The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-neng

«1. Master Hui-neng took his seat in the lecture hall of Tafan Temple to expound the teaching of Mahaprajnaparamita and to transmit the Formless Precepts. Seated below him on that occasion were more than ten thousand monks, nuns, and laypeople, along with Magistrate Wei Ch’u of Shaochou and more than thirty officials and thirty scholars. Together they asked the Master to explain the teaching of Mahaprajnaparamita.» — apertura de la sección 1: el sutra fija la escena de la que toma su nombre, el maestro sentado en la sala de conferencias del templo Tafan para exponer la Mahaprajnaparamita y transmitir los Preceptos Sin Forma, ante más de diez mil monjes, monjas y laicos y ante el magistrado Wei Ch'u de Shaochou.

«The magistrate then instructed the Master’s disciple Fa-hai to make a record to pass down to future generations so that students of the Way who carry on its guiding principle and who transmit it to others might have this testament as their authority.» — el texto declara dentro de sí mismo por qué existe y quién lo escribe: el magistrado manda a Fa-hai levantar acta para las generaciones futuras, de modo que quienes transmitan el principio rector tengan este testimonio por autoridad.

«2. When he spoke this Platform Sutra, Master Hui-neng said, “Good friends, purify your minds by reciting the teaching of Mahaprajnaparamita.” Then the Master stopped speaking, while he purified his own mind.» — la sección 2 abre el sermón con un silencio: Hui-neng pide a los oyentes purificar la mente recitando la enseñanza y luego calla para purificar la suya.

«My kind-hearted father was originally from Fanyang. But he was dismissed from office and banished to Lingnan and lived in Hsinchou as a commoner. My father died when I was quite young. And my widwed and destitute mother moved to Nanhai, where I experienced hardship and poverty and sold firewood in the marketplace.» — Hui-neng cuenta su origen en primera persona, padre destituido y desterrado a Lingnan, orfandad temprana y venta de leña en el mercado de Nanhai; la capa de texto imprime *widwed* por *widowed*, sic.

«I walked toward the door and met a customer reciting the Diamond Sutra out loud. As soon as I heard the words, my mind felt clear and awake» — Hui-neng data su primer despertar en un encuentro callejero, al oír a un cliente recitar el Sutra del Diamante; el tramo se corta en el límite de la plana 6.

«The Master scoffed, ‘But you’re from Lingnan and a jungle rat as well. How can you possibly be a buddha?’» — el Quinto Patriarca Hung-jen recibe al aspirante con una burla por su origen sureño, que el texto conserva sin suavizar.

«I answered, ‘Your disciple is from Lingnan, a commoner of Hsinchou. The reason I came all this way to pay my respects is I want to be a buddha. I don’t want anything else.’» — Hui-neng declara ante Hung-jen el único objeto de su viaje, hacerse buda, y descarta cualquier otro.

«I replied, ‘People come from the north or south, not their buddha nature. The lives of this jungle rat and the Master’s aren’t the same, but how can our buddha nature differ?’» — la réplica que el sutra pone en el centro de su doctrina de la igualdad: el norte y el sur son de las personas, no de la naturaleza búdica.

«A novice then led me to the milling room, where I pedaled a millstone for more than eight months.» — tras la entrevista el aspirante queda ocho meses pedaleando la muela del molino, sin instrucción.

«The Master was about to say something more to me. But when he saw his attendants standing there, he didn’t say anything else and sent me to join the sangha workforce.» — el sutra consigna que Hung-jen calla ante los asistentes en vez de seguir hablando, y manda al recién llegado a la cuadrilla de trabajo.

«After they had assembled, he said, ‘I’ve told you that the greatest concern for a human being is life and death. But you disciples spend your days making offerings, just looking for ways to reap merit and not for a way out of the bitter Sea of Sansara.» — Hung-jen abre el certamen del gatha reprochando a sus discípulos que gasten los días en ofrendas buscando mérito y no salida del mar amargo del samsara; el troceo imprime *Sansara*.

«If you’re blind to your own nature, how can you find the doorway to merit?» — la pregunta con que Hung-jen liga el mérito a ver la propia naturaleza.

