Professor Lin Chong'an: The Āgama Spirit in the Platform Sūtra

Buddhist Studies: Selected Essays

The Āgama Spirit in the Platform Sūtra

Lin Chong'an (2001)

In the history of Chinese Buddhism and the development of the Chan school, the Platform Sūtra holds a uniquely prominent place. Multiple editions of the Platform Sūtra have circulated over time, including the Dunhuang, Caoxi, Huixin, and Deyi versions. The Platform Sūtra can be approached from many angles; this essay draws on the Dunhuang edition to examine the Āgama spirit woven through it. We will proceed as follows:

1. The Spirit of Present-Life Dharma

From an Āgama standpoint, practicing the true Dharma lets you see afflictions steadily fall away in this very lifetime. You can taste its benefits right now—no need to wait for a future life. This "present-life Dharma" (xiànfǎ) spirit comes up again and again in the Platform Sūtra. For example, when Provincial Governor Wei raised the question of "reciting Amitābha’s name and aspiring to be reborn in the Western Pure Land," the Sixth Patriarch Huineng replied:

If the mind is free of defilement, the Western Pure Land is not far at all. When the mind stirs with impure thoughts, even reciting the Buddha’s name to seek rebirth will be hard to achieve. Cast off the ten evils, and you gain the merit of one hundred thousand; Be free of the eight wrongs, and you surpass eight thousand in an instant. If you practice with a straight, upright mind, you arrive in the snap of a finger. …

Compassion itself is Avalokiteśvara; Joyful giving is called Mahāsthamaprapta.

Here, Huineng shifts focus away from the deathbed moment and rebirth in the West, rooting practice instead in the upright mind of the present, in compassion, joy, and generosity. He brings the distant Western Pure Land right to where you stand, right now. If your mind is clear and pure, this very moment is the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss, with Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthamaprapta directly before you. The Āgama’s present-life spirit asks us to stop longing for what’s next, stop dwelling on what’s past, and simply settle body and mind right here, right now. The Platform Sūtra’s view of repentance follows the same logic:

Every thought—past, future, or present—stays free of the stain of ignorance and delusion. If you root out your false self-nature in a single instant, erasing all past unwholesome actions, that itself is repentance. … In my Dharma gate, to put an end to such actions for good—this is what we call repentance.

So practice comes down to this: don’t let the present moment be stained by ignorance or delusion. If you can meet each moment clearly, unwholesome actions fall away on their own. The Āgama repeatedly teaches that the five aggregates are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self, to turn practitioners’ attention inward to their own changing body and mind, rather than outward to projects like building temples. The Platform Sūtra does the same, always turning back to your own body and mind. The Sixth Patriarch says:

Building temples, giving alms, and making offerings only build merit. Do not mistake merit for true virtuous attainment.

Cultivating your own person is gōng (merit); Cultivating your own mind is dé (virtue). Virtuous attainment arises from your own mind; Merit and virtuous attainment are not the same.

In an era when the dominant trends were reciting the Buddha’s name to seek rebirth and funding temple construction through almsgiving, the Sixth Patriarch’s call to turn back to your own body and mind came as a profound shock to Governor Wei and his companions. The Āgama-sūtras teach: "You should know that you are your own island (dvīpa), your own refuge; the Dharma is your island, the Dharma is your refuge" (Saṃyuktam Āgama Sūtra 639). The Platform Sūtra echoes this, likewise stressing self-refuge:

To take refuge in yourself, abandon unwholesome conduct—this is what we call taking refuge. … To awaken and cultivate yourself is itself taking refuge. …

Buddha means the Awakened One; Dharma means the True; Saṅgha means the Pure.

When your mind takes refuge in awakening, deluded confusion never arises. With few desires, content, free from attachment to wealth and form—this is the "Honored One of Two Merits" (dvi-guṇa-guṇa-uttama).

When your mind takes refuge in the True, no false thought arises. Without attachment, you become the "Honored One Free from Desire."

When your mind takes refuge in purity, all worldly weariness and deluded thoughts may arise within your self-nature, but your self-nature does not cling to them. This is the "Honored One among Assemblies."

