The Tan Jing (坛经) — the Platform Sutra — is the only Chinese Buddhist text granted the honorific "sutra," a title otherwise reserved for the words of the Buddha himself. Its opening chapter, the Xingyou Pin (行由品, "Chapter on Practice and Origins"), reads like a spiritual autobiography. And it begins with a confession.
The Woodcutter's Story
Huineng (638–713) was born poor in Guangdong, far from the centers of Buddhist learning. His father died young. He sold firewood to survive. He was illiterate.
One day, delivering firewood to a customer, he heard someone reciting the Diamond Sutra. At the phrase "Give rise to a mind that abides nowhere," something broke open. He asked where this teaching came from, traveled over 800 kilometers to Huangmei, and arrived at the monastery of the Fifth Patriarch, Hongren.
The Poem Contest
Hongren, sensing that a successor was needed, asked his monks to compose a verse expressing their understanding. The head monk, Shenxiu, wrote:
The body is the bodhi tree,
The mind is like a bright mirror stand.
At all times we must polish it,
And not let dust collect.
Huineng — who couldn't write — dictated his response:
Bodhi originally has no tree,
The bright mirror also has no stand.
Fundamentally there is not a single thing —
Where could dust collect?
The Night of Transmission
Hongren chose Huineng. That night, in secret, he transmitted the Dharma and the robe — the symbols of the patriarchate. Then he sent Huineng away, knowing the other monks would be furious.
The rest is history. Huineng became the Sixth Patriarch, and his teaching — sudden awakening, the primacy of mind, the rejection of gradual polishing — reshaped Chan forever.
Why Read It Now
The Xingyou Pin isn't just a historical document. It's a map of the spiritual life: confusion, encounter, breakthrough, danger, transmission. If you've ever heard something that changed everything — a sentence, a song, a line of poetry — you already know what Huineng felt when he heard the Diamond Sutra on that street in Guangdong.