Sutra del estrado

Tan jing

Laureano Ramírez

About the book:

The Platform Sutra

This is the founding text of Chan Buddhism, the Chinese Buddhist school which, cristalized in Japan under the name of Zen. It was exposed by Hui Neng (638-713), sixth patriarch of the Chan, and recorded by Fa Hai, a disciple from his lineage. It is no exaggeration to say that all Japanese Zen is connected to the Sutra del Estrado.

This is the first Spanish translation of this Buddhist treasure. The original Chinese text —te Dunhuang manuscript— has been included as an apendix. The introduction and notes by Laureano Ramírez are indispensable for a clear understanding of the scope of Hui Neng’s teachings.

The sutra is short, concise, human, provocative and profound. It has so been revered by Buddhism in the Far East that it is the only Chinese Buddhist text to have received the title of sutra (jing), until then applied only to sermons by Buddha or the great bodhisattvas.

Hui Neng ajusts the meditation form of Mahayana Buddhism, brought from India to China by the legendary Bodhidharma, with marvelous ease to the Chinese mystical tradition (Taoism), and to the practical and direct idiosyncrasy of the Chinese, preserving the philosophy of non-duality (prajña-paramita) intact.

Huineng’s standpoint is that illumination occurs at a “timeless moment”. It can happen in any context or circumstance, as it is not our ego that attains something but a discovery of pure and perfect nature which has always been there. Illumination simply occurs, it is an absolutely free event. It is no accumulation of knowledge, merit or anything of the sort. And if the mind is, by nature, absolutely pure, devoid of parts or divisions, the gradual and sistematic development preached by other Buddhist trends is simply redundant. Illumination is a sudden and immediate recognition. 

About the author:

Laureano Ramírez is Professor of Translation and History of Chinese Literature at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. He has translated a number of classical and modern Chinese texts. He won an award for his translation of The Mandarins (Story of the Scholars’ Wood) by Wu Jingzi.