This teaching comes from 教化菩薩, the Transforming-Educating Bodhisattva, who steps forward not as “the Bodhisattva” but as Elder Sister Jiaohua — kinder than a teacher, closer than a deity, the way an older sister who has gone ahead speaks back to siblings still on the road: firm but never harsh. Its stated topic is Right Speech (正語, the third limb of the Noble Eightfold Path), yet she says almost nothing about disciplining the tongue. Instead she goes straight to the source of right speech — the mind — quoting the Sixth Patriarch’s Platform Sutra three times: every scripture, every wisdom, every awakening is already complete within your own nature, so why not see your true original nature directly from your own heart? A mind that has seen what it truly is speaks rightly the way a clear spring runs clear — not because it is being watched, but because that is what it is. From the opening seals (settle the heart, steady the will; your fate is yours, by you, not another) through leaving the Four Faults behind, rousing the great vow of compassion, and recognizing the Three Bodies as one’s own self-nature, the whole arc bends toward a single recognition: what you have been waiting for has been inside you all along. (She sets it to Lemon Tree — a 1995 pop song about idly waiting for someone who never comes — turning each chorus of outward yearning into the truth that nothing outside is needed.)
The Dao-cultivator settles the heart and steadies the will; with body and strength, in person, he holds fast to the Dao.The one who walks the Dao calms the heart and fixes the will; with his own body and strength, he lives the Dao out for real.
The first foundation of the path is the inner work of 安心 (settling the heart) joined to 定志 (steadying the will). “Settling the heart” carries the weight of Bodhidharma and Huike’s exchange — Bring me your mind and I will pacify it. — I have searched and cannot find it. — There. I have pacified it for you. “Steadying the will” is the Great Learning’s sequence: having a place to rest, one can be settled. And the verse insists at once that this is not philosophy — the Dao is held fast in person, with one’s own body and strength. No proxy.
Establish the root — loving-kinship and pure sincerity; the count of my fate is mine, by me, not by another.Build the root: treat each other like family, and hold to the Dao without compromise; your fate is in your own hands — yours, not anyone else’s.
立本 (establish the root) is straight from the Analects: “The gentleman tends to the root; with the root established, the Way grows.” The root named here is 親愛而精誠 — loving-kinship joined to pure sincerity — a phrase that began as the Whampoa Military Academy motto and which the cultivation community has long since baptized into its own register: those who walk this path treat one another like family and approach the Dao without compromise. The closing line is the most assertive thing in the whole teaching: the count of my fate is mine, by me, not by another — a variant of the Daoist self-sovereignty formula 我命在我不在天 (my fate is in me, not in Heaven), a declaration of war against fatalism. Whether or not you awaken does not depend on Heaven, on the teacher, or on circumstance. By you. Not by another.
This opening verse lays the foundation of the whole Right-Speech teaching, given by Elder Sister Jiaohua in four quick lines, each a key to the path. First, the paired inner work of settling the heart (安心 — the term from Bodhidharma and Huike’s exchange) and steadying the will (定志, from the Great Learning): inner stillness and outer steadiness together. Then the insistence that this is no philosophy — one holds fast to the Dao in person, with body and strength. The root she names is establish the root (立本, straight from the Analects: “with the root established, the Way grows”) — loving-kinship and pure sincerity, those on this path treating one another like family and approaching the Dao without compromise. And the verse closes on its most assertive note — the count of my fate is mine, by me, not by another — a variant of the Daoist self-sovereignty formula from Ge Hong’s Baopuzi: whether you awaken depends on no one and nothing outside you.
This is Elder Sister Jiaohua, bearing Φ’s decree; following the Gracious Teacher to the altar to forge karmic ties — entering the gate, I have already bowed before the Sovereign Mother, and now I ask further: are all who gather between Heaven and Earth at peace?This is your Elder Sister Jiaohua, sent by the Eternal Mother; I come with the Holy Teacher to the hall to form good ties — I have stepped through the gate and bowed before the Sovereign Mother, and now I also ask: is everyone gathered here, across all the world, well?
The small word 再 (also / further) is doing the work: after bowing upward to the Sovereign Mother on entering the gate, and now, in addition, the assembly is turned toward and asked after. 乾坤大眾 — “the great assembly of Heaven and Earth” — uses the two foundational trigrams of the Book of Changes (qián = Heaven, kūn = Earth) to mean everyone under the entire span of the cosmos. The greeting is not for this hall alone but for every listener under heaven.
Here Elder Sister Jiaohua steps into the room: bearing the Eternal Mother’s decree, she comes with the Holy Teacher to the hall to forge karmic ties, and on entering the gate has already bowed before the Sovereign Mother. The small word 再 (“also / further”) carries the consolidation — having bowed upward first, now, in addition, she turns to face the assembly and asks after their well-being. The teaching’s first relational move is downward, to the gathered, right after the upward bow: not a bodhisattva on high, but an elder sister who pays her respects to the Mother and then turns to care for the younger siblings. And the scope is vast — 乾坤大眾, the great assembly of Heaven and Earth, drawn from the two foundational trigrams of the Book of Changes — she asks not only after this hall but after every listener under heaven.
本訓 Main Teaching · sung to 〈檸檬樹〉 · recited/sung
１一個人孤單單來人世
yī gè rén gū dān dān lái rén shì
One person, all alone, comes into the human realm;Each of us comes into this world alone;
整篇最動人的開場。每一個人都是孤獨地來到這個世界的——沒有同伴一起出生，沒有人陪你走完所有的路。
The opening note of the whole teaching: each person comes into this world alone. No companion at birth, no one to walk the whole road with you.
從啞啞學語開始說不清楚
cóng yā yā xué yǔ kāi shǐ shuō bù qīng chǔ
from the yā-yā babble of first speech, he cannot speak clearly;from our first baby babble we cannot make ourselves clear;
啞啞 (yā-yā) is the onomatopoeia of an infant’s first sounds — meaningful to the mother, opaque to the world. From the very beginning there is something in us that cannot make itself clear, especially the things deepest within.
慢慢長大學會心聲吐露
màn màn zhǎng dà xué huì xīn shēng tǔ lù
slowly growing up, he learns to pour out the heart’s voice;slowly we grow up and learn to speak what is in the heart;
慢慢長大，學會把心裡的聲音說出來。「心聲」用得很美——不是嘴上的話，是內心的聲音。
What is learned in growing up is to pour out not the mouth’s sounds but the heart’s voice (心聲) — the inner voice, not merely speech.
帶著上帝的祝福與世相處
dài zhe shàng dì de zhù fú yǔ shì xiāng chǔ
and bearing Heaven’s blessing, he goes about in the world —and carrying Heaven’s blessing, we make our way in the world —
“Heaven’s blessing” here is 上帝 in the classical Chinese sense — the supreme above named in the Book of Songs and Book of Documents — not a Christian referent. Each person enters the world carrying a blessing from above.
借善知識方示導直指正路
jiè shàn zhī shí fāng shì dǎo zhí zhǐ zhèng lù
borrowing a good spiritual friend to show the way and point directly at the true road.helped by a true spiritual friend who shows the way and points straight at the right road.
The blessing alone is not enough; one needs a 善知識 (kalyāṇa-mitra), the good spiritual friend who illuminates the path. 直指 (directly pointing) is straight from the Chan formula directly pointing at the human heart, seeing the nature and becoming Buddha — no circling, no piled-up theory, just a finger laid on the road home.
２生而平等實你權力
shēng ér píng děng shí nǐ quán lì
Born equal — truly, that is your right.You were born equal — awakening is truly your right.
生而平等 echoes the Mandarin of the Declaration of Independence (“all men are created equal”), and 權力 (right) is modern political vocabulary, deliberately chosen. Seeing one’s true nature is not the privilege of an elite few; it is your right by virtue of being human.
