This study was intended to explore Master Huineng’s The Altar Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (about 1300 years ago), by taking Mahayana Prajna as the main ideas with three extended perspectives focusing on compassion, Zen and the mind of poetry. After all, the daily life arts in the way of Zen would also be the focus of the discussion. In this study, by sieving through Zen classics and literature, the author explored topics and issues from Zen verses and Zen poems, proposed a merciful way of enlightenment to learn the notion of emptiness in true reality but with a spectacular appearance. Thereby, the concept, sense and taste of Zen can be rendered and achieved by diversified Zen arts. This study consists of seven chapters. The main points of each chapter are explained in the following: The first chapter is the introduction. It explains the motivation for investigating The Altar Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, reviews the related research studies, and analyzes the main evolution of the versions of the sutra, as well as the alleviated achievements in human history. According to this research, one can recognize the importance of the Zongbao version of this sutra. The second chapter is entitled as "The Origin and Main Ideas of Master Huineng on Zen". It explores a situation with possible reasons of the rise of Zen in ancient China. In the very beginning, it was based on the concepts of the Diamond Sutra and the teachings of patriarchs from the first to the fifth, i.e. from Master Bodhidharma to Master Hongren. Then, the notions of Mahayana Prajna summarized down to the sixth patriarch, Master Huineng. Master Huineng devoted to Buddhism in his whole life on the basis of Mahayana classics and the series teaching from the old patriarchs. According to the nature of compassion around Mahayana mercy and Prajna true empty, we can find the benevolent and compassionate characteristics of Zen state of the mind in daily life. Chapter three is entitled "Compassion: the observation of enlightening living beings by ‘Altar Sutra’ and Mahayana Bodhisattvas". The notions of Zen proposed by Master Huineng would help human beings to develop profound wisdoms by Prajna, to take the nature of emptiness as the Zen state of the mind. This notion gave directly impacts on the development of the Southern Zen sect from Tang and Five Dynasties around 1300 years ago till now. In this chapter, the author discusses the concept of compassion in the sutra based on Mahayana on sentient beings, proposes the Zen teachings which take care of the sentient beings according to Prajna, and emphasizes the compassion and liberation of sentient beings from reincarnation. In addition, the notions of Confucian benevolence is also included to show a special feature of Buddhism which is inseparable from human beings and the world. Chapter four is entitled "Zen State: the Self-Nature Verses and Zen State of the Mind Derived from the ‘Altar Sutra’
