北宗禪法=the Chan teachings of the Northern sect; 《六祖壇經》=《the Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch》; 禪宗=the Chan sect; 看心看淨=seeing the heart and seeing the purity
The Chan teaching of the Northern sect--"seeing the heart and seeing the purity" was considered a serious error and hence not ultimate, being heavily criticized by Master Huineng of the Southern sect of Chan. Moreover, in Taisho Tripitaka, the scriptures “attaching to the heart and attaching to the purity," rather than the correct scriptures "seeing the heart and seeing the purity," were adopted. Those scriptures are only in line with the "text with wonderful wisdom" (文字般若), but not in line with the historical development of the Chan sect. The studies of famous scholars such as Pan Chonggu(潘重規) show that "seeing the heart and seeing the purity" was actually used in the Tang manuscript. Just that in the process of transmission and copying it had been mistaken as “attaching to the heart and attaching to the purity" due to the similarity in form between the Chinese character “see”(看) and “attach”( ). This paper will clarify this historical fact. Therefore, the line "not seeing the heart and not seeing the purity" as in the "Sitting Meditation Chapter" of the Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch duly conforms to meanings and textual research. Taisho Tripitaka’s "attaching to the heart and attaching to the purity" is clearly a wrong version in this regards as it is misled by a few previous scholars. The first chapter "The Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch" of the book A Study of Huineng published by Komazawa University in Japan compares and contrasts the three sutric systems Dunhuang(敦煌), Huixin(惠昕), Qisong(契嵩), as well as five textual versions. The result testifies to the fact that the deliberate change from the use of the word "see" to "attach" starts from the Huixin system(惠昕系統). This view is supported by the collation, footnotes and modifications of another textual version called Xinsheng Temple version(興聖寺本). Scholars, though just a few, only made their straightforward judgement by referring to the Buddhist teachings only, without giving any consideration to the fact that "seeing the heart and seeing the purity" is historically founded -- though it should be said that "attaching to the heart and attaching to the purity" does not contradict too much with the Buddhist teaching.
