Verse without Marks

Verse Without Marks
By the Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng from Chapter 6 of Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra

Sutra:
“I have a verse without marks. If you can recite and memorize it, it will wipe away-accumulated eons of confusion and offenses as soon as the words are spoken. The verse runs:

A confused person will foster blessings,
but not cultivate the Way;
And say, “To practice for the blessings
is practice of the Way.”
While giving and making offerings
brings blessings without limit,
It is in the mind that the three evils
have their origin.
By seeking blessings you may wish
to obliterate offenses;
But in the future, though you are blessed,
offenses still remain.
You ought to simply strike the evil
conditions from your mind;
By true repentance and reform
within your own self-nature.
A sudden awakening: the true repentance and
reform of the Great Vehicle;
You must cast out the deviant, and practice
the right, to be without offense.
To study the Way, always look
within your own self-nature;
You are then the same in kind
and lineage as all Buddhas.
Our Patriarch passed along only
this Sudden Teaching;
Wishing that all might see the nature
and be of one substance.
In the future if you wish
to find the Dharma body;
Detach yourself from Dharma marks
and inwardly wash the mind.
Strive to see it for yourself
and do not waste your time,
For when the final thought has stopped
your life comes to an end.
Enlightened to the Great Vehicle
you can see your nature;
So reverently join your palms
and seek it with all your heart.
 
吾有一無相頌。若能誦持。言下令汝積劫迷罪。一時消滅。
頌曰。
迷人修福不修道　只言修福便是道
布施供養福無邊　心中三惡元來造
擬將修福欲滅罪　後世得福罪還在
但向心中除罪緣　各自性中真懺悔
忽悟大乘真懺悔　除邪行正即無罪
學道常於自性觀　即與諸佛同一類
吾祖唯傳此頓法　普願見性同一體
若欲當來覓法身　離諸法相心中洗
努力自見莫悠悠　後念忽絕一世休
若悟大乘得自性　虔誠合掌至心求