Huineng’s story is among Buddhism’s most quoted. A poor woodcutter, illiterate, overheard a recitation of the Diamond Sutra in a market and awakened on the spot. He traveled to the monastery of the Fifth Patriarch, was recognized, and — in a poetry contest over succession — wrote the verse that won him the transmission:
Originally there is no bodhi tree, Nor stand of a mirror bright. Since all is empty from the beginning, Where can the dust alight?
His Platform Sutra is the only Chinese Buddhist work given the status of “sutra.” It founded the Southern School of Zen and its teaching of sudden awakening.