Hui Neng's 'Training At Home' Gatha

[Shi Da Dao]

Magistrate Wei Ch'u then asked: 'Will you please instruct us how to practice it while staying at home?' The Patriarch replied: 'I will give you a hymn of the immaterial. If you practice it, it will make no difference whether you are with me or not. If you do not practice it, (even) if you shave your head and leave your home (to join the Sangha order), there will be no advantage. My Hymn is:

Why should sila be observed when the mind's impartial?
When conduct is correct why practice meditation?
Parents to requite their kindness should be cared for by their sons.
Righteous conduct leads to sympathy between high and low,
Between man and master complaisance breeds goodwill,
While patience stops development of evil acts.
If fire can be kindled with a piece of wood,
Mud surely will produce the lotus flower.
Medicine that tastes bitter is well known to be good,
So the word that is not pleasing must be good advice.
Wisdom is begotten by correcting faults.
Concealment of one's shortcomings is surely lack of sageness.
While what we do each day should benefit all others.
Buddhahood cannot be won by giving alms,
For Bodhi must be sought within one's mind,
Why trouble then to seek for the abstruse outside?
The hearing of this hymn when followed by its practice
Ensures that Paradise will loom before the eyes.

After hearing the teaching, magistrate Wei Ch'u and local officials as well as well as virtuous men and women were awakened and believed, accepted and practiced it.

Charles Luk (Lu K'uan Yu) - Ch'an and Zen Teaching - Third Series - Rider, (1962), Page 43. The Altar Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch: Chapter 3 - Queries - Page 39-43.