thesis.

[10] What is the meaning of not establishing any thesis? To understand this, one must first understand the original meaning. Since the original nature is undefiled, why speak further of such dharmas as birth and death, nirvāṇa, movement, samādhi, and liberation? If Dharma is not established, from where could one further distinguish stages and gradual steps, or a meaning of not establishing? Yet non-establishment is original, while establishment and non-establishment are expedient means. If one can abide in neither establishment nor non-establishment, that is the meaning of non-establishment. Do you understand?

[11] Seeing that it is thus is sudden awakening; decisively being thus is sudden cultivation. Awakening itself is cultivation. Not forgetting it at every moment is cultivation at every moment. Awakening is simply awakening; there are no distinctions of stages, quantity, or degree. Therefore, once one recognizes it, one must decisively take it up; this itself is cultivation.

Whether one is raw or mature, old or new, forgetful or unforgetful—all this pertains to the work after awakening, not to whether the original nature is right or wrong. Here one must not hesitate. Therefore, at the outset one must recognize it thoroughly. This is originally the work of a person of immeasurable greatness; it is called great courage. Great wisdom is thorough recognition. Great benevolence is penetrating comprehension without remainder. Great courage is decisive freedom from doubt. If one considers oneself a person of lesser capacity and has no aspiration to advance, then there is no need to proceed. But take care not to give rise to excessive doubts and slander, obstructing the path of others and further adding to one’s own karmic obstacles.

[12] All dharmas are quiescent and extinguished; what stages could there be? This is repeated in order to make it decisive and leave no room for further doubt. How utterly clear and pure! If the word “originally” were added after “all dharmas,” it would add still greater force, showing that originally there are no stages; distinctions arise only from oneself.

[13] Everything before one’s eyes in the world is a result. Every result necessarily has a cause; never is a result obtained without a cause. Since there is a cause, how can one escape its result? One can only further transform cause and effect: turn the present result into a cause for the future, transforming and dissolving everything. When others respond with adversity, I embrace them with compassion.

Xingchang and the Sixth Patriarch had karmic affinities from past lives. Beyond the ten pieces of gold, there was also enmity and resentment, though no debt of life was owed. Once the Patriarch willingly accepted this and embraced him with compassion, revealing the causes and conditions, the matter was suddenly resolved. It was not that the Sixth Patriarch deliberately displayed spiritual powers; this itself was spiritual power. At that time, how could the Sixth Patriarch have retained the slightest trace of gratitude or resentment? He merely responded as the situation required. Xingchang’s pleading for mercy and repentance showed that his own karmic conditions had matured, and so the Patriarch guided him.

[14] When the Buddha liberates sentient beings, he merely liberates them from their clinging views. When he liberates bodhisattvas, he merely liberates them from their views of dharmas. Permanence and impermanence are dharmas illusorily arising in the mind. If one clings to them as fixed and thus, they become views. If one knows that they are neither annihilated nor permanent, one is no longer bound by Dharma.

Sūtras are Dharma, and because sūtras are spoken by the Buddha, worldly people take them to be immutable. They do not know that medicine is prescribed according to the illness; how could there be a fixed meaning? When another clings to permanence, I correct this with impermanence. When another clings to impermanence, I speak of permanence to break that attachment. Returning to neither permanence nor impermanence accords with the principle of nirvāṇa; this is what is called complete contemplation.

Permanence and impermanence, when separately explained, are opposites; when united, they express the complete meaning. If one understands this meaning, one may accord with conditions without changing. Unchanging is the essence; according with conditions is the function. Speaking in terms of function, permanence is permissible and impermanence is permissible: to speak of permanence is precisely impermanence, and to speak of impermanence is precisely permanence. When speaking of essence, it cannot be obtained. This unobtainability is the original nature of the Buddha-nature’s true permanence.

[15] In the four words permanence, bliss, self, and purity, one must begin by understanding self. Seeing the original reality of self, one finds it originally pure, originally devoid of such views as right and wrong, good and evil, arising and ceasing, suffering and bliss.

The Dharma essence is empty and quiescent. It was originally thus, is thus now, and will remain thus in the future. All minds that exist at present are ultimately unobtainable. Once arising and ceasing are extinguished, the bliss of quiescent extinction is naturally constant and unchanging. Self does not mean the self of clinging to a false self; it means the original self. The self of the false self and the self of the original self are neither one nor two. When understood as interpenetrating, nature and appearance are nondual; there is no need to establish them as one, nor any need to divide them as two. Those who have not seen their nature misunderstand the meaning of self, then establish the four appearances of self, person, sentient being, and life span. Views of dharmas consequently arise, and affliction and confusion arise again. This must be corrected.

[16] Zhiche’s true point of seeing his nature lies in the two lines, “Now I exert no effort, and Buddha-nature appears before me.” Therefore the Patriarch said, “You have now thoroughly penetrated it.”

[17] Difficult questions arising from an evil mind all come from firmly clinging to the false self. Such people are most deserving of pity—how much more so when they have cultivated the mind for many years under a teacher! All such people have scant blessings. Their suffering, vexation, self-contempt, and fixation on birth and death show that they cannot bear the great Dharma and have themselves ruined their capacity as Dharma vessels.

Most remarkable is that this illness often manifests just as one is about to enter the gate. Because it consists of seeds of evil habits, it will not emerge until one is at the threshold. Among those who have not cultivated, this is called arising through conditions: these evil habits arise as circumstances meet conditions, and there is nothing surprising about that. Among those entering the gate, it is called the turning over of seeds.

These bad habitual tendencies are seeds lying dormant within; through practice they emerge, just as an illness hidden within is drawn out by the power of medicine. Worldly people often doubt this, but it is something practitioners themselves can perceive. They should promptly subdue and transform them, always applying effort to self-restraint. Above all, they must not give rise to obstructing doubts or blame Heaven and fault others. Still less should they slander the Dharma; then their sins and evils will only increase, and liberation will become ever more difficult.

The generosity, forbearance, and endurance of hardship practiced in ordinary times all serve to nurture blessings and to tame and transform these tendencies. Otherwise, they turn inward ever more deeply, and become ever harder to eradicate. This is a process that practitioners must undergo. Often, one mistake leads to another until matters cannot be retrieved; bodily illness is only the lesser consequence.

Therefore, seeing the Way depends on causes and conditions, while nurturing the Way relies on merit and virtue. Whoever refuses to acknowledge mistakes, endure hardship, be taken advantage of, or examine themselves is a person of scant blessings and not someone fit for great things.

Among all evil dispositions, the desire for personal gain is indeed difficult to break, but the habitual tendency of seeking reputation is even harder to break. Compared with the great matter of birth and death, this small concern for saving face is like ten thousand yi of gold compared with dung and dirt. Yet they delight in taking the dung and dirt while casting away the gold. Are they not people of scant blessings who demean themselves? The way to save oneself is to break through emotional attachments and views, distinguish what is weighty from what is light, not fear being taken advantage of, and be able to endure.

Bringing karmic seeds to the surface is not a bad thing. It is like poisonous snakes in a cave: they are difficult to lure out, but if they emerge and are not removed, their harm becomes even greater. Repentance is an expedient means; returning to emptiness is ultimate.

But do not mistake these habitual tendencies themselves for empty and simply let them be. Once they arise again, one drifts along with them and is no longer empty. Nor should one mistakenly regard these habitual tendencies as merely temporary illusory manifestations that ultimately do not impair the essential nature. If one misunderstands the meaning of nondefilement, then what use would there be in the Buddha’s establishment of the Dharma of repentance? This is the sort of conduct that glosses over faults and conceals wrongs; its sin is equivalent to suicide. In short, recognizing the root is foremost. One who has truly seen one’s nature naturally does not suffer from this ailment. Even if it arises temporarily, it will soon transform and dissolve of itself.

[18] Those who study the Way should constantly eliminate all wholesome and unwholesome thoughts.

What has no name may be named, yet the name belongs to intrinsic nature. We must examine ourselves inwardly at every moment in light of these few words; only then can this be called diligent practice. As for the method of inward examination, first place the word “empty” before everything. For emptiness means no gain or loss; without gain or loss, there is no calculating; without calculating, there is no obstruction. With each thought, turn it around; once turned around, empty it. Wholesome and unwholesome thoughts pass like shadows, leaving no trace. This does not mean not seeing or hearing, but seeing and hearing without being stained. It does not mean not coming into contact, but coming into contact without attachment. It is like delivering goods on another’s behalf: it is not that nothing is being done, yet in truth nothing concerns one; it is not that one has no connection with it, yet in truth one is not involved. When the mind has no binding defilement, liberation is present in that very state.

If one does not give rise to the causes of calculating gain and loss, how could the result of contentious and malicious thoughts arise? So many people attended the Sixth Patriarch for years—could they have failed to understand the root and yet still have been like this? Thus we know that realizing the mind is one matter, while removing habitual tendencies after realizing the mind is another.

The method for removing habitual tendencies is constant inward examination: use prajñā to give rise to all wondrous contemplations, supervise and discipline oneself, and sweep them away. Once one understands how to turn the Dharma, one attains emptiness and purity. But without understanding the mind-ground, one certainly cannot understand how to turn the Dharma. This distinction between the Southern school’s sudden approach and the Northern school’s gradual approach clarifies the matter for all people. Those with discerning eyes recognize it at once.

Yet those who do not understand still believe that they are the same Dharma, except that the Southern school enters suddenly while the Northern school enters gradually, making it only a matter of sooner or later. Why must one enter suddenly? And why insist on rigidly distinguishing South from North? This view seems very plausible, yet it is wrong. The distinction between what is deviant and what is correct may at first be no more than a fraction of an inch, but at the stage of fruition it becomes a difference of a thousand miles. Therefore it should be thus, it must be thus; there is not the slightest room for human sentiment or compromise.

Following the Northern school’s method of practice, one ultimately labors without result and, moreover, leads others astray in their wisdom-life. Rather than take the wrong road, it is better not to set out. But people differ in their causes and conditions. If they do not take the wrong road and their aspiration does not die, they may later return to the correct road. If their resolve is not firm, however, there is nothing to be done. One can only allow them to turn according to their causes and conditions; one cannot force them. Every word and action of the ancients served as a model for later generations throughout the world. They were unwilling to make a temporary expedient concession that would leave future trouble behind. Therefore, the Southern and Northern schools fundamentally cannot stand side by side; this is not a matter to be treated vaguely.