The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Treasure Platform Sutra

There has not been, probably will not be, an instance that a Buddhist patriarchship is entrusted to a person who is completely illiterate. This situation happened to Huìnéng who assumed Chinese Buddhist Sixth Patriarch in 661 AD. During his thirty-seven-year preaching life, his teaching and the dialogues with other cultivators were recorded and compiled into this sutra named The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Treasure Platform Sutra. The succinct sutra explicitly explores the true essence of human mind. It interprets the highest level of the dharma and breaks the bias and misconceptions that people might often have. While formality was the dominating practice adopted by most of the cultivators at the time, Huìnéng alone advocated formless practice in which the cultivators focus on their mind rather than the forms like motionless sitting or mere chanting of the sutras. His teaching is pragmatic and straightforward. This sutra is doubtless an indispensable textbook for all levels of the spiritual seekers.