Huineng (638 - 713) was a ChineseChan monk who is one of the most important figures in the entire tradition.
He was said to originally be an illiterate wood-cutter, who, upon hearing a recitation of a phrase from the Diamond Sutra (金剛經) ("Give rise to the mind which abides nowhere"), became awakened to the meaning of Buddha-dharma. He went to study with the Chan master Hongren (弘忍), eventually becoming the Dharma-heir of this teacher, and thus the sixth patriarch (六祖).
He is said to have advocated an immediate and direct approach to Buddhist practice and enlightenment, and in this regard, is considered the founder of suddenistic (頓教) "Southern Chan." While these are the legendary accounts handed down by the tradition, it is widely understood that the actual history of the situation may have been quite different, to the extent that most believe that the primary work attributed to Huineng, the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (六祖壇經), which ended up becoming one of the most influential texts in the East Asian meditative tradition, has no true association with him.