«Those of you who are wise, make use of the prajna wisdom of your own nature.» — la instrucción de Hung-jen a los sabios de la asamblea, servirse de la sabiduría prajna de la propia naturaleza.

«When I read your gathas, if any of you understands what is truly important, I will give you my robe and my Dharma and appoint you the Sixth Patriarch.» — la regla del certamen: quien entienda lo que de veras importa recibirá el manto y el Dharma y será nombrado Sexto Patriarca.

«Having received these instructions, his disciples headed back to their rooms and said to one another, ‘There’s no need for us to clear our minds and trouble ourselves about writing a gatha to show the abbot.» — los discípulos renuncian al certamen de antemano, razonando que el preceptor Shen-hsiu lo tiene ganado.

«He said, ‘On Huangmei County’s East Fengmao Mountain in Chichou Prefecture, when I was paying my respects to the Fifth Patriarch, Master Hung-jen.» — Hui-neng sitúa al Quinto Patriarca Hung-jen en el monte Fengmao Oriental del condado de Huangmei, prefectura de Chichou.

«And while I was there, I heard him tell the monks and laypeople that just by memorizing the Diamond Sutra they would see their natures and immediately become buddhas.» — la promesa que el cliente atribuye a Hung-jen, que memorizar el Sutra del Diamante basta para ver la propia naturaleza y ser buda de inmediato.

«Because people left offerings at the foot of the wall, the abbot wanted to cover it with scenes from the Lankavatara Sutra and paintings of the five patriarchs transmitting the robe and the Dharma as a record to be passed down to future generations.» — la pared del corredor iba a llevar escenas del Lankavatara Sutra y retratos de los cinco patriarcas transmitiendo el manto y el Dharma, como registro para las generaciones futuras.

«The painter Lu Chen had inspected the wall and was going to begin work the following day.» — el pintor Lu Chen ya había inspeccionado el muro y empezaba al día siguiente: el sutra fecha así el episodio del gatha.

«The venerable Shen-hsiu thought, ‘No one is going to submit a mind-poem, because I’m their precept instructor.» — Shen-hsiu razona su ventaja y su trampa, nadie presentará poema porque él es el instructor de preceptos de todos.

«It would be right for me to show the Patriarch a poem that reveals my understanding, as long as what I wanted was the Dharma.» — la condición con que Shen-hsiu se autoriza a presentar el poema, que lo que quiera sea el Dharma.

«But it would be wrong, as long as what I wanted was the patriarchship.» — y la condición inversa, que lo vuelve falta, querer el patriarcado.

«I would be no better than a fool who thinks he can usurp the position of a sage.» — Shen-hsiu se compara con el necio que pretende usurpar el puesto de un sabio.

«The Master’s mind is impossible to fathom.» — el juicio de Shen-hsiu sobre su maestro, que su mente es insondable, con el que corta la deliberación.

«At dawn, the Fifth Patriarch sent for the court artist, Lu Chen, to come to the south corridor to paint scenes from the Lankavatara.» — al alba Hung-jen manda llamar al pintor de corte Lu Chen para el corredor sur.

«‘You’ve gone to so much trouble and come so far, we will pay you thirty thousand cash, but we won’t need any images now.» — Hung-jen paga el viaje del pintor y cancela las imágenes.

«The Diamond Sutra says, “All images are illusions.” It would be better if we kept this gatha for deluded people to recite.» — la razón de la cancelación es una cita del Sutra del Diamante puesta en boca del Quinto Patriarca, y con ella el sutra sustituye las pinturas por un poema.

«‘Unless you all recite and understand this gatha,’ he said, ‘you won’t see your nature.» — la condición que Hung-jen impone a la asamblea, recitar y entender el gatha para ver la propia naturaleza.

«If they rely on it for their practice, they won’t fall into the three unfortunate states of existence, and it will be a great help to anyone who cultivates the Dharma.» — y la promesa menor para quien solo se apoye en él, no caer en los tres estados desdichados de existencia.

«Later, the Fifth Patriarch called Shen-hsiu to his room and asked, ‘Did you write the gatha? If you did, you’re ready to receive my Dharma.’» — Hung-jen interroga a Shen-hsiu en privado y liga la autoría del gatha a estar listo para recibir el Dharma.

