Many people in the field of modern Buddhist research have reckoned the thoughts of Shen-hui as being inclined towards a view of extinction. His thoughts have also been criticized as being "chi chueh tsung tu". Are these criticisms and interpretations valid? From among the historical documents unearthed from the Dun-huang that have to do Shen-hui，we can see that throughout Shen-hui's entire life，he upheld and followed Hui-neng's meditation method of Returning to One's Self Nature with the emphasis on function. Therefore，his thoughts do not only lean towards a view of extinction. The aforementioned concepts formed an important part of his thoughts, but it was only during the latter part of his years of the Luo-yang period that these thoughts of his were clearly propagated. It is easier to recognize this truth only when one relies on a great quantity of Shen-hui's historical documents when doing a complete research project on the subject.
