During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Zen spread to the fifth ancestor, Master Hong Ren, who gave lectures in Huangmei, Hubei Province, with more than 500 disciples, especially the great disciple, Master Shen Xiu. Shen Xiu is also considered as the heir to the mantle of Zen Buddhism. Hongren was old and wanted to find an heir among his disciples, so he told his disciples that everyone should make a collection (a poem with Zen meaning), and whoever did it well would pass it on to him. At this time, Shen Xiu wanted to inherit the mantle, but she was afraid that she would do it for the purpose of inheriting the mantle, which violated the artistic conception of Buddhism's inaction. So he got up in the middle of the night and wrote a song on the wall of the yard. Kiko's body is a bodhi tree and his heart is a mirror. Wipe frequently, and don't create dust. The meaning of this song is to always take good care of your own mentality and state of mind, and resist temptation and all kinds of evil spirits through constant practice. It is a mentality of joining the WTO, emphasizing the role of practice. This understanding doesn't quite agree with the epiphany of Zen Mahayana school, so when everyone saw this ji zi the next morning, they all said it was good, and they all guessed that Meixiu did it, and they admired it. Hong Ren didn't make any comments after seeing it. Because he knew that Shen Xiu had not had an epiphany.
At this time, when all the monks in the temple were talking about this ji zi, they were heard by Zen Master Huineng, a fire-fighting monk in the kitchen. Huineng asked others to take him to see this Kiko. It should be noted here that Huineng is illiterate. He can't read. When he heard someone say this Kiko, he said at that time that this person had not understood the real meaning. So he made another Kiko himself and begged others to write it next to the beautiful Kiko. Bodhi has no trees, and the mirror is not a stage. There is nothing, so there is no dust. With this poem, we can see that Huineng is a man of great wisdom (later, some people said that he was reincarnated as the tenth monk), and his poem accords with the idea of Zen epiphany. It is an attitude of being born, which mainly means that the world is empty and everything in the world is an empty word. If the heart is empty, there is no need to resist the temptation from the outside world. Everything passes by the heart without leaving a trace. This is a very high realm of Zen, and those who appreciate this realm are called enlightenment.
When Hongren saw the book, he asked the people around him who wrote it. The people on the side said that it was written by Huineng, so it was called Huineng. In front of him and other monks, they said that it was a mess and nonsense, and they also erased the auspicious words themselves. Then he hit Huineng on the head three times and left. At this time, only Huineng understood the meaning of the Five Ancestors, so he came to Hongren's meditation room in the middle of the night, where Hongren explained to him one of the most important Buddhist classics, the Diamond Sutra, and handed it to him. Then, in order to prevent the honey trap from hurting Huineng, Huineng was allowed to escape overnight. So Huineng went south overnight, lived in seclusion 10, and founded Zen Nanzong in Shaolin Temple in Putian. The next day, when Shen Xiu learned about it, he sent someone to chase Huineng, but he didn't catch up. Later, Shen Xiu became the protector of the Liang Dynasty and founded the Northern Sect of Zen.
Different views on the source of suffering will inevitably lead to different methods of redemption and liberation. Christianity believes that the root of suffering comes from original sin. As descendants of Adam and Eve, as people of God, we can only pray to God and firmly look forward to God's redemption. Buddhism regards desire as the root of all suffering. Although there are 48,000 Buddhists, in the final analysis, it is for enlightenment. In order to transcend the bondage of desire, all methods of practice should be aimed at people's different levels of desire. Three treasures of Buddhism: obeying wisdom, obeying orders, changing from Zen to wisdom, and changing from wisdom to enlightenment to Buddhism. Buddhism has Prajna Paramita. King Kong Prajna Paramita Sutra and Prajna Heart Sutra are both Prajna Paramita Sutra. The so-called Prajna is Bodhi wisdom, Paramita reaches the other shore, and Prajna reaches the other shore of the world with wisdom. For example, the "Six Ancestors Tanjing" said: "There are many paramita in Sanskrit, and this cloud reaches the other shore, which means birth and death, and life and death. If there is a wave in the water, it is called this shore, and there is no birth and death when leaving the country, which is called the other shore. " At the beginning of the Diamond Sutra, the most fundamental question about the heart was put forward: "Why should the cloud live? Why does the cloud subdue its heart? " The Buddha is not shy about this: "If you live like this, you will subdue your heart" (Diamond Sutra). Of course, the meaning of "heart" is very wide, but it mainly refers to people's consciousness and desire. The so-called "five poisons" are greed, ignorance and suspicion, and greed is the first of the five poisons. Another example is the Heart Sutra, which talks about color emptiness. Although it is very abstract, it is all about a "heart". Its "five elements are empty" and "the mind is free from obstacles" are just to make people understand that there is nothing outside the heart, so as to achieve the purpose of meditation and harmony. Therefore, practice is to cultivate the mind. That's what the so-called "heartbeat" of the six ancestors means. Huineng, the sixth ancestor, founded the Zen school and advocated "seeing nature with a clear heart" to realize enlightenment. Religious scholars naturally have a mature explanation for this: "The so-called bright heart is the heart that understands troubles before birth. Trouble followed, with or without ignorance. Not thinking about it is ignorance. The troubles since the robbery began have made you lose your heart. What is a heart without troubles? ..... there is no life and death before life and death. The essence of no life and no death is our bodhicitta, nirvana, truth and Buddhism. We practice with this nirvana-like heart without life and death until we become a Buddha. " (thich nhat hanh: Collected Works of thich nhat hanh, Buddha's Heart (I), translated by Yao Ming of Ming Jie, P 14, Xu Yun's seal sutra collection; This is what the six ancestors said: "Bodhi has no trees, and the mirror is not a stage; There is nothing, so there is no dust. "