Huineng’s poem — the true teaching of Buddha nature and emptiness
Poem
Huineng’s poem on Buddha-nature reads:
Fundamentally no wisdom-tree exists,
Nor the stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is empty from the beginning,
Where can the dust alight?
Explanation
Why did Huineng’s poem satisfy the Fifth Patriarch? Because he demonstrates the insight into emptiness. If “all is empty from the beginning”, nothing needs to be done. To think the mind needs to be constantly purified is to overlook the doctrine that everything is empty. By realising our original nature is no different from everything else, all ideas, whose reality would contradict this, are recognised as not leading to enlightenment.
Realising all is empty is to realise our original nature. If all is empty, if the form of all is emptiness, the idea there is wisdom, as some distinct category distinguished from non-wisdom, opposes the doctrine of emptiness. The real wisdom is there is no wisdom, no suffering, no enlightenment, as per the Heart Sutra. Huineng is demonstrating a mind which does not cling, and has, therefore, carried over the insight from hearing the Diamond Sutra verse which enlightened him.
Having realised our original nature, it is not something we can forget. To forget would be to not realise our original nature. Realising our original nature is to realise it is our original nature; there was never anything else. Only the idea there was something else — identifying with and as the dust on a mirror. But, really, there is only ever the mirror. Even when a mirror is dusty, that is just the surface; underneath, the mirror is unblemished.
Shenxiu made clear the mirror is a metaphor for the mind with his poem; Huineng continues and responds to his understanding. Whilst Shenxiu sees the mind as a mirror as something that always needs to be polished and wiped clean, Huineng simply sees the mirror, knowing the mirror is self-abiding. Knowing the mind is a mirror, what use is there to wipe or polish? That is essentially what he means by,
Since all is empty from the beginning,
Where can the dust alight [settle]?
The understanding of dust alighting or settling on the mirror is the equivalent to Nyodai’s understanding of water collecting or the moon dwelling. The key terms are dust settling, water collecting, moon dwelling. Settling, collecting, dwelling — all of these terms are used in reference to and describing the action of something. All denote objects of the mind. Objects of the mind obscure our original nature. This is why Huineng says, “Where can the dust alight?” knowing all are empty.
If emptiness is our original nature, there are no objects of the mind. This does not mean we do not see thoughts, but that we recognise we do not need to cling to them, knowing our original nature. To realise we do not need to cling to anything is just as effective as those objects having never arose in the first place. That is why there is the imagery of the dust never settling, water never collecting, moon never dwelling for Huineng and Nyodai.
With a mind informed by its empty nature, thoughts and their objects can come and go, and they are observed. To try and get rid of them or to deem them as pure or impure is to discriminate and cause dust to alight, water to collect, the moon in the water to dwell. It is, therefore, in Nyodai’s context, to fill up an ‘old bucket’ which can only contrive or hold so much.
To have our understanding of ourselves, the world and reality informed by a bucket’s worth of water is a very limited understanding that is based on our identification with that old bucket full of water. But, who is doing the identifying as the old bucket? Realise that and the dustless and brightless mirror is seen and understood, the old bucket gives way, the water falls out and reflection of the moon vanishes! What is left? That is our original nature. It is for this reason Huineng’s answer was sufficient and Shenxiu’s was not.