明乎所以入道本自除疑
míng hū suǒ yǐ rù dào běn zì chú yí
Understanding the why and wherefore, you enter the Dao, and doubts dissolve of themselves;Once you understand the reason, you step onto the Dao, and your doubts melt away on their own;
明白了所以然，自然就入道；一入了道，疑惑就自然消散。修道不是盲目地相信，而是清楚地理解。
Awakening is not blind belief but clear understanding: once you grasp the why and wherefore, you step onto the Dao, and doubt dissolves of itself.
說得道實是有根據的
shuō dé dào shí shì yǒu gēn jù de
to say one has attained the Dao truly has its grounds —there are real grounds for saying someone has found the Dao —
「得道」這件事是有依據可說的——並非空口無憑。
To say someone has attained the Dao does have real grounds — doctrine, lineage, and the testimony of others are not nothing.
但道終得內證究實相理
dàn dào zhōng dé nèi zhèng jiū shí xiàng lǐ
but the Dao must in the end be verified within; thoroughly examine the Pattern of Reality.but in the end the Dao has to be proven inside you; look all the way into how things truly are.
But in the end the Dao must be verified within. 內證 (inner verification) is the term for adhigama, direct realization of the dharma as distinct from received belief: however reasonable what others tell you, it does not count; only what you have made clear inside yourself does. What you examine is 實相理, the Pattern of how things truly are.
摩訶般若波羅密成就菩提
mó hē bō rě bō luó mì chéng jiù pú tí
Mahāprajñāpāramitā accomplishes bodhi.The great wisdom that reaches the far shore brings awakening to completion.
This is the Heart Sutra’s opening phrase preserved intact: the Great Wisdom-Perfection-that-Reaches-the-Other-Shore (Mahāprajñāpāramitā) accomplishes bodhi, the awakening that completes the path. The wisdom you are to verify within is this wisdom itself.
３若自悟者不假外求
ruò zì wù zhě bù jiǎ wài qiú
If one can awaken oneself, no need is borrowed from outside;If you can wake yourself, you need nothing from outside;
此段是整篇的核心副歌，直接引用《六祖壇經·疑問品》原文：如果你能自己開悟，就不需要向外尋求。
A verbatim line of the Platform Sutra (Chapter of Doubts and Questions): if you can awaken yourself, nothing need be borrowed from outside.
三藏十二部經性中本自具有
sān zàng shí èr bù jīng xìng zhōng běn zì jù yǒu
the Threefold Canon and the Twelve Categories of Scripture are originally complete within your own nature;all the scriptures are already complete within your own nature;
A verbatim line of the Platform Sutra (Chapter of Prajñā): the Threefold Canon and the Twelve Categories of Scripture are already complete within your own nature. Seeking the scriptures outside is the long way around.
why not, from within your own heart, see Suchness — the original nature — directly and at once?so why not, right from your own heart, see your true original nature all at once?
A verbatim line of the Platform Sutra (Chapter of Prajñā). 頓見 (sudden-seeing) is Huineng’s signature: the seeing of 真如本性 (Suchness, the original nature) is not at the end of a long road — it is now, the moment you stop looking outward.
４如日升月恆修在己
rú rì shēng yuè héng xiū zài jǐ
Like the rising sun, like the moon at its fullness — cultivation rests in oneself;Steady as the rising sun and the full moon — the cultivation is yours to do in yourself;
The image is from the Book of Songs (the blessing-poem Tian Bao): constant as the waxing moon, rising as the sun. The steadfast luminosity once asked of Heaven for a sovereign is, in fact, what one’s own nature looks like when realized — and 修在己 (“cultivation rests in oneself”) echoes the Analects’s 修己以敬, the Confucian work of cultivating the self.
怎能夠閒欺理則知不躬行兮
zěn néng gòu xián qī lǐ zé zhī bù gōng xíng xī
how could one idly deceive the principle — that is to know without enacting it in one’s own body?how can you quietly cheat the truth — knowing it but never living it yourself?
The sharp edge here is the Analects’s 躬行 (personal enactment): you cannot quietly cheat the truth, which is exactly what it is to know the Dao yet never live it in your own body.