«Shen-hsiu said, ‘I’m guilty. It’s true. I was the one who wrote it. But I don’t dare ask for the patriarchship, only for the Master’s consideration as to whether your disciple has acquired enough wisdom to understand what is truly important or not.’» — Shen-hsiu confiesa y renuncia a pedir el patriarcado, y pide solo el juicio del maestro sobre su sabiduría.

«So the venerable Shen-hsiu held up a lantern and wrote his gatha on the middle of the south corridor wall at midnight, and no one saw him. His gatha went: ‘The body is a bodhi tree the mind is like a standing mirror always try to keep it clean don’t let it gather dust.’» — el gatha de Shen-hsiu, escrito a medianoche con una linterna en el muro del corredor sur: el cuerpo como árbol de bodhi y la mente como espejo de pie que hay que limpiar.

«Because I was illiterate, I asked someone to read it. Once I heard it, I understood what was truly important, and I also composed a gatha. I asked someone who could write to write it on the west corridor wall so that I could reveal my mind. Unless you know your own mind, studying the Dharma is useless. But once you know your mind and see your nature, you understand what is truly important. My gatha went: ‘Bodhi doesn’t have any trees this mirror doesn’t have a stand our buddha nature is forever pure where do you get this dust?’» — el sutra declara iletrado a su propio maestro y hace que dicte su gatha a otra mano; la réplica niega el árbol y el pie del espejo y remite la pureza a la naturaleza búdica.

«Then I composed another one: ‘The mind is the bodhi tree the body is the mirror’s stand the mirror itself is so clean dust has no place to land.’» — el segundo gatha de Hui-neng invierte los términos del primero de Shen-hsiu, la mente por árbol y el cuerpo por pie, y cierra por la limpieza del espejo mismo.

«The Fifth Patriarch said, ‘This gatha of yours shows your understanding has only reached the threshold and has not yet entered inside.» — el veredicto de Hung-jen sobre el gatha de Shen-hsiu, entendimiento que llegó al umbral y no entró.

«But someone with such an understanding who seeks perfect enlightenment will never realize it.» — y el límite que le pone, que con ese entendimiento la iluminación perfecta no se realiza.

«If you want to enter the door, you have to see your nature.» — la condición para entrar por la puerta según Hung-jen, ver la propia naturaleza.

«He knew I understood what was truly important, but he didn’t want others to know.» — el sutra explica el disimulo del Quinto Patriarca ante los gathas de Hui-neng, que reconoció el entendimiento y no quiso que los demás lo supieran.

«8. A novice walked past the milling room chanting this gatha. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was by someone who hadn’t seen his nature or understood what was truly important.» — el sutra hace que Hui-neng juzgue el gatha de Shen-hsiu de oídas, sin verlo escrito, mientras trabaja en el molino.

«One of the senior monks, Shen-hsiu, wrote this “Formless Gatha” along the south corridor. And the Patriarch told all of his disciples to recite it and whoever understands this gatha» — el novicio llama al poema de Shen-hsiu Gatha sin Forma y reporta la orden del Patriarca de recitarlo; el tramo se corta antes del cambio de plana.

«The text that contains his teaching was first compiled sometime between 700 and 720 by his disciple Fa-hai, and it was titled the Platform Sutra because the sermon that forms its heart was delivered from a raised platform before an audience numbering in the thousands.» — Red Pine, en la introducción firmada, data la compilación entre 700 y 720 por Fa-hai y explica el título por la plataforma elevada desde la que se pronunció el sermón.

«Ever since it was put together, it has been the most studied, the most quoted, the most influential of all the texts that teach that branch of Mahayana Buddhism known as Zen.» — Red Pine sitúa el texto como el más estudiado, citado e influyente de la rama del Mahayana llamada Zen.

«But no one gave much thought to the history of its transmission until about eighty years ago.» — Red Pine fecha en unos ochenta años atrás el comienzo del interés por la historia de la transmisión del texto.

«Philip Yampolsky, preferring the more conservative assessment, concluded: “We can safely say that the Tunhuang version of the Platform Sutra was made between 830 and 860, and represented a copy of an earlier version, some of whose material dates to around 780.» — Red Pine cita el fallo de Philip Yampolsky sobre la fecha, que prefiere la estimación más conservadora, entre 830 y 860 para la copia y hacia 780 para parte del material.

