#  Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng 

 



Chan (Zen) histories relate that a controversy arose in the 7th century over whether the sixth Chan patriarch was Shenxiu, who regarded enlightenment as gradually occurring by stages, or Huineng (638-713), who asserted that one attained complete enlightenment instantaneously. Eventually all Chan, Chogye, and Zen schools came to follow Huineng’s teachings as recorded in the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch.