Q0207

“Bodhi originally has no tree; the bright mirror is not a stand.…” — Huineng (Platform Sutra (popular Zongbao text))

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Platform Sutra (popular Zongbao text). Theme: self.

English

Bodhi originally has no tree; the bright mirror is not a stand. Fundamentally there is not a single thing — where could dust alight?
Thinker Huineng
School Zen Buddhism
Source Platform Sutra (popular Zongbao text)
Theme Self
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Platform Sutra (popular Zongbao text) and files it under Zen Buddhism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Huineng

Huineng (638–713) is revered as the Sixth Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism in China; the Platform Sutra presents his autobiography and teachings. Historical layers of the text are complex; the legend contrasts an illiterate laborer with scholastic rivals.

How to read this passage

To ask about the self is to ask what persists through experience, what can be known from the first-person point of view, and how character is formed. Some traditions treat the self as a substantial soul; others as a stream of experience, a social role, or a practical center of agency. This passage enters that discussion through self, awakening.

Concepts in this quote

Self
Philosophy quotes about self explore identity, responsibility, and the examined life—from Socrates’ unexamined life to modern phenomenology and existential authenticity.
Awakening
Awakening appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat awakening as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Huineng. (n.d.). Bodhi originally has no tree; the bright mirror is not a stand. Fundamentally there is not a single thing — where could dust alight? In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0207

MLA: Huineng. “Bodhi originally has no tree; the bright mirror….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0207.

Chicago: Huineng. “Bodhi originally has no tree; the bright mirror….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0207.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Bodhi originally has no tree; the bright mirror…”?

The passage is attributed to Huineng, Platform Sutra (popular Zongbao text). The archive attributes this English wording to Platform Sutra (popular Zongbao text) and files it under Zen Buddhism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Huineng mean by self?

To ask about the self is to ask what persists through experience, what can be known from the first-person point of view, and how character is formed. Some traditions treat the self as a substantial soul; others as a stream of experience, a social role, or a practical center of agency. This passage enters that discussion through self, awakening.

Same thinker

More from Huineng

  1. Who would have thought that self-nature is originally pure; who would have thought that self-nature is originally neither born nor destroyed.
  2. It is not the wind that moves; it is not the flag that moves; it is your mind that moves.
  3. The Buddhist teaching is in the world; awakening is not apart from the world. To seek enlightenment apart from the world is like looking for a hare's horn.

All quotations by Huineng

Same theme

More on self

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the self theme