Faced with people of his time who looked outward for something to rely on, the Sixth Patriarch’s teaching to turn inward was perfectly in line with the Āgama spirit. Only a mind that has awakened, is pure, and free of defilement is a true refuge. This spirit runs through the entire Platform Sūtra, as these examples show:

1. The sentient beings within the mind each deliver themselves through their own self-nature. What is "self-nature self-deliverance"? Within this body, false views, afflictions, ignorance, delusion, and confusion each have a fundamental awakened nature that delivers them through right view. Once right view is realized, prajñā wisdom sweeps away ignorance, delusion, and confusion: every sentient being delivers itself. When wrong view arises, right view delivers; when delusion arises, awakening delivers; when ignorance arises, wisdom delivers; when evil arises, goodness delivers; when affliction arises, bodhi delivers. This is what we call true deliverance.
2. Having heard the sudden-teaching Dharma, you need not look to external practice. If you let your true nature constantly give rise to right view within your own mind, the sentient beings of affliction and weariness awaken all at once—just as the great sea gathers all streams, large and small merging into one whole. This is seeing the nature.
3. The Buddha is made of self-nature; do not seek for the Buddha outside yourself.
4. Turn your gaze inward to your own body; do not cling to outward dharmic marks.
5. There is a Buddha in your own mind; this self-Buddha is the true Buddha. If your mind has no Buddha-mind, where else could you ever find the Buddha?
6. If you can behold the True within your own mind, having the True is itself the cause of Buddhahood. If you do not seek the True inside, and look for the Buddha outside, you are a great fool.
7. All dharmas are fully present within your own person. Why not let your own mind suddenly manifest the true suchness of your own nature? The Bodhisattva Precept Sūtra says: "My fundamental original nature is pure; by discerning mind and seeing nature, one completes the Buddha-path on one’s own." The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: "In an instant, you return fully to the original mind."

All these teachings turn the focus of practice back to your own body and mind; the Mahāyāna sūtras the Sixth Patriarch cites point to the same goal.

2. The Spirit of Practice Unbound by Time

From an Āgama standpoint, practicing the true Dharma does not depend on a specific time or place—you can practice it anywhere, anytime. The Platform Sūtra states:

The one-practice samādhi means: at all times, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, you practice with a steady, upright mind. … If you can hold an upright mind without attaching to any dharma at all, this is called the one-practice samādhi. Deluded people cling to dharmic characteristics and grasp at the one-practice samādhi as a fixed rule, claiming outright: "Sitting perfectly still, eradicating all false thoughts, not raising the mind at all—this is the one-practice samādhi." If this were true, this Dharma would be no different from the state of an insentient object, and would actually be a condition that blocks the path.

Here the Sixth Patriarch makes clear that practice has to extend to every moment of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. Whatever dharma you encounter in the present—the eye seeing form, the ear hearing sound—you maintain an upright mind, without giving rise to attachment, greed, or hatred. If you cling only to "sitting motionless" as practice, you can’t apply it to daily life at all—it becomes a condition that blocks the path instead. That’s why the Sixth Patriarch valued practice woven into everyday life. When the six sense bases (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) come into contact with the six sense objects (form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas), giving rise to the six consciousnesses (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind consciousness), you must remain unattached. He says:

The Dharma of no-thought means: see all dharmas, yet attach to none; pervade all places, yet attach to nowhere. Constantly purify your own nature, so the six consciousnesses move out through the six gates, move among the six sense objects without separation or stain, coming and going freely. This is prajñā samādhi. To be at ease and liberated is called the practice of no-thought.

So at every moment, you remain unattached to all dharmas: whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, at the very instant a sense base contacts a sense object, no defilement arises. This is precisely the prajñā samādhi and the practice of no-thought. The crux of practice is simply this: when the six sense bases contact the six sense objects, is your mind scattered or at peace? The Platform Sūtra says:

Contact happens only because objects arise, and contact brings turmoil. When you are apart from marks and untroubled, this is concentration (dhyāna). Being apart from marks outwardly is chán; being untroubled inwardly is dìng (concentration). Outer chán and inner dìng together are called chán-dìng.

