The Rabbit's Horn: A Commentary on the Platform Sutra

The Rabbit's Horn is a new English translation and commentary on the Platform Sutra, one of the foundational texts of the meditation (chan) school of Buddhism, and contains the teachings and life story of Venerable Master Huineng. Born in the seventh century to a poor family and raised in the backwoods of southern China, Huineng became the Sixth Patriarch of the Chan School and exerted a remarkable influence on the history of Buddhism. A polarizing force in his own time, Huineng emphasized looking past even the rabbit s horn of textual knowledge to look within and understand one s true nature and the potential for sudden awakening.

Venerable Master Hsing Yun is a Chinese Buddhist monk, author, philanthropist, and founder of the Fo Guang Shan monastic order, which has branches throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. Ordained at the age of twelve in Jiangsu Province, China, Master Hsing Yun has spent his over seventy years as a Buddhist monk building what he calls Humanistic Buddhism: Buddhism that meets the needs of people and is integrated into all aspects of life.

In 1949, Master Hsing Yun came to Taiwan and began to nurture the new burgeoning Buddhist culture in Taiwan. He served as an editor and contributor to many Buddhist magazines and periodicals, authoring the daily columns Between Ignorance and Enlightenment, Dharma Words, and Hsing Yun s Chan Talk, as well as starting his own Buddhist magazine, Awakening the World, in 1957, and the first daily Buddhist newspaper, the Merit Times, in 2000. Master Hsing Yun authored many important works including the Song of Silence, the Biography of Sakyamuni Buddha, and National Master Yulin. Master Hsing Yun also edited and sponsored the Fo Guang Encyclopedia, the most authoritative Buddhist reference work in the Chinese language. His contributions have reached as far as sponsoring Buddhist music and art, to creating Buddhist programming for television, radio, and the stage.