«The number indicated its order among the thousands of documents brought back from the Silk Road oasis of Tunhuang by Aurel Stein.» — Red Pine explica que el número del manuscrito S5475 marca su orden entre los documentos que Aurel Stein trajo del oasis de Tunhuang.

«And the “S” was for Stein. The copy Stein brought back to England contained hundreds of errors, but Keiki managed to produce an edited version, which he also divided into fifty-seven sections to make it easier to study and discuss.» — Red Pine consigna los cientos de errores de la copia de Stein y la división en cincuenta y siete secciones que Yabuki Keiki introdujo para facilitar el estudio.

«The resulting edition was included in Volume 48 of the Taisho edition of the Buddhist Canon published in Japan in 1928.» — Red Pine data la edición resultante en el volumen 48 del Canon budista Taisho publicado en Japón en 1928.

«Although Suzuki retained Keiki’s earlier division of the text into fifty-seven sections, his edition incorporated numerous corrections based mostly on the Tsungpao edition in the Ming-dynasty Buddhist Canon.» — Red Pine describe la edición de Daisetz Suzuki, que conservó la división de Keiki y enmendó sobre todo con la edición Tsungpao del Canon Ming.

«As far as I know, these are the only two English translations of the copy edited by Keiki and Suzuki.» — Red Pine acota su propia afirmación sobre las traducciones inglesas de la copia de Keiki y Suzuki con un hasta donde sé.

«This edition, which was compiled by the Chinese monk Ch’i-sung in the year 1056, was a much larger edition and much closer in content and arrangement to the Tsungpao edition in current use.» — Red Pine data la edición del monje Ch'i-sung en 1056 y la acerca en contenido y disposición a la Tsungpao de uso corriente.

«It should be noted, however, that other scenarios are also possible.» — Red Pine deja abierta la reconstrucción de la historia textual.

«But regardless of which scenario we choose, what we still don’t know is if there ever was an “original” text.» — Red Pine declara el límite de todo el argumento textual, que no se sabe si hubo alguna vez un texto original.

«Thus, we can assume that by the second half of the eighth century, there were at least several versions of this text being passed around and that the edition that ended up in Tunhuang was only one of them.» — Red Pine supone varias versiones circulando en la segunda mitad del siglo VIII y hace de la de Tunhuang solo una de ellas.

«It wasn’t until 1986, when Zhou Shaoliang, then vice director of the Buddhist Association of China, was going through the archives of the Tunhuang County Museum, that Ren Ziyi’s copy reappeared.» — Red Pine fecha en 1986 la reaparición de la copia de Ren Ziyi en el museo del condado de Tunhuang, hallada por Zhou Shaoliang.

«The reason why this second Tunhuang copy of the sutra has become so important is because it is not only a copy of the same edition and roughly from the same period (c. 780), thus confirming the first copy’s authenticity and probable date, but it is far superior.» — Red Pine justifica la importancia de la segunda copia de Tunhuang por su fecha y su calidad.

«Although we have no evidence of what the original text might have looked like, or if there ever was an ur-text, based on my own study of the sutra, I would suggest the following scenario as the most likely sequence for its development.» — Red Pine presenta su reconstrucción del desarrollo del texto como el escenario más probable y no como hecho.

«Sections 1-37 of the sutra were most likely compiled during Huineng’s lifetime, or shortly after his death in 713.» — Red Pine sitúa las secciones 1 a 37 en vida de Hui-neng o poco después de su muerte en 713.

«No doubt, these additions were based on records made by the individuals concerned, or by their disciples, who appended them to the text as it existed at the time.» — Red Pine atribuye las adiciones a registros de los propios discípulos o de los suyos.

«As a result of this series of discoveries, we are now in a much better position to consider the development of this sutra.» — Red Pine cifra en la serie de hallazgos la mejora de la posición para estudiar el desarrollo del sutra.

«Although the text edited by Tsung-pao is just about the only edition people have read for the past seven hundred years, in my opinion it represents the culmination of the process of embellishment that Hui-chung was complaining about five hundred years earlier.» — Red Pine juzga la edición de Tsung-pao como culminación del proceso de embellecimiento del que se quejaba Hui-chung quinientos años antes.

