A senior disciple of
弘忍, he wrote the verse
身是菩提树，
心如明镜台, 'the body is a bodhi tree, the mind a bright mirror's stand', which
慧能 answered. His northern school taught gradual awakening and Huineng's southern school sudden awakening, the split known as
南顿北渐.
武则天 invited him to court in his nineties and honoured him as a teacher of the state.
