Huineng’s poem — the true teaching of Buddha nature and emptiness

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. <a href="https://medium.com/@universalwisdom/huinengs-poem-the-true-teaching-of-buddha-nature-and-emptiness-c44af04661ea">Learn More</a>