«Although this edition, too, includes its own embellishments, those parts that have been added or altered are easy to discern and not hard to separate from the sutra’s essential teaching.» — Red Pine acota su propia elección diciendo que la edición de Tunhuang también trae embellecimientos.

«And thus we have the series of editions noted above culminating with that of Tsung-pao.» — Red Pine cierra la serie de ediciones en la de Tsung-pao.

«Still, readers should be able to judge this matter for themselves.» — Red Pine devuelve el juicio al lector.

«This idea was first suggested by the Chinese scholar Hu Shih in the 1930s, not long after the discovery of the first Tunhuang copy of this sutra.» — Red Pine atribuye a Hu Shih, en los años treinta, la primera duda sobre la autenticidad del sutra.

«Because these documents contained passages identical to those in the Platform Sutra, Hu put forward the argument, supported by a number of other convergent materials, that the sutra contained the teaching of Shen-hui and not Hui-neng.» — Red Pine expone el argumento de Hu Shih, que los pasajes idénticos en los documentos de Shen-hui harían del sutra la enseñanza del discípulo y no la del maestro.

«But it was, in fact, typical of Hu Shih.» — Red Pine explica la osadía del argumento por el carácter iconoclasta de su autor.

«However, most Buddhist scholars in China and Taiwan have rejected them as unlikely, if not impossible—certainly impossible to prove.» — Red Pine consigna que la mayoría de los estudiosos budistas de China y Taiwán rechazan esos argumentos, con la reserva de que tampoco son demostrables.

«Scholars such as Guo Peng, Ts’ai Nien-sheng, and Yang Zengwen, to name only those whose books have ended up in my library, have examined the same evidence and have concluded that it was the» — Red Pine nombra a los estudiosos que examinaron la misma evidencia, Guo Peng, Ts'ai Nien-sheng y Yang Zengwen, con la acotación de que son los que tiene en su biblioteca; el tramo se corta en el límite de la plana.

«student who was quoting the teacher and not the other way around.» — la conclusión que Red Pine les atribuye, que fue el estudiante quien citaba al maestro; la frase arranca en la plana 40 porque el nombre de los estudiosos queda en la anterior.

«What such discussions inevitably come down to is this: A certain statement, phrase, or citation is suspect because the text, stele, or inscription in which it occurs is corrupt or unreliable.» — Red Pine reduce las discusiones filológicas a un esquema de dos pasos, sospechar de un pasaje por la corrupción del soporte.

«And this other statement is not suspect because the text in which it occurs is less corrupt and more reliable.» — y su mitad complementaria.

«She shrugged and said people tell different stories.» — Red Pine cuenta lo que le respondió Margaret Mead al preguntarle por los relatos discrepantes de sus informantes.

«Objective truth doesn’t even exist in the so-called physical sciences, much less in the social sciences.» — la posición que Red Pine declara sobre la verdad objetiva, firmada por él y no puesta en boca del sutra.

«All we can talk about are stories: your story, my story, the most likely story, the best story.» — y lo que le queda como material, historias con distinta probabilidad y calidad.

«Diane Arbus once said of her own art, “A photograph is a secret about a secret.» — Red Pine cita a Diane Arbus sobre su propio arte para decir de qué habla el sutra.

«All we know for sure is we have a book that claims to contain the words of Hui-neng and we have two copies of an edition that was compiled during the same century he lived in.» — Red Pine reduce lo que se sabe con seguridad a dos hechos, un libro que dice contener las palabras de Hui-neng y dos copias del mismo siglo en que vivió.

«We know that if this book does not contain the words of Hui-neng, it at least contains the words of someone who was his equal as a teacher of Zen.» — y la salida que propone, que si no son de Hui-neng son de alguien igual a él como maestro de Zen.

«This has been attested by millions of practitioners who have used this book as their spiritual guide for more than a thousand years.» — el criterio con que lo sostiene, el uso de millones de practicantes durante más de mil años.

«This is the teaching of Hui-neng: See your nature and become a buddha.» — Red Pine reduce la enseñanza de Hui-neng a una sola frase al cerrar la introducción.

«We cannot gain what we already have.» — y la despliega en dos negaciones, la primera sobre lo que ya se tiene.