This gatha comes from the Sixth Patriarch’s Tan Sutra, the first paragraph! Hui Neng went to see Master Nin, the Fifth Patriarch, to seek help. The Fifth Patriarch asked his disciples to write a stanza to see if they could achieve enlightenment or see their true nature. If someone writes a gatha well, is truly enlightened and can see his true nature, and is worthy of being used as a magical instrument, then the ancestral throne will be passed on to him. Master Shenxiu was under the Fifth Patriarch at that time and was the teacher. Write a verse on the wall: "The body is a Bodhisattva tree, and the mind is like a bright mirror. I always brush it diligently to prevent it from causing dust!" After seeing the verse, Huineng also asked someone to write a verse on his behalf: "There is no Bodhi tree, and the mirror is also There is nothing in the non-Taiwan, so how can it cause dirt?" The Fifth Patriarch then secretly taught the Dharma and paid the mantle and bowl to the Sixth Patriarch Huineng!
The meaning of this stanza is: Bodhi is formless and formless. If you are still attached to a bodhi tree, there will still be no separation. Bodhi is realized by the mind, not by the body. The same is true for the heart, which is formless and shapeless, yet it can generate all-purpose wonderful methods. The mind manifests all kinds of situations, phenomena, and dharmas according to the conditions, and it cannot be fixed with a certain image. The true original mind of Buddha nature does not establish any thoughts to be attached to, nor does it establish any purity or defilement. It disappears in one life, increases and decreases, goes away and comes... Therefore, the mind of non-attachment is a clear mirror, which is the mind of opposition, the mind of discrimination, and the mind of choosing and rejecting.
The original mind is inherently pure and empty, meaning it is not stained by a single dharma. Where does the dust come from? Why bother trying?
The realm of this stanza is that of an enlightened person. Bodhi is formless and formless, and the heart is also formless and formless. Originally all dharmas are illusions and nothing is real. What stirs up dust and does not stir up dust?