眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

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Dharma Teachings

29 May 2018    Tuesday     1st Teach Total 556

Who Has Understood the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch

True right faith requires the wisdom of direct perception/valid direct cognition (pratyakṣa); otherwise, faith inevitably degenerates into biased belief and blind belief. Even with the Buddhist sutras, a person of genuine wisdom should still harbor 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 what he taught carries 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 possess a level of attainment even higher than that professor's; at the very minimum, one must be of comparable level in order to grant such certification. Yet nowadays, sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age all seem to have 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, yet I reckon not a single one of these people can actually understand it—otherwise, none of them would dare to draw such a definitive conclusion.

——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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Without Precepts and Meditative Concentration (Samādhi), There Can Be No Talk of Realization

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