Traditional Chan accounts describe Huineng as an illiterate woodcutter from the south whose life was transformed when he overheard a guest reciting a passage from the Diamond Sutra. This unexpected encounter stirred a profound inner awakening and moved him to seek the Dharma more deeply. He journeyed to Huangmei Mountain, where the Fifth Patriarch, Hongren, presided over a large monastic community. Because of his humble background and lack of formal education, Huineng was assigned to menial work, such as labor in the kitchen or in the rice-milling and firewood areas, remaining largely unknown among the senior monks.

At a certain point, Hongren announced that the time had come to choose a successor, and he asked his disciples to compose verses expressing their understanding of Buddha-nature and enlightenment. Shenxiu, the head monk and presumed heir, wrote a verse on the wall that likened the body to a bodhi tree and the mind to a bright mirror that must be constantly polished so that no dust can alight. This verse articulated a vision of gradual cultivation, in which practice is a continuous effort to cleanse and refine the mind. The poem was praised publicly, yet it did not fully satisfy the deeper standard of realization that Hongren was seeking.

When Huineng heard Shenxiu’s verse recited, he requested that someone write down a verse he dictated in response. His poem declared that bodhi originally has no tree and the mirror no stand, and that originally there is not a single thing, leaving no place for dust to alight. In this brief composition, Huineng gave voice to the insight that Buddha-nature is inherently pure and empty, not something to be polished into perfection over time. This sudden, non-dual perspective challenged the prevailing assumption that enlightenment must be gradually accumulated through effort.

Recognizing the depth of Huineng’s understanding, Hongren chose him as the true heir, but did so in secret to avoid the jealousy and conflict that might arise among the other monks. Late at night, he summoned Huineng, expounded the Diamond Sutra, and at a pivotal line Huineng is said to have fully awakened. Hongren then transmitted to him the robe and bowl that had come down from Bodhidharma, the traditional symbols of the patriarchal lineage, and entrusted him with the Dharma seal as the Sixth Patriarch. He instructed Huineng to leave quietly for the south, predicting that others would be angered by this unexpected choice.

Huineng departed under cover of darkness, and later stories tell of monks who pursued him in an effort to seize the robe, only to be disarmed by his direct pointing to the nature of mind. For years he remained in obscurity among laypeople in the south, allowing the force of events to ripen in their own time. Eventually he began to teach openly, especially at Nanhua Temple in Caoxi, where his approach came to be known as the “Southern School” of Chan. This lineage emphasized sudden enlightenment grounded in the recognition that one’s original nature is already complete, a teaching that has continued to shape the heart of Chan and Zen spirituality.