Date of birth: 638
Date of death: 713
Website:

Huineng was born into the Lu family in 638 A.D. in Xinzhou (present-day Xinxing County) in Guangdong province. His father died when he was young and his family was poor. As a consequence, Huineng had no opportunity to learn to read or write and is said to have remained illiterate his entire life. He may have been a Hmong or a Miao.[3] One day while delivering firewood to a store, he hears a customer reciting the Diamond Sutra and has an awakening. He immediately inquires about the sutra and decides to seek out the Fifth Patriarch Hongren at his monastery on Huang Mei Mountain. Some later versions of the story have the customer giving him 10 or 100 taels of silver to provide for his aged mother. Huineng then embarks on his journey, and after travelling for thirty days on foot, he arrives at Huang Mei Mountain where the Fifth Patriarch is presiding.

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