Body like a bodhi tree, heart like a mirror. Don't wipe regularly, don't make dust! What are the allusions?

Body like a bodhi tree, heart like a mirror. Don't wipe regularly, don't make dust! This is a poem written by Huineng, the sixth ancestor, which is contained in the altar sutra. Because of the title bodhi, it is called bodhi poem.

In the fourth to eighth verses of the Tanjing, the Bodhisattva recorded clearly that Hong Ren, the fifth ancestor, "called all his disciples in one day" and asked everyone to "write a poem". He also said, "If you get the gist", that is, "Fu Yi is as good as the law, which is an important thing for six generations."

Shen Xiu, the last disciple of Hong Ren, wrote a poem in front of the door: "I am a bodhi tree, and my heart is like a mirror platform. Wipe it frequently to make it dust-free. "

When Hong Ren learned of this, he "summoned the abbot" and said that "if you do this, you won't be in front of you" and "if you find the supreme bodhi, you won't be there", so he asked him to "write another poem".

And "it's impossible to show off for a few days." Huineng's poems are directed at Shen Xiu's Five Fragrant Books. According to the altar sutra, Huineng couldn't read, so she first "asked someone to read" the beautiful melody, and then wrote this song "asked a scholar to write it at the Western Wall".

Extended data

"Song of Bodhisattva" and "Shen Xiu" have different principles in practice. Shen Xiu's poem "No Love" made him lose the qualification of being a red man, but he became the founder of Beizong.

Because Shen Xiu emphasized "being always clean", later generations called it "gradual revision school". Huineng's poetry is a complete denial of beauty and directly grasps the key to "seeing nature and becoming a Buddha", so it is called "Epiphany School".

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