Huineng

Huineng (637-713), Chinese Buddhist monk, sixth patriarch of Chan (Japanese, Zen) Buddhism, and founder of Chan's dominant Southern School. Excluding his birthdate and that of his death, the story of Huineng's life is largely a legend originated by his chief disciple, Shen-hui (670-762). According to this legend, Huineng, said to have been an illiterate peddler from southern China, became enlightened upon hearing the recital of a Buddhist religious text called a sutra. He then traveled almost 500 miles north to study with the fifth patriarch of Chan Buddhism, Hongren (601-674), who at first resisted teaching the uneducated Huineng but eventually accepted him as a pupil. Impressed by Huineng's wisdom, the master gave his robe and begging bowl, symbols of the Chan patriarchate, to his disciple. However, Huineng was not officially recognized as the sixth patriarch of Chan until the Great Dharma Assembly of 732, at which his own disciple, Shen-hui, declared him the rightful successor to Hongren.

Huineng's doctrine, preserved in the Liu-zu tan-qing (Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch), emphasizes detached meditation to recover the essential Buddha-nature immanent in all things, including each individual. It also denounces the images and scriptures of traditional Buddhism as hindrances to attaining enlightenment. Huineng believed that enlightenment came instantly, not by a process of passing through various stages of religious experience. This teaching created a schism with more conservative Chan monks in northern China, who stressed the dogma of gradual enlightenment. Nevertheless, owing mainly to the efforts of Shen-hui, by 750 Huineng's doctrine had become the predominant form of Chan in China, Japan, and Korea. At present, Chan accords Huineng equal reverence as it does its 6th century founder, the Bodhidharma.