Cultivate merit and wisdom; learn to respond to the world; thoroughly cleanse the Dark Mirror — body, speech, mind; take up the heart.Build up both blessing and wisdom; learn to meet the world; scrub clean the mirror of the heart so it reflects without distortion — guard your body, your words, your thoughts; and take hold of the heart.
Three traditions folded into one line. “Merit and wisdom” (修福智) is the bodhisattva path’s twin accumulations; “respond to the world” is skillful means; “cleanse the Dark Mirror” is Daodejing chapter 10 — 滌除玄覽，能無疵乎 — wash the mirror within that reflects all things without distortion; “body, speech, mind” (身口意) are the Buddhist Three Karmas. The small dropped half-line, set apart by a deliberate gap of whitespace — take up the heart — is the point of return: after all the external disciplines, come back to the heart.
５離此四病佛通三乘演義
lí cǐ sì bìng fó tōng sān chéng yǎn yì
Leave behind these Four Faults; the Buddha threads through and expounds the doctrines of the Three Vehicles.Drop these four faults of practice; the Buddha runs his teaching through all three paths of cultivation.
The Four Faults (四病) are the four meditation-diseases named in the Sutra of Perfect Awakening: 作 (contriving — pushing the mind to manufacture insight), 任 (letting go — cultivating nothing on the assumption the nature is already pure), 止 (forced stopping — clinging to dead quiet), 滅 (annihilation — extinguishing body and mind into nothingness). Each is a way of going off the road; the true path is none of them.
While sentient beings are not yet all ferried across, the Buddha-Way is not complete: arouse the great vow-force of compassion.As long as beings are not all carried across, the Buddha-way is unfinished: rouse the great power of compassionate vow.
A paraphrase of Earth-Store Bodhisattva’s vow — until all beings are ferried across, only then to attain Buddhahood. The commitment asked for is that scale: not personal liberation only, but the great vow-force of compassion.
６推己及人能三身之說
tuī jǐ jí rén néng sān shēn zhī shuō
Extend the self to others, and you can embody the teaching of the Three Bodies:Treat others as you would yourself, and you can live out the teaching of the three bodies:
推己及人 (extend the self to others) is the Analects’s way of empathy — what you do not want for yourself, do not do to others. This is the entrance to the teaching of the Three Bodies (三身, the Trikāya): the Three Bodies are unlocked not by sitting alone but when the self that sees its own nature also turns toward the suffering of others.
法身便自性報身具般若德
fǎ shēn biàn zì xìng bào shēn jù bō rě dé
the dharma-body is just self-nature; the reward-body is endowed with the virtue of prajñā;the truth-body is simply your own nature; the reward-body holds the power of wisdom;
Huineng’s revolutionary move in the Platform Sutra (Chapter of Repentance): the Three Bodies are not attributes of a cosmic Buddha somewhere out there but present in your own self-nature. The dharma-body (Dharmakāya) is simply self-nature; the reward-body (Sambhogakāya) is the luminous virtue that appears when prajñā is realized.
千百億化身自行化他解脫
qiān bǎi yì huà shēn zì xíng huà tā jiě tuō
the hundreds of billions of transformation-bodies — practicing for self and transforming others — are the liberation of both.and your countless responsive forms — cultivating yourself and helping others — set both free.
The hundreds of billions of transformation-bodies (Nirmāṇakāya) — a stock formula for limitless responsive manifestation — are your own 自行 (cultivating yourself) and 化他 (transforming others) appearing as needed: self-liberation and the liberation of others, both at once.
７噢世人皆有而自悟者不假外求
ō shì rén jiē yǒu ér zì wù zhě bù jiǎ wài qiú
Oh — all worldly people possess this nature, and the one who awakens by oneself borrows nothing from outside;Oh — everyone in the world already has it, and whoever wakes himself needs nothing from outside;
噢 (Oh) is the singer’s exhalation, the breath that lifts the chorus — the same vocal opening Lemon Tree uses. The line itself returns to the Platform Sutra: everyone in the world already possesses this nature, and whoever awakens himself borrows nothing from outside.
