What does the whole poem "Where the Dust Settles" mean?

The meaning of this poem is: there was no bodhi tree and no dressing table. There is nothing in my heart, where is the dust?

Original poem:

Bodhi trees have no trees, and the mirror platform is not a platform.

It is nothing, no matter what it is, where will there be any dust?

Source: Tang Huineng's Bodhi Tree.

Poetry appreciation

The third poem, found in the six ancestors' magic weapon altar sutra, is widely circulated and supplemented by the whole Tang poetry. According to the textual research of Guo Peng's Notes on the Tanjing, this article evolved from the first one of Bodhisattva, and the key lies in the third sentence, which was originally cited by the wisdom, and changed from "the Buddha's nature is always pure" to "nothing". This is a misunderstanding, which was criticized as early as the Song Dynasty.

All these are enough to prove that Huineng's ideological system is completely different from the theory that "everything exists and nature is empty". But before this sentence, Huineng said, "Being broad-minded is like emptiness." He attributed everything to "heart", that is, "self-nature". This is a typical subjective idealism view. But in any case, it is not appropriate to equate "Buddha's nature is always pure" with "nothing at all"