* This paper was published in Academic Reports of the

University Center for Intercultural Education, the

University of Shiga Prefecture, December 1996.

The Problem of Practice in Shen-huis Teaching of
Sudden Enlightenment

Hoyu Ishida

After Bodhidharma (d. 532), the First Patriarch of Chinese Chan Buddhism, Hui-
neng (638-713) is traditionally considered the most important figure in the history of
Chan and Zen Buddhism. He is regarded as the Sixth Patriarch by the tradition which has
dominated most of the major trends of the Chan and Zen movement in China and Japan
up to the present day. Shen-hui (670-762), a disciple of Hui-neng, greatly contributed to
the dominance of Hui-nengs school and its later development with his teaching of sudden
enlightenment.
1

Shen-hui claimed that Hui-nengs teaching of direct and sudden enlightenment was
the correct and authentic message transmitted directly from Bodhidharma as originally
taught by the Seven Buddhas through the Patriarchs. He also claimed that the teaching of
Shen-hsiu (605?-706), one of the most influential Chan priests of that time, and the
northern school represented the unorthodox line of the teaching of gradual enlightenment .
In 732 at a debate at the Ta-yn Temple in Hua-tai, Shen-hui argued against the gradual
teaching of Pu-chi (651-739), the successor to Shen-hsiu, and supported the authenticity
or orthodoxy of the southern sudden school. Chuang-yan represented the northern school
at this debate. Shen-huis proposals are summarized by a modern Japanese Zen scholar,
Seizan Yanagida, in four points:

1) Bodhidharma is the founder of the southern school and the one
who transmitted the Chan of the Buddha.
2) Upon having come to China, Bodhidharma met the Emperor of
Liang and rejected his actions of building temples and images,
helping monks, and copying sutras as non-meritorious.
3) When Bodhidharma approved the enlightenment of Hui-ko at the
Shao-lin Temple in Chung-shan, he handed his robe to Hui-ko as a
symbol of the transmission of the Dharma.
4) This robe had been actually handed down to Hui-neng, and he is
the Sixth Patriarch of the correct southern school.
2


Rejecting the gradual approach of enlightenment advocated by Shen-hsiu, Shen-hui
insisted that his interpretation of sudden enlightenment was the true teaching of the Chan,
as transmitted through Hui-neng.

1
Even though there are many biographical accounts of Hui-neng written by his followers, we
still do not have historically reliable resources on his life. For example, we are not sure if Hui-neng was
actually regarded as the Sixth Patriarch during his time. In this paper, I will not examine the historicity
of these events, rather I will focus the problems derived from Shen-huis teaching of sudden
enlightenment.
2
See Zen no rekishi-Chgoku, ed. by Nishitani Keiji (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1967), p. 38.
Hoyu ISHIDA

2
By rejecting the gradual notion of the northern school, however, Shen-hui falls into
a pragmatic problem. Criticizing the northern schools gradual way of attaining
enlightenment as yet another obstacle to actual realization, Shen-hui maintained that
humans are originally enlightened. Thus, enlightenment does not come about as long as
one is caught in the teaching and still attached to being enlightened as the message of
gradual school suggested. According to Shen-hui, one is enlightened just as one is, without
the need to struggle. Shen-hui rejects the northern schools use of concentration as a
method, claiming that such practice will not lead one to the goal of enlightenment. Rather,
one has only to become suddenly and immediately aware of ones true nature, which is
originally enlightened. Because there is nothing wrong with person from the beginning, the
method of concentration as a means to enlightenment remains an un-enlightened technique,
since it is still a method of attachment to external teaching.
Clearly such a critique raises the question of what is practice for followers of Shen-
hui. Traditionally practice is a method or means by which one attains enlightenment. It has
always been a very important part of Buddhist teaching.
3
But when practice as a means is
denied, what can one practically do to obtain or realize enlightenment? Is Shen-hui
suggesting a different kind of practice, some kind of sudden practice, instead of the
traditional practice of Buddhism? If so, then what is this sudden practice? If it is a practice,
does it also serve as a means for the attainment of enlightenment? If so, then isnt this
practice also gradual, i.e. used as a means to an end? We will examine these questions in
light of Shen-huis sudden teaching, especially concerning the notion of practice.
4


( I )
Shen-hui summarized the gradual approach of the northern school in his famous
four verses, which clarified the position of this school regarding meditation practice. These
verses say that one is to 1) enter into samdhi by concentrating ones mind, 2) view
tranquility by settling ones mind, 3) illuminate outwardly by arousing ones mind, and 4)
verify inwardly by controlling ones mind.
5
It is this position that Shen-hui rejected. He
maintained that such meditation practice was for low-level people, and argued that no
Patriarch from Bodhidharma ever attained enlightenment in this manner.
6
According to
Shen-huis position as long as one tries by any form, such as the method of concentrating,
settling, arousing, and controlling, one is still attached to the very fact that one is trying.
7


3
There are three types of learning, la (precepts), samdhi ("meditation"), and praj
(wisdom) which include all the aspects of Buddhist teaching and practice.
4
In Sudden and Gradual in the Division Between the Northern and Southern Lines of Chan
Buddhism, a paper presented at a conference held at the Institute for Transcultural Studies in May 22-24,
1981, Robert B. Zeuschner gives three traditionally different phrases regarding the question of
gradual: gradual teaching, gradual cultivation, and gradual enlightenment. In my paper, however, I do
not specifically classify what kind of gradualness Shen-hui is attributing to the teaching of the northern
school.
5
These four verses often appear in the Pu-ti-ta-mo Nan-tsung ting Shih-fei lun. For example,
see Hu Shih, Shen-hui ho-shang i-chi (Shanghai, 1930), pp. 285-288. These verses appear once in the
Nan-yang ho-shang tun-chiao-chieh-to chan-men chih-liao-hsing tan-y (hereafter cited as the
Sermon of Shen-hui or the Sermon). See Hu Shih, p. 239.
6
Hu Shih, p. 286.
7
Shen-hui says in the Sermon that if you try to attain enlightenment as the four verses suggest,
your mind is not a mind of liberation (or freedom) but a mind bound by the Dharma, which is of no use.
The Problem of Practice in Shen-huis Teaching of Sudden Enlightenment 3

For Shen-hui the highest teaching is a sudden enlightenment where one unintentionally
becomes aware of his or her Buddha nature, which is originally inherent in the person.
This awareness is obtained by giving up all the practices and just seeing into ones true
nature. For the deluded mind an obstacle to enlightenment is the attachment to the attempt
to get rid of that delusion. Attachment takes place as soon as one attempts to overcome it.
Using the metaphor of polishing (practice) a mirror (Buddha nature), the gradual approach
tried to polish the mirror in order to make it clean. According to the sudden approach,
however, since the mirror is originally clean as it is, the act of polishing it only makes it
dirtier.
Both the gradual and the sudden schools accepted the notion of the Buddha nature.
8

According to the northern gradual school, as defined by Shen-hui, the Buddha nature can
be understood as something like a possibility or a seed of becoming a Buddha. One attains
enlightenment by making this possibility a reality. Just as a seed grows, so a person can
become enlightened through practices of concentration. On the other hand, according to
the southern sudden school, the Buddha nature is enlightenment itself. All one needs for
enlightenment is simply to become aware of the Buddha nature one already is. Any
attempt to become enlightened is seen as a deluded struggle. Rather one has to cast away
all attempts to realize Buddha nature. At the very moment of casting away everything and
thereby seeing into ones real nature, one is enlightened--the Buddha nature manifests or
reveals itself suddenly.
In the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch,
9
the differences between Hui-neng
(southern sudden) and Shen-hsiu (northern gradual) is clearly demonstrated. One day the
Fifth Patriarch Hung-jen summoned his disciples and told them to write a verse. He told
them that he would give the person who wrote an awakened verse the robe and the Dharma
as a sign of enlightenment as well as the position of the Sixth Patriarch. Because Shen-hsiu
was the head monk and the most intelligent student, the rest of the monks did not have the
courage to write a verse. Knowing this and even wondering if he should write a verse,
Shen-hsiu finally decided to compose one. He secretly wrote his verse on the central
section of the south corridor wall:

The body is the Bodhi tree,
The mind is like a clear mirror.
At all times we must strive to polish it,
And must not let the dust collect.
10


Reading the verse, Hung-jen realized that Shen-hsiu still had not attained enlightenment.

