Huineng

Huineng, whose family name was Lu, was born in 638 at Xinzhou in Lingnan, in present-day Guangdong. His father died when he was small, and he supported his mother by selling firewood; he could not read. One day in the market he heard someone reciting the Diamond Sutra and was suddenly awakened. He went north to Huangmei to see Hongren, the Fifth Patriarch of Chan, and pounded rice in the monastery for eight months. When the patriarch asked each disciple to write a verse showing his understanding, Huineng had someone write for him: 'Bodhi originally has no tree, the bright mirror has no stand; originally there is not a single thing, where could dust alight?' That night the patriarch secretly gave him the robe and bowl. After fifteen years in hiding in the south, he taught at Guangzhou and Shaozhou and founded the Southern school of 'sudden awakening'; he is honoured as the Sixth Patriarch of Chan.