Platform Sutra of the Dharma Jewel of the Sixth Patriarch

吾既為僧琳撰曹溪第二碑，且思所以辯六祖置衣不傳之旨，作《佛衣銘》。曰：

Having already composed the second stele text for Caoxi for the monk Daolin, I further wished to explain why the Sixth Patriarch set aside the kasaya and did not hand it on, and so I composed the "Inscription on the Buddha's Robe." The inscription says:

佛言不行，佛衣乃爭，忽近貴遠，古今常情。尼父之生，土無一里，夢奠之後，履存千祀。惟昔有梁，如象之狂，達摩救世，來為醫王。以言不痊，因物乃遷，如執符節，行乎復關。民不知官，望車而畏，俗不知佛，得衣為貴。壞色之衣，道不在茲，由之信道，所以為寶。六祖未彰，其出也微，既還狼荒，憬俗蚩蚩。不有信器，眾生曷歸，是開便門，非止傳衣。初必有終，傳豈無已，物必歸盡，衣胡久恃。先終知終，用乃不窮。我道不朽，衣於何有，其用已陳，孰非芻狗。

The Buddha's teaching could not be put into practice, and it was the Buddha's kasaya that caused contention; neglecting what is before the eyes and valuing what is far away is a human feeling constant through the ages. When Confucius was alive, his fief was less than one li; after his death, though the offerings before his coffin passed, his traces have remained a thousand years. In the Liang dynasty of old, rampaging like an elephant; Bodhidharma came to save the world, like a king of physicians. Words could not cure it, and so objects were borrowed to bring about change, like holding a tally and passing through checkpoints. The common people do not know the officials, and when they see the carriage they are awed; ordinary people do not know the Buddha, and only on obtaining the kasaya do they regard it as precious. A garment of a spoiled color, the Way is not in it; it is only borrowed to make people trust the Way, and so it became a treasure. The Sixth Patriarch at first was not prominent, and was of humble position when he came into the world; having returned to a remote place, its customs were ignorant and benighted. Without an object to win trust, on what would beings rely to come to him? This opened a gate of skillful means, and it was not that handing on the robe was the ultimate. Whatever has a beginning must have an end; could transmission not have a time to stop? An object must end in being used up, and how can a kasaya be relied on for long? Only by first knowing the end will it end, and thus its use will not be exhausted. My Way is imperishable, and what has it to do with the kasaya? Its use is already old, and which is not a straw dog, to be thrown away after use?

師入塔後，至開元十年壬戌八月三日，夜半忽聞塔中如拽鐵索聲。眾僧驚起，見一孝子從塔中走出，尋見師頸有傷，具以賊事聞於州縣。縣令楊侃、刺史柳無忝，得牒切加擒捉。五日於石角村捕得賊人，送韶州鞠問。云：「姓張名淨滿，汝州梁縣人。於洪州開元寺，受新羅僧金大悲錢二十千，令取六祖大師首，歸海東供養。」柳守聞狀，未即加刑，乃躬至曹溪，問師上足令韜曰：「如何處斷？」韜曰：「若以國法論，理須誅夷。但以佛教慈悲冤親平等，況彼求欲供養，罪可恕矣。」柳守加歎曰：「始知佛門廣大。」遂赦之。

After the Master entered the stupa, on the third day of the eighth month of the renxu year, the tenth year of Kaiyuan, in the middle of the night a sound as of dragging iron chains was suddenly heard in the stupa. The monks rose in alarm and saw a person in mourning clothes run out of the stupa, and then discovered a wound on the Master's neck, and reported the matter of the thief to the prefecture and county. The county magistrate Yang Kan and the prefect Liu Wutian received the notice and pressed the pursuit. On the fifth day the thief was captured in Shijiao village and sent to Shaozhou for interrogation. He confessed: "My surname is Zhang and my name is Jingman, and I am a man of Liang County in Ruzhou. At the Kaiyuan Temple in Hongzhou, I took twenty thousand cash from a Silla monk named Jin Dabei, who had me take the head of the Sixth Patriarch to bring back east of the sea for veneration." Prefect Liu, hearing the confession, did not at once apply punishment, but went himself to Caoxi and asked the Master's eminent disciple Lingtao: "How should this be judged?" Lingtao said: "By the law of the state, he should be put to death. But Buddhism is compassionate and treats enemies and kin alike, and moreover he did it to obtain an object of veneration, so the crime can be forgiven." Prefect Liu exclaimed: "Only now do I know how vast the Buddhist gate is." So he pardoned him.

