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The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-neng
- GenresBuddhism
352 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 10, 2006
28 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 14, 2025
This was another translation of Buddhism by Red Pine. This individual has created another analysis and commentary on a sutra about achieving spiritual heightening and emphasizing the emptiness component seen in other sutras. The text was a history specific to the predecessor of Zen, the early Chinese Chan texts about Buddhism that differed from the Indic texts. I have come to enjoy reading these sutras and they way these are arranged and published. I would recommend this to anyone interested in Buddhism. Thanks!
March 8, 2026
- Don’t think that meditation comes first and then gives rise to wisdom or that wisdom comes first and then gives rise to meditation or that meditation and wisdom are separate.
- When you go from one thought to another, don’t become attached to any dharma. Once one thought becomes attached, every thought becomes attached, which is what we call ‘bondage.’
- When the great dragon sends down a heavy rain, and it rains on Jambudvipa until its towns and villages are all swept away like leaves in a stream. But if the same rain falls on the ocean, it isn’t affected.
- When your mind is true, it reads the Lotus. When your mind is false, the Lotus does the reading. When you develop the understanding of a buddha, you read the Lotus. When you develop the understanding of an ordinary being, the Lotus reads you.
- Dark isn’t itself dark. It’s due to light that it’s dark. And light isn’t itself light. It's due to dark that it’s light. Because light changes into dark, and dark gives rise to light, their appearance and disappearance depend on each other.
- Heart Sutra tells us, "Form is not separate from emptiness, and emptiness is not separate from form."
- To practice as a buddha is to be a buddha.
- When you go from one thought to another, don’t become attached to any dharma. Once one thought becomes attached, every thought becomes attached, which is what we call ‘bondage.’
- When the great dragon sends down a heavy rain, and it rains on Jambudvipa until its towns and villages are all swept away like leaves in a stream. But if the same rain falls on the ocean, it isn’t affected.
- When your mind is true, it reads the Lotus. When your mind is false, the Lotus does the reading. When you develop the understanding of a buddha, you read the Lotus. When you develop the understanding of an ordinary being, the Lotus reads you.
- Dark isn’t itself dark. It’s due to light that it’s dark. And light isn’t itself light. It's due to dark that it’s light. Because light changes into dark, and dark gives rise to light, their appearance and disappearance depend on each other.
- Heart Sutra tells us, "Form is not separate from emptiness, and emptiness is not separate from form."
- To practice as a buddha is to be a buddha.
March 18, 2025
This version of Platform Sutra by Red Pine is amazing!
It brings the essence of solid practice, repentance, and zen.
It is easy to read, just like a novel, to guide you through the world of Zen Buddhism.
It brings the essence of solid practice, repentance, and zen.
It is easy to read, just like a novel, to guide you through the world of Zen Buddhism.
November 10, 2025
I like this one! The platform sutra is particularly compelling because it presents an example of an ordinary person becoming the spiritual patriarch instead of an elite. Then the main point is that we all have Buddha nature inside of us all along, but our illusions get in our way.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews