On the fifteenth day of the first month of the first year of the Tang Dynasty Zhongzong Chanlong (705), the Empress Dowager Zetian and Emperor Zhongzong issued an edict saying: "I once invited two masters, Hui'an and Shenxiu, to the palace to make offerings, and often studied the teachings of the One Buddha in my spare time from the complicated government affairs. However, the two masters were very humble and said, "There is a Zen Master Huineng in the south, who has been secretly taught by the Fifth Patriarch Hongren Master, and is the person who transmits the Buddha's heart seal, so you can invite him to come and consult." Now send Xue Jian, the palace attendant, to greet him with an edict. I hope that the master will be merciful and come to Beijing quickly. ”

After receiving the edict, the sixth ancestor said that he was sick and expressed his willingness to live in the mountains and forests for the rest of his life.

Xue Jian said: "The Zen masters in the capital all said: 'If you want to experience the Buddha's way, you must sit in meditation and practice meditation kung fu; It is impossible to attain liberation without meditation. 'I wonder what the master thinks?'

The Sixth Patriarch said, "If you want to understand the Tao from your own heart, how can you be sitting?" It is written: 'If anyone wants to see him from sitting or lying down, he is doing evil things.' Why? For if it comes, it comes from nowhere, and it goes nowhere. 'Birthlessness and non-extinction is the pure meditation of the Buddha, and the emptiness of the Dharma is the pure sitting of the Buddha. There is no way to prove the truth, so what is there to sit or not to sit on?"

Xue Jian said: "After the disciple returns to the capital, the emperor will definitely ask me, hoping that the master will be merciful and instruct the Dharma heart, so that I can hear about the queen mother and the emperor's two palaces, and tell all the people in the capital who are learning the Tao." It's like lighting a lamp, lighting a hundred thousand lamps, so that all the dark places are illuminated, and the light will never end. ”

The Sixth Patriarch said: "There is no distinction between light and darkness in the Tao, and light and darkness are the meaning of the replacement of the old and the new." It is said that there is no end to the light, and there is also an end, because light and darkness are the names established by treating each other. The Vimala Sutra says, 'The Dharma is incomparable because there is no reason to treat it.' ’”

Xue Jian said: "The obvious is like intelligence, and the secret is like trouble. If a person who practices Buddhism does not use the light of wisdom to illuminate the troubles of ignorance, how can he be free from birth and death without beginning and end?"

The Sixth Patriarch said, "Afflictions are Bodhi, not two things, and there is no difference. If we say that we should use the light of wisdom to illuminate the troubles of ignorance, this is the insight of the two vehicles of shravaka and karma, that is, the root mechanism of the metaphor of the sheep cart and the deer cart. No one who has the root nature of the Mahayana of wisdom will make such an opinion. ”

Xue Jian asked, "What is the Mahayana view?"

The Sixth Patriarch said: "Clarity and ignorance are two different things in the eyes of ordinary people, and there is no difference between the nature of an intelligent person who attains it, and this unique nature is true and truthful. The so-called reality has not diminished in the foolishness, nor has it increased in the sages, it will not be scattered when it dwells in troubles, it is not stagnant in meditation, it is not extinguished, it is not constant, it does not come and go, it is not in the middle, it is not inside or outside. It is not born and does not perish, the nature is the same, and it never changes, it is called the Tao. ”

Xue Jian asked again: "What is the difference between what the master said about immortality and immortality and what the outer Tao said?"

The Sixth Patriarch said: "What the outer Tao says about not being born and not being destroyed is that it is to end life by extinction, and it is to be born to appear to be extinguished. What I mean by non-birth and non-perishability is that there is no birth in the first place, and now it doesn't matter about extinction, so unlike the outer paths, if you want to know the gist of the Dharma, you only need to think about all the good and evil dharmas, and you will naturally be able to realize the pure mind and body, clear and silent, and the wonderful use is endless. ”

Xue Jian received instructions and teachings, and suddenly realized, so he thanked the master and said goodbye to the master, returned to the capital, and played the words of the six ancestors to the emperor. On September 3 of the same year, another edict was sent to the six ancestors, saying: "The master is called by old age and illness, and he is willing to cultivate for me in the mountains and forests all his life, which is really a blessing for the country!" The master is like a Vimalaya layman, who lives in the city of Ligaya, promotes Mahayana Buddhism, teaches the Buddha's heart seals, and speaks about the only way. Xue Jian's return to the palace to show the master's instructions to the knowledge is the good root planted by the good and the afterglow, so I can be fortunate to be born and enlightened by the master, and get the wonderful reason of epiphany, thanks to the master Fa'en, I should be grateful!" At the same time, he also presented a grinding robe and a crystal bowl, and ordered Shaozhou to rebuild the temple and give the former residence of the six ancestors as the Guoen Temple.