Hui-neng (617-713) is perhaps the most respected and beloved figure in Zen Buddhism. An illiterate woodcutter who attained enlightenment in a flash, he became the renowned Sixth Patriarch of Ch'an, or Chinese Zen. He is the supreme exemplar of the fact that neither education nor social background has any bearing on the experience of enlightenment. Hui-neng’s teachings are characterized by their striking immediacy and by their concern with direct insight into the essential nature of awareness. The Sutra of Hui-neng is here accompanied by Hui-neng’s own commentary on the Diamond Sutra - in its first published English translation.