The Relationship Between the Sixth Patriarch's Sudden Enlightenment and Shenxiu's Gradual Cultivation

The Southern School of the Tang dynasty, led by the Sixth Patriarch, advocated sudden enlightenment. The Sixth Patriarch's famous verse: 菩提本无树，明镜也非台，本来无一物，何处惹尘埃。The Northern School, led by Shenxiu, advocated gradual cultivation. Shenxiu's verse is: 身是菩提树，心如明镜台，时时勤拂拭，勿使惹尘埃。The Sixth Patriarch's verse shows that he was still merely at the stage of the emptiness of the Small Vehicle and had not yet awakened to the Great Vehicle, while Shenxiu's verse shows that he was still at the stage of repairing and refining body and mind. People of the time and later generations mostly praised the Sixth Patriarch and disparaged Shenxiu, not knowing that each had his own rationale: because their spiritual faculties (indriya) differed and their conditions differed, the dharmas they cultivated should not have been the same. The two stand in a relationship of sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation, and one cannot force them to be identical.

Regarding the relationship between gradual cultivation and sudden enlightenment, I once gave an example: it is like sawing down a large tree — the moment the tree is sawn down is a metaphor for sudden enlightenment, while the work done before the tree is felled is a metaphor for gradual cultivation. Only after gradual cultivation can there be sudden enlightenment, and after sudden enlightenment gradual cultivation is still needed. The dharma cultivated earlier and the dharma cultivated later are different; the cultivation after enlightenment and the cultivation before enlightenment are certainly not the same. The gradual cultivation Shenxiu spoke of was the gradual cultivation prior to sudden enlightenment, a stage of laying the foundation; without this gradual cultivation, the subsequent sudden enlightenment could not occur. As for the Sixth Patriarch's "originally there is not a single thing," although it was not yet the sudden enlightenment of the Great Vehicle, it was because his prior cultivation practice had already been completed in previous lives — indeed, who knows how many lives or how many kalpas ago — so that in this life his mind was already empty and no longer needed to repair and refine body and mind, diligently wiping it clean at all times.

Standing from the Sixth Patriarch's position, with his capacity he could go directly to emptiness. Although he had not reached the emptiness of the Great Vehicle, and it did not count as the Chan school's sudden enlightenment, the Sixth Patriarch after all had the ability to empty; this state was indeed much higher than Shenxiu's, having already passed the stage of gradual cultivation. When the conditions arrived, he could reach the state of sudden enlightenment at any time. Shenxiu, however, was still far from sudden enlightenment; he had to cultivate gradually, had to diligently wipe clean at all times, clearing away the filth on his mind; otherwise he could not attain sudden enlightenment — even the emptiness of the Small Vehicle would be impossible.

Say what fits the place you are in; cultivate the dharma that fits the stage you are at. Since each person's state differs, the dharma they cultivate cannot be the same. Elementary school students have the dharma elementary school students cultivate, and university students have the dharma university students cultivate; one cannot demand that everyone study university courses. Almost everyone must pass through the preceding stages of elementary school and middle school; the road must be walked step by step, and the intermediate process cannot be skipped over. The length of time varies from person to person, but this process must exist — even if it is a process of only an instant, it must still be there. Only after all these processes have been walked through can one reach that final state of sudden enlightenment. This is the dialectical relationship between sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation as embodied by the Sixth Patriarch and Shenxiu.