Who Has Understood the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch?

True right faith requires the wisdom of direct perception and observation; otherwise, faith inevitably degenerates into biased belief and blind belief. Even with Buddhist sutras, a person of genuine wisdom should maintain a degree of doubt and seek ways to actually verify them through realization—let alone teachings not spoken by the Buddha?

Quite a few people on the internet claim that the Sixth Patriarch was a Buddha who came again, that his teachings carry the Buddha's realization, and that the Sixth Patriarch had already attained buddhahood. I truly do not know on what basis these people have reached such a definitive conclusion about the Sixth Patriarch. To certify someone as being at the level of a university professor, one must be at a level even higher than that professor—at the very least, of equal standing—before one can grant such certification. Nowadays, it seems that sentient beings in this Dharma-ending age have all already attained buddhahood, and then, with the wisdom of a Buddha, they certify that the Sixth Patriarch has become a Buddha and possesses the Buddha's wisdom and realization. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch is a thin little volume; I suspect not a single one of these people can truly understand it—otherwise, none of them would dare to draw such a conclusion.