See Hu Shih, p. 239.
8
I am not insisting here that Chan doctrine is solely based on the theory of the Buddha nature.
I am using this theory as a model to give a clearer picture of the difference between the gradual and
sudden positions and teachings.
9
The text was written by Shen-hui or some later group. See three theories presented by Carl
Bielefeldt and Lewis Lancaster, Tan Ching (Platform Scripture) Philosophy East and West, vol. 25,
no. 2, pp. 200-201. This text was probably composed much later than the works of Shen-hui.
10
My citation from the Platform Sutra, comes from the translation by Philip B. Yampolsky,
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 130. The
rest of the citation from other sources is my own.
Hoyu ISHIDA

4
Even so Hung-jen called all his disciples to practice and revere the verse, because it was
good for common peoples practice. By practicing according to this verse they would not
fall into the three realms of evils.
11
While Hui-neng was pounding rice, his work at the
temple, he heard a boy recite this verse. Hui-neng asked the boy to take him to the wall and
because the boy was illiterate had someone else write his verses:

Bodhi originally has no tree,
The mirror also has no stand.
Buddha nature is always clean and pure;
Where is then room for dust?

The mind is the Bodhi tree,
The body is the mirror stand.
The mirror is originally clean and pure;
Where can it be stained by dust?
12


Hung-jen, realizing that Hui-neng was awakened, secretly transmitted the Dharma of
sudden enlightenment, the robe, and the position of the Sixth Patriarch. The difference
between Shen-hsiu and Hui-neng is clear: Shen-hsiu urges one to polish the mirror
(Buddha nature) in order not to let the dust collect, while Hui-neng claims that since the
mirror is originally clean and pure, there is no need to polish it--one is already enlightened
as he or she is.
It is possible, though dangerous, to conclude here that according to the southern
school one does not have to do or should not do anything at all to be enlightened, because
if one tries to do something, like polishing the mirror, it is still attachment, like staining the
mirror. Thus, giving up everything and doing nothing at all, like a dead person, is the best
way because doing-nothing does not stain ones originally pure and clean nature.
13
While
this radical interpretation is logically and theoretically possible, it is not correct. Hui-
nengs verses do not say that we do not do anything at all. Rather they advocate an
enlightened experience obtained by realizing ones originally enlightened mind. What is
opposed is Shen-hsius style of being caught in an attachment to his own intentional
endeavor, which prevents a person from seeing his or her true nature. Hence, Hui-neng and
Shen-hui reject the notion of striving for enlightenment because the intentionality, which is
attachment, negates the very attempt. But this rejects gradual practice, without which a
practicer cannot even begin trainin

( II )
Thus the central problem of the sudden school lies in its notion of practice. While
in the northern school of gradual enlightenment as propounded by Shen-hsiu, practice is
explicit (concentrating, settling, arousing, and controlling ones mind), in the southern

11
The three lower realms in samsra are the hells, hungry ghosts, and animals which one
experiences as a result of evil acts.
12
Yampolsky, p. 132.
13
We might even say that we do not even need Buddhism or any other teaching, if we are
Buddhas or enlightened ones from the very beginning.
The Problem of Practice in Shen-huis Teaching of Sudden Enlightenment 5

school, there is no specific notion of practice, because it rejects practice as preventing one
from seeing into his or her true nature. For the southern school we just become aware of
our true nature without any intentional attempt or method of practice. If we faithfully
follow the southern school position, we must realize that if we try to become aware of
our true nature (it seems one has to try at some point), this very attempt becomes the
practice that Shen-hui rejects as preventing us from actually seeing our true nature. The
southern school tells us that such attempts will not work. Because we must begin
somewhere, we confront the problem of the sudden teaching.
One of the important concepts of the southern school is wu-nien or no-thought,
which is used to convey the idea of true thought or thought without attachment. As the
main doctrine of the Platform Sutra, no-thought is to be unstained in all environments.
14

The text further explains:

