The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch was most likely written by multiple authors from two rival schools of Zen Buddhism. One school promotes the doctrine of sudden awakening and the other promotes the doctrine of gradual awakening. The sutra reconciles the different teachings and shows that both can lead to enlightenment. The Platform Sutra has two contrasting verses that suggest multiple authors from rival schools wrote it. The first verse supports the gradual awakening doctrine and claims that “The body is the Bodhi tree, / The mind is like a clear mirror. / At all times we must strive to polish it, / And must not let the dust collect” (Reader 543). The second verse supports the sudden awakening doctrine and states that the “Bodhi
