chant of the sixth patriarch
4-Part - Sheet Music

Choral SATB chorus

SKU: ES.S-427

Composed by Reed Criddle. Secular. Octavo. With Text language: Chinese (China). Earthsongs #S-427. Published by Earthsongs (ES.S-427).

According to Buddhist lore, the Fifth Patriarch proposed a poetry competition to determine his successor. The lowly, illiterate monk Hui-neng shockingly won the patriarchy, having asked another monastic to transcribe his poem on a wall beside the other poems. Huineng's poem is a direct response to the frontrunning submission by the most esteemed scholar-monk of the monastery, Shen-Xiu, which read:

The body is the Bodhi tree,
The mind is like a bright mirror stand. Moment to moment, diligently wipe, To let no dust collect.