The Dharma of no-thought means: even though you see all things,
you do not attach to them, but, always keeping your own nature pure,
cause the six thieves to exit through the six gates. Even though you
are in the midst of the six dusts, you do not stand apart from them, yet
are not stained by them, and are free to come and go.
15


No-thought is, therefore, neither a human construct nor an intentional method like
concentration for the attainment of enlightenment, rather it is natural, free, unbounded
thought. The text continues by saying that being free and having achieved release is
known as the practice of no-thought; however, if you cause your thought to be cut off,
you will be bound in the Dharma,
16
which points to the fact that intentional methods
prevent a person from seeing his or her true nature.
Following the Platform Sutra, Shen-hui claims that Tathat is the substance (or
essence) of no-thought.... If there is someone who sees into no-thought, although he is
accompanied by seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing, [his thought is] always empty and
tranquil.
17
Thus, no-thought is un-intentional and non-purposive. It is identical with the
Buddha nature as the function of Tathat, because Tathat is its substance. Therefore, if
one becomes aware of no-thought, ones mind becomes empty and, thus, enlightened. For
Shen-hui, in the experience of no-thought, la, samdhi, and praj simultaneously
become identical, ten thousand practices are endowed with, and ones knowledge becomes
the same as knowledge of Tathgata....
18
Therefore, in becoming aware of ones true
nature--being free and having achieved release, all the practice that is needed--the
practice of no-thought is contained in the moment. In this enlightened experience, there is
no difference among la, samdhi, and praj. For Shen-hui this practice is direct,
immediate, and sudden, taking place spontaneously. Thus, the enlightened experience,
which is clearly different from the gradual practice used as a means for enlightenment, is
not a means. The experience simply happens--sudden practice.

14
Yampolsky, p. 138.
15
Ibid., p. 153.
16
Ibid., p. 153.
17
Hu Shih, pp. 240-241.
18
Ibid., p. 241.
Hoyu ISHIDA

6
The problem of practice is not yet solved, however, because no-thought or un-
intentional thought takes place only after or at the time of ones experiencing
enlightenment. The question still remains of what one should do before this experience of
no-thought in order to realize enlightenment? The question for practicers is that of practice
itself, i.e., what means will lead to enlightenment? What can one do when practice as a
means is denied? This question seems to arise from the claims made about the Buddha
nature and the originally enlightened conditions of humans.

( III )
When kyamuni the Buddha realized enlightenment some 2500 years ago in India,
there was no specific teaching on the Buddha nature or original enlightenment. The
Buddha, at least, did not realize enlightenment via the doctrine of the Buddha nature, as
later developed. He reportedly became awakened through dhyna or samdhi, realizing the
principle of prattysamutpda (dependent coarising). Buddhas discovery was that life is
fundamentally duhkha (suffering) and the cause of suffering is an ignorance or
attachment to whatever is impermanent. Because everything is impermanent and transient,
suffering is inevitable because of the human craving to attach to the impermanent world,
including his or her ego self. The goal of the Buddhas teaching, then, is to get rid of
suffering by becoming liberated from it, thereby attaining nirvna or enlightenment. The
inevitability of suffering is explained through the teaching of cause and effect. For
example, the Twelve-fold Formula of Causation traces the cause of old age and death, the
cause of fundamental suffering, back to ignorance and teaches that we can become
liberated from suffering by getting rid of ignorance.
19

By examining the way of attaining enlightenment in early Buddhism, we see that
the idea of the Buddha nature was not specifically spelled out and that the point of
teaching is to get rid of, or become free from, ignorance. This appears to be a very gradual
teaching. After the Buddha entered into Mahparinirvna, his followers gradually
developed an idea that humans are originally good at least in terms of being capable of
attaining enlightenment, otherwise a person could not become a Buddha. Ideas such as
tathgata-garbha
20
and the Buddha nature were introduced and developed, especially by
Mahyna Buddhists.
At the beginning of the development of these ideas, the Buddha nature was
understood as a possibility or something like a seed which grows as one cultivates it to
Buddhahood. With this assumption, Buddhists practiced, in the gradual sense, working for
their seeds to bloom fully. Without practice one could not achieve the highest goal of
Buddhahood. Without practice one remained in the realm of samsra or birth-and-death,
caught in ignorance. We find this idea of practice explicitly stated in the well-known