三藏十二部經性中本自具有
sān zàng shí èr bù jīng xìng zhōng běn zì jù yǒu
the Threefold Canon and the Twelve Categories of Scripture are originally complete within your own nature;all the scriptures are already complete within your own nature;
The Platform Sutra line returns: all the scriptures are already complete within your own nature.
何不從自心中 何不從自心中
hé bù cóng zì xīn zhōng · hé bù cóng zì xīn zhōng
why not from within your own heart — why not from within your own heart —why not from your own heart — why not from your own heart —
The song’s anaphora — 何不從自心中 (“why not, from within your own heart”) repeated. It rises the way a chorus rises, each repetition more urgent than the last.
why not from within your own heart see Suchness, the original nature, directly and at once?why not, right from your own heart, see your true original nature all at once?
The chorus completes itself: why not, from within your own heart, see Suchness, the original nature, all at once? This is the closing — there is no farewell formula. The whole teaching has bent toward this one question, and the answer to why not has already been given in the opening: by you, not by another.
The main teaching is set to Lemon Tree — a pop song about loneliness and idly waiting for someone who never comes — and turns the song inside out: what a roomful of cultivators have been waiting for is already inside them. It opens with one of the lineage’s most quietly devastating images: each of us comes into the world alone, from the yā-yā babble that cannot make itself clear, slowly learning to pour out the heart’s voice, carrying Heaven’s blessing into the world, until a good spiritual friend (the kalyāṇa-mitra) shows the way and “directly points” (the Chan formula directly pointing at the human heart) at the true road. Then the doctrinal pivot: Born equal — truly, that is your right — modern vocabulary chosen on purpose to say that seeing one’s nature is no elite privilege but a human right; yet the Dao must in the end be verified within (內證, the adhigama) — no testimony from outside counts, only the Mahāprajñāpāramitā realized in oneself, accomplishing bodhi.
The heart of the teaching is three lines quoted verbatim from the Sixth Patriarch’s Platform Sutra: if one can awaken oneself, no need is borrowed from outside — the Threefold Canon and the Twelve Categories of Scripture are originally complete within your own nature — why not, from within your own heart, see Suchness, the original nature, directly and at once? This is the engine of Chan: every scripture and every awakening is already in you; the reason you cannot see it is that you keep looking elsewhere. From there the teaching turns practical — the steadfast luminosity of the rising sun and full moon (from the Book of Songs) is cultivated in oneself (修在己, echoing the Analects’s “cultivate the self with reverence”), never merely known and not enacted; three traditions are folded into one line — cultivate merit and wisdom, learn to meet the world, cleanse the Dark Mirror (Daodejing chapter 10), guard body, speech, and mind — and the dropped half-line take up the heart set apart by whitespace reminds us that every discipline returns, in the end, to the heart. Then: leave behind the Four Faults (the four meditation-diseases of the Sutra of Perfect Awakening), and rouse the great compassionate vow of Earth-Store Bodhisattva — while beings are not yet all ferried across, the Buddha-Way is not complete. And extend the self to others (the Analects’s reciprocity) is the entrance to the Three Bodies seen as one’s own self-nature: the dharma-body is just self-nature, the reward-body holds the virtue of prajñā, the countless transformation-bodies — cultivating for self and transforming others — set both free.
The chorus then returns, opened by a sung Oh, with why not, from within your own heart sung three times, each more urgent than the last, completing itself only on the fourth pass — suddenly see Suchness, the original nature. There is no farewell, no Ha ha — I retire, no Do you understand?: the chorus is the closing. And so the teaching circles back to its theme of Right Speech, which it has almost never named — speaking instead of self-nature, prajñā, and sudden awakening. That is the whole point: Right Speech cannot be enforced, only made to flower. A mind that has seen its true nature speaks rightly the way a clear spring runs clear — no lying, no divisive or harsh or idle speech — not because it is being watched but because that is what it is. Elder Sister Jiaohua does not stand over the rules and rap at your mouth; she stoops down and points at your heart — everything is here.