Executive Briefing: A Special Transmission Outside the Scriptures
Attributed to Bodhidharma, Chan/Zen Buddhism rejects intellectual scholarship in favor of direct pointing to the human mind and spontaneous realization of Buddha-nature (*Kenshō*).
1. Huineng and the Platform Sutra
The Sixth Patriarch Huineng’s poem (*”Originally there is no tree of enlightenment, nor is there a stand with a clear mirror…”*) established the Southern School of sudden awakening, transforming East Asian aesthetics, calligraphy, and tea ceremony.
2. References
- Suzuki, D. T. (1949). Essays in Zen Buddhism. Rider and Company.
- Yampolsky, P. B. (1967). The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. Columbia University Press.