19
See for example, David J. Kalupahana, Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism
(Honolulu: The University of Hawaii, 1975), p. 141.
20
A notion of tathgatagarbha is explained by Diana Paul in The Concept of
Tathgatagarbha in the rmldev Stra (Sheng-men ching) JAOS 99.2 (1979), p. 191: The
compound tathgatagarbha (ju-lai-tsang) has two constituents, tathgata signifying thus come or
thus gone, designating a Buddha, and garbha signifying womb, inside, middle, interior of
anything...a fetus or embryo, child, brood. Tathgatagarbha would then signify the womb or the
embryo of the Tathgata. The potentiality of becoming a Tathgata is represented by the fetus or
embryo nature of garbha.
The Problem of Practice in Shen-huis Teaching of Sudden Enlightenment 7

Mahyna text, Mahparinirvna-stra, to which even Shen-hui often refers to
substantiate his position of a persons capacity for enlightenment.
As the idea of the Buddha nature developed, it was enlarged from just a possibility
(seed) to the claim that one is already and originally enlightened. Thus, the path for
Buddhists became the realization of ones original nature as he or she already is. If one
attempts to polish his or her original nature, the very attempt becomes a sign of not
understanding ones true nature and an obstruction actually seeing it. The more this idea of
the Buddha nature is stressed, the less important the gradual process becomes.
Shen-huis teaching of sudden realization that one is already always a Buddha is
the most extreme form of this type of Buddhism. Rather than a search for enlightenment
via a gradual cultivation, Shen-hui proposes a realization of the reality that one is already
fully enlightened due to ones original nature.
Even though Shen-hui argues for no-thought as the practice of the sudden teaching,
we must argue that we cannot reject the gradual approach to practice. While the sudden
teaching is an awakened experience, the gradual practice is necessary before the
experience of enlightenment. Even in the gradual approach to practice, when one attains
enlightenment it is always sudden and immediate at that moment. In the sudden teaching
one needs to start with something, a practice of some sort, which in practice is always
gradual, otherwise one does nothing. Thus, what Shen-hsiu advocates is really the
realization experience itself after one goes through gradual practices.
21
When one finally
gives up the practice, which can only be done through practice, one realizes his or her true
nature. At this moment the Buddha nature reveals itself within ones mind as ones true
self. But it is this method of the northern school that Shen-hui explicitly rejects.
Shen-huis rejection of the northern school seems to have been the result of a
serious conflict between the two schools. Whatever the actual conflict was, Shen-hui put
too much emphasis on sudden teaching which rejected the human effort of gradual practice.
While it is evident that Shen-hui rejects the gradual practice as a means to reach
enlightenment, we still need to examine if he also rejects gradual teaching in terms of
gradual enlightenment.
22
Gradual enlightenment can be understood as a series of
enlightening experiences which get deeper and deeper as one realizes or awakens to
oneself. Sudden enlightenment, on the other hand, is the direct and final awareness at one
moment. If Shen-hui rejects gradual enlightenment in his critique of the northern school,
then there is a contradiction in Shen-hui and the southern school. In the Platform Sutra, for
example, Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch, experiences different levels of awakening. In his
youth, upon hearing the Diamond Sutra, Hui-neng recalls that his mind became clear and
he was awakened--initially awakened. He was immediately awakened again when he heard
the Fifth Patriarch expounding the Diamond Sutra. When Hui-neng left the temple after
receiving the robe and Dharma as the Sixth Patriarch, he was again instantly enlightened.

21
In fact, the Platform Sutra admits that the gradual teaching of Shen-hsiu is good for
common peoples practice, since they will not fall in the three realms of evils if they practice according
to the verse Shen-hsiu composed on the wall. Hung-jen, for example, summons his disciples and tells
them to burn incense before the verse.
Although the Platform Sutra puts down the northern school, it is not extremely critical of
gradual practice. We find many accounts which suggest a gradual approach, especially toward the end
of the text.
22
This is similar to Zeuschners third classification of gradual.
Hoyu ISHIDA

8
These episodes in the life of Hui-neng evidence gradual enlightenment and illustrate the
contradiction within the southern school.
One way to explain Hui-nengs gradual enlightenment is that the Platform Sutra
was written much later than Shen-huis works.
23
When Shen-hui was preaching (or
writing) his Sermon, he had to emphasize the sudden teaching because the northern school
was influential. At the time of completion of the Platform Sutra, however, the message of
Shen-hui had gained the upper hand over the northern school. Therefore, the southern
school could adopt Hui-nengs gradual deepening awakening, because there was no threat
of being criticized by the northern school which had declined in influence.
24

One could argue that Hui-nengs series of awakenings were episodes of the same
enlightenment, not a gradual process of deepening his enlightenment. One could also argue
that these different enlightenment experiences were used to demonstrate the superiority of
the Diamond Sutra over the Lankvatra Sutra, the primary text of the northern school,
since Hui-nengs awakening episodes were frequently associated with the Diamond Sutra.
While these are possible interpretations the fact still remains that the text explicitly
presents that Hui-neng had different awakening experiences.

Concluding Perspectives
We have seen that in terms of practice, if one over-emphasizes the sudden teaching
based on an original Buddha nature, then one of necessity ignores gradual practice as a
means to enlightenment. It would seem, then, that one should do nothing in order to reach
enlightenment. From the evidence we have, it appears that Shen-hui emphasized the
suddenness of enlightenment in order to establish his school against the northern
gradualists. This need to establish differences between these schools seems to have led him
to over-emphasize sudden enlightenment and to reject practice as a means to
enlightenment. I would argue that he is right in claiming that in the experience of
enlightenment, practice itself is an enlightened experience, therefore practice is no longer
used as a means for the attainment of enlightenment. But Shen-hui does not provide much
help for those who have not yet had this experience of enlightenment, seemingly leaving
us with no means or method to reach that end.
While Shen-hui does not provide explicit practical aids for practice, on careful
reading of his works, we find an indication of a form of practice. What Shen-hui suggests
is that we just become aware of whatever occurs in our minds. For example, when
afflicted mind arise, become aware of it, because this awareness is the original nature of
non-abiding-mind.
25
Here he seems to be indicating that just becoming aware of ones
afflicted mind itself is a kind of practice. One becomes enlightened when one really sees
his or her mind, since this mind, though afflicted before realization, is originally pure and
enlightened in its essence. If this is a practice, it clearly differs from that of Shen-hsiu who
advocates a concentration of ones mind. Rather than concentration, Shen-hsiu proposes
becoming aware of ones afflicted mind, i.e. seeing into ones own original nature. But if

23
The Tun-huang manuscript, the oldest surviving version of the Platform Sutra, was written
sometimes between 830-860. See Yampolsky, p. 90. Shen-hui lived between 670 to 762.
24
Pu-chi, the great successor to Shen-hui, passed away in 739 and a debate between Shen-hui
and Chuang-yueh took place in 732. The northern school died out in the 9th century. See Yampolsky, p.
37.
25
Hu Shih, p. 249.
The Problem of Practice in Shen-huis Teaching of Sudden Enlightenment 9

Shen-huis awareness is a practice, the essential problem is not resolved. Trying to
become aware of ones afflicted mind inevitably becomes a human endeavor, something
like concentration before realization, which is what Shen-hui argued prevents one from
becoming aware. Without some kind of gradual practice as a means, there is no place for
practicers to begin. Therefore, I would argue that practice and enlightenment cannot be
separated,
26
practice is a method for the attainment of enlightenment before ones actual
realization and practice is equal to enlightenment only when one is enlightened. From this
perspective, Shen-huis position seems to lack adequate method. But his teaching of
sudden awakening correctly points to the enlightened experience as the core of Buddhism.























26
We find an explicit idea of practice and authentication are the same, advocated by a
Japanese Soto Zen founder, Dgen, and called shush-itt. See Hoyu Ishida, Genjkan: Some
Literary and Interpretative Problems of Its translation in Scientific Reports of Shiga Prefectural Junior
College No. 34, September 1988, pp. 77-88.