六祖大師法寶壇經 1.37

1.37

"Huineng obtained the Dharma at East Mountain, having endured utmost hardships, with my life hanging by a thread. Today, to be able to meet together in this single assembly with the governor, officials, monks, nuns, Daoists, and laypeople must be due to conditions over many kalpas, as well as having made offerings to the buddhas and planted good roots together in past lives; only thus have you now been able to hear the causes of obtaining the Dharma through the sudden teaching as described above. The teaching was transmitted by the sages of old; it is not Huineng's own wisdom. May those who wish to hear the teaching of the sages of old each purify their minds; having heard it, each must remove their doubts, no different from the sages of previous generations."