六祖壇經

The "Six Patriarch Altar Sutra" records the deeds of Huineng's life-long gaining and teaching of the Dharma and the teaching of his disciples. It is rich in content and popular in writing. It is an important basis for studying the origin of Zen ideology. The earliest Sixth Patriarch Huineng was invited to the Dafan Temple to teach the Maha Prajna Paramita method. Fahai recorded this incident as "Maha Prajna Paramita Sutra, the Sixth Patriarch Huineng's Practice in Dafan Temple, Shaozhou, Volume 1". The "Six Patriarch Altar Sutra" can be divided into three parts. The first part is the teaching of "Maha Prajna Paramita" at Dafan Temple. In the second part, after returning to Caoxi Mountain, he taught "the precept of no phase", so Fahai added "concurrently taught precept of no phase" in the title of the book. At this time, "Tanjing" began to spread, commonly known as "Six Patriarchs". The third part is the question and answer between the Sixth Patriarch and his disciples. The "Six Patriarch Altar Sutra" is the only Chinese Buddhist writing that is honored as "Sutra".

There are three different versions of the "Altar Sutra" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Fangshan Stone Scripture, and the Yuan Dynasty monk Zong Bao in the twenty-eighth year of Yuan Dynasty (1291). They became the Zongbao edition "Altar Sutra", which was later the Ming Tibetan version. , Popular for more than 700 years, so it is also called circulation. Its central proposition is that Buddha's nature is innate, seeing nature to become a Buddha, "taking concentration and wisdom as the foundation"[3], "Buddha is in the world, not to be separated from the world." He pointed out that "Dharma is one kind, and there are delays when we see it." The original thought of Buddha-nature is in the same line as the theory of "Nirvana Sutra" that "all living beings have Buddha-nature". The "Altar Sutra" believes that "the East makes sins and prays for survival in the West; the West makes sins and prays for survival in the West? Whoever can't fool their own nature and don't know the pure land in the body, wish the east and the west, and realize that people are everywhere." He also said: "The heart is not bad, and the West is not far away. If you have a bad heart, it will be difficult to recite Buddhism." If the temple is not repaired, it is just as disgusting for Westerners." "Tanjing" also discusses what merit is, saying: "Viewing nature is merit, equality is virtue. There is no lag in mind, nature, true and magical, called merit." "It is virtue", "Inseparability from one's own nature is merit, and application of non-effect is virtue." "Self-cultivation is merit, self-cultivation is virtue." He also said: "Benefits need to be sought from within one's own nature, not what is required for giving and offering."