This makes clear that chán-dìng (meditative concentration) is simply keeping the mind from scattering, holding right mindfulness and right knowing, while going about everyday activities of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. This kind of meditative concentration also appears in the Āgama. The Madhyama Āgama’s "Sūtra on Mindfulness" records:

If a monk is not prone to forgetfulness and has right understanding, he cultivates right mindfulness and right knowing. With right mindfulness and right knowing, he cultivates guarding the faculties, keeping the precepts, freedom from regret, joy, ease, tranquility, pleasure, and concentration…

So as long as you maintain right mindfulness and right knowing (right understanding) whenever the sense bases contact their objects, you can guard the six sense faculties, keep the precepts, and eventually give rise to concentration. This concentration arises directly from holding right mindfulness and right knowing in everyday life. From the foregoing discussion of the one-practice samādhi, the prajñā samādhi, and the "practice of no-thought," one can discern their shared feature: they are unbound by time—you remain unattached to all dharmas whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down. It is worth stressing that the "samādhi" discussed here is a dynamic, active form of concentration, not the still, motionless sitting people often imagine. The Sixth Patriarch’s Chan teaching is exactly what the Āgama describes: holding right mindfulness and right knowing while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, guarding the faculties and precepts, and giving rise to concentration and wisdom.

3. The Spirit of Self-Awakened Realization and Direct Knowing

From an Āgama standpoint, the true Dharma has to be personally realized, not left at the level of mere hearing and contemplation. The Platform Sūtra says:

"Do not argue over words. You must cultivate yourself."

At the stage of hearing and contemplation, people often argue over doctrine. Even if you win an argument and prove the truth, if you don’t put it into practice, you still cycle through the three realms. The Sixth Patriarch also says:

1. Cultivate yourself, practice yourself; the Dharma-body is your self-nature. Practice the Buddha-path yourself, and you will complete the Buddha-way yourself.
2. Constantly humble your mind in conduct, revere all beings, turn away from deluded grasping toward awakening and knowing, give rise to prajñā, and remove deluded confusion. In this way, you awaken to the Buddha-path and complete it.

This practice-first style runs through the entire Āgama-sūtras. Almost all of the Buddha’s disciples moved straight from hearing and contemplation into real practice, realizing the fruit they were destined to attain. The Sixth Patriarch also stresses the importance of actual realization here, but notes that you need the guidance of a good spiritual friend along the way. He says:

If you cannot awaken yourself, you must seek out a great spiritual friend to show you the path and help you see your true nature. … The Buddhas of the three times and the twelvefold division of the sūtras are also present within human nature; they are fundamentally your own possession. But if you cannot awaken yourself, you need a spiritual friend to show you the path and help you see your true nature.

But you cannot rely only on "external spiritual friends." You still have to look inward for yourself to attain liberation. The Sixth Patriarch continues:

If you look outside yourself for a spiritual friend, hoping to gain liberation that way, it will never happen. Recognize the spiritual friend within your own mind, and you will be liberated. If your own mind is twisted by wrong delusion, full of confused, inverted false thoughts, even an external spiritual friend’s teaching cannot save you. If you cannot awaken yourself, you must turn on the light of prajñā’s insight; in an instant, all false thoughts are extinguished—and this is your own true spiritual friend.

Here the Sixth Patriarch stresses that recognizing the spiritual friend within your own mind is the key to liberation.

4. Other Points

From an Āgama standpoint, the true Dharma has six defining characteristics: (1) present-life realization, (2) practice unbound by time, (3) self-awakened direct knowing, (4) penetrating realization, (5) direct seeing here and now, and (6) freedom from all burning (see Saṃyuktam Āgama Sūtras 1238, 215, 550, etc.). We have covered the first three above. "Penetrating realization" means that by practicing the true Dharma, you can move step by step along the path and its fruits toward the goal of nirvāṇa. "Direct seeing here and now (only this is to be seen)" means only by following the true Dharma can you move toward nirvāṇa; it can also be read as: observing the five aggregates of body and mind is something anyone can do. "Freedom from all burning" means practicing the true Dharma lets you extinguish the fire of inner suffering. These latter three are also central to the Platform Sūtra. The four great vows the Sixth Patriarch gives are:

Sentient beings are boundless—I vow to deliver them all… The sentient beings within the mind each deliver themselves through their own self-nature.

Afflictions are boundless—I vow to cut them all off: by removing false delusion from my own mind.

Dharma gates are boundless—I vow to learn them all: by learning the supreme true Dharma.

Supreme Buddhahood—I vow to realize it: by constantly humbling the mind in conduct, revering all beings, turning away from deluded grasping toward awakening and knowing, giving rise to prajñā, and removing deluded confusion, until I awaken to the Buddha-path and complete it.

This makes clear that the Sixth Patriarch places the focus of practice squarely on the practitioner’s own present body and mind, not on some distant future realm. All of this is fully in line with the Āgama spirit.