上元元年，肅宗遣使，就請師衣缽歸內供養。至永泰元年五月五日，代宗夢六祖大師請衣缽，七日勅刺史楊緘云：「朕夢感能禪師請傳衣袈裟卻歸曹溪，今遣鎮國大將軍劉崇景，頂戴而送。朕謂之國寶，卿可於本寺如法安置，專令僧眾親承宗旨者嚴加守護，勿令遺墜。」後或為人偷竊，皆不遠而獲。如是者數四。憲宗諡大鑒禪師，塔曰元和靈照。其餘事蹟，係載唐尚書王維、刺史柳宗元、刺史劉禹錫等碑。守塔沙門令韜錄。

In the first year of Shangyuan, Emperor Suzong sent an envoy to invite the Master's robe and bowl into the palace for veneration. On the fifth day of the fifth month of the first year of Yongtai, Emperor Daizong dreamed that the Sixth Patriarch asked for the return of the robe and bowl, and seven days later he issued an order to the prefect Yang Jian, saying: "In a dream I sensed that Chan Master Huineng requested that the kasaya he had transmitted be returned to Caoxi, and I now send the General-in-Chief of the Guard of the Realm Liu Chongjing to carry it respectfully and escort it. I regard it as a treasure of the state, and you may place it in that temple according to the Dharma, and specifically order the monks who have directly received the teaching to guard it strictly, so that it is not lost or fallen." Afterward it was sometimes stolen, but each time it was recovered before the thief had gone far, and this happened several times. Emperor Xianzong gave the Master the title "Chan Master Dajian" and named the stupa "Yuanhe Spiritual Illumination." Other deeds are recorded in the inscriptions by Wang Wei, Minister of the Tang dynasty, Liu Zongyuan the prefect, Liu Yuxi the prefect, and others. Recorded by the stupa-guarding shramana Lingtao.

跋

What follows is the postscript (colophon) written by Zongbao for this book:

六祖大師平昔所說之法。皆大乘圓頓之旨。故目之曰經。其言近指遠。詞坦義明。誦者各有所獲。明教嵩公常讚雲。天機利者得其深。天機鈍者得其淺。誠哉言也。餘初入道。有感於斯。續見三本不同。互有得失。其板亦已漫滅。因取其本校讎。訛者正之。略者詳之。復增入弟子請益機緣。庶幾學者得盡曹溪之旨。按察使雲公從龍。深造此道。一日過山房睹餘所編。謂得壇經之大全。慨然命工鋟梓。顓為流通。使曹溪一派不至斷絕。或曰。達磨不立文字。直指人心見性成佛。盧祖六葉正傳。又安用是文字哉。餘曰。此經非文字也。達磨單傳直指之指也。南嶽青原諸大老。嘗因是指以明其心。復以之明馬祖石頭諸子之心。今之禪宗流佈天下。皆本是指。而今而後。豈無因是指。而明心見性者耶。問者唯唯再拜謝曰。予不敏。請併書於經末以詔來者。至元辛卯夏。南海釋宗寶跋。

The Dharma that the Sixth Patriarch taught in his ordinary days was all of the Mahayana perfect and sudden meaning, and so it is called a "sutra." His words are plain but their reference is profound, the phrases are simple and the principle clear, and those who recite it each gain something. Chan Master Qisong of Mingjiao once exclaimed in praise: "Those of sharp natural gifts gain its depth, and those of dull gifts gain its shallows." How true that saying is! When I first entered the Way, I was deeply moved on this point. Later I successively saw three different editions, each with gains and losses, and the woodblocks too had become blurred and worn away, so I took these editions and collated them: correcting what was wrong, supplying details where it was brief, and adding the section on the occasions when disciples asked for instruction, hoping that students could obtain the full picture of the Caoxi teaching. The Surveillance Commissioner Lord Yun Conglong, who has deep attainment in this Way, one day passed by my mountain hut and saw the edition I had compiled, and said that this deserved to be called the complete Platform Sutra, and heartily ordered craftsmen to carve the blocks, to be used exclusively for circulation, so that this branch of Caoxi would not be cut off. Someone said: Bodhidharma did not establish written words, but pointed directly at the human mind, to see one's nature and become a Buddha; the Lu Patriarch was the true transmission over six generations, so why use these written words? I said: this sutra is not written words, but the very "pointing" that Bodhidharma transmitted singly and pointed directly. The great elders Nanyue and Qingyuan once understood their own minds through this pointing, and used it to enable the minds of Mazu, Shitou and others to be understood. Now Chan has spread throughout the world, all rooted in this pointing; from now on, will there not be people who, through this pointing, understand the mind and see their nature? The questioner agreed repeatedly, bowed twice in thanks, and said: "I am not clever; please write these words together at the end of the sutra, to be shown to those who come after." Summer of the xinmao year of the Zhiyuan era; postscript by the Buddhist monk Zongbao of Nanhai.