Theology
638 to 713 CE, Tang dynasty China
Sudden awakening, and the teaching that your own nature - seen directly - is already Buddha.
Start learning Huineng →The illiterate woodcutter who became the Sixth Ancestor of Chan, and the verse that overturned gradual polishing of the mind for sudden awakening - because there was never any mirror to wipe or dust to settle.
The core practice of the Southern School: jianxing , seeing one's own nature - the teaching that Buddha is not elsewhere or in the future but is your own mind, here, when the projecting and grasping fall away.
Huineng's philosophical heart: samadhi and prajna - meditation and wisdom - are not two things practised in sequence but one reality, like a lamp and its light; and ‘no-thought’ is the awakened mind in motio…
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