As for the Platform Sūtra’s statements that "the original nature is self-purifying and self-concentrating," "the self-nature is without wrong, without turmoil, without folly," and "within one’s own mind, one suddenly manifests the true suchness of one’s true nature"—what do "original nature" and "self-nature" refer to here? The debate during the sectarian period over whether "the mind’s nature is originally pure, defiled only by adventitious dust" touches on the exact same question. Here is one way to explain it: When a practitioner has subdued the five hindrances within, and successively reaches access concentration (anāgamya) and the first dhyāna, the mind becomes luminous, free from the active presence of the five hindrances. The habitual tendencies of the three poisons have not yet been eradicated, but the practitioner can experience the luminosity and peace of this mind, which they call "original nature" or "self-nature." This is like clear water after sediment has settled: the impurities are still there, but what appears is a clear, transparent state. Once the practitioner has this experience, they develop deep faith in "original nature" and "self-nature," and move forward with greater energy to the next stage, eradicating the habitual tendencies of the three poisons to enter the holy stages and ultimately attain the final fruit.

Because sentient beings have different capacities, the Āgama speaks of two types of practitioners: the "faith-follower" (śraddhānusārin) and the "Dharma-follower" (dharmānusārin). The Dharma-follower first studies the principles of the sūtras before practicing. The faith-follower, by contrast, has not deeply penetrated the principles, and focuses primarily on practice itself. From this angle, the Platform Sūtra has the style of a "faith-follower" text. The sūtras the Sixth Patriarch studied were mostly Mahāyāna, but his explanations quietly align with the Āgama spirit—a fascinating phenomenon.

(Published in Faguang Magazine 144, 2001)

Finally, here are the core insights of the Platform Sūtra:

1. The ground of self-nature, observed with wisdom, is luminous within and without. If you discern your own original mind, that itself is liberation; having attained liberation, that itself is prajñā samādhi. To awaken to prajñā samādhi is to abide in no-thought.
2. What is "no-thought"? The Dharma of no-thought means: see all dharmas, yet attach to none; pervade all places, yet attach to nowhere. Constantly purify your own nature, so the six consciousnesses move out through the six gates, moving among the six sense objects without separation or stain, coming and going freely. This is prajñā samādhi: at ease, liberated, called the practice of no-thought. Do not think that not thinking of anything at all, cutting off all thought, is the Dharma. This is binding, and is called a "view of extremes."
3. The one-practice samādhi means: at all times, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, practice with a steady upright mind. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: "The upright mind is the bodhimaṇḍa; the upright mind is the Pure Land." Do not let your mind act crookedly while your mouth speaks of straight Dharma; do not just mouth the words of the one-practice samādhi without practicing the upright mind—you are no disciple of the Buddha. But if you practice the upright mind, unattached to any dharma at all, this is called the one-practice samādhi.
4. Good spiritual friends! In my Dharma gate from time immemorial, I have established both sudden and gradual approaches, with: (1) no-thought as the guiding principle, (2) no-form as the essential nature, (3) no-abiding as the foundational basis.
5. What is "no-form"? No-form means being apart from form even while surrounded by form. What is "no-thought"? No-thought means not grasping at thoughts even as thoughts arise. What is "no-abiding"? No-abiding is the fundamental nature of all people: thought follows thought without stopping, without break. The thought before, the thought now, the thought after—thought follows thought in an unbroken stream. If even one thought is cut off, the Dharma-body immediately separates from the physical body. At every moment, in relation to all dharmas, there is no abiding. If one thought abides, every thought abides—this is called bondage. In relation to all dharmas, if every thought does not abide, there is no bondage. This is what we mean by taking no-abiding as the foundation. Good spiritual friends! To be apart from all form outwardly is no-form. But if you can only let go of form, and your nature-body is pure, this is taking no-form as the substance.
6. Not being stained by any situation is called no-thought: on your own thought, turn away from situations, do not give rise to thoughts anchored in dharmas. Do not think that if you stop all thought, when thought ends you will die and be reborn somewhere else. Students of the path, be careful! Do not misunderstand the meaning of the Dharma. Erring yourself is one thing, but leading others astray while blind to your own delusion, and slandering the sūtras and the Dharma to boot—this is why no-thought is established as the guiding principle.

From all this, we can see the most fundamental insight of the Chan school is:

No-thought = prajñā samādhi = one-practice samādhi = Being present in all times, seeing all dharmas, yet attached to none; = In all times, walking, standing, sitting, lying down, constantly practicing the upright mind; = Unattached to any dharma at all; = Unstained by any situation.