Ishmael is a fictional character, the protagonist in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851).

Ishmael, the only surviving crewmember of the Pequod, is the narrator of the book. As a
character he is a few years younger than as a narrator. His importance relies on his role as
narrator; as a character, he is only a minor participant in the action. The Biblical name has come
to symbolize orphans, exiles, and social outcasts.
Because he was the first person narrator, much early criticism of Moby-Dick either confused
Ishmael with the author himself or overlooked him. From the mid-twentieth century onward,
critics distinguished Ishmael from Melville. They established Ishmael's mystic and speculative
consciousness as a central force in the book in contrast to Captain Ahab's monomaniacal force of
will.
By contrast with his namesake Ishmael from Genesis, who is banished into the desert, Ishmael is
wandering upon the sea. Each Ishmael, however, experiences a miraculous rescue; in the Bible
from thirst, here from drowning.
[1]

Characteristics
Both Ahab and Ishmael are fascinated by the whale, but whereas Ahab perceives him exclusively
as evil, Ishmael keeps an open mind. Ahab has a static worldview, blind to new information, but
Ishmael's worldview is constantly in flux as new insights and realizations occur. "And flux in
turn ... is the chief characteristic of Ishmael himself." In the chapter "The Doubloon," Ishmael
reports how each spectator sees his own personality reflected in the coin, but does not look at it
himself. Only fourteen chapters later, in "The Guilder," does he participate in "what is clearly a
recapitulation" of the earlier chapter. The difference is that the surface of the golden sea in "The
Guilder" is alive, whereas the surface of the doubloon is unalterably fixed, "only one of several
contrasts between Ishmael and Ahab."
Ishmael meditates on a wide range of topics. In addition to explicitly philosophical references, in
Chapter 89, for instance, he expounds on the legal concept, Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish, which he
takes to mean that possession, rather than a moral claim, bestows the right of ownership.
[2]

[3]

[4]

Biography
Ishmael explains his need to go to sea and travels from Manhattan Island to New Bedford. He is
a seasoned sailor, having served onmerchant vessels in the past, but this would be his first time
aboard a whaling ship. The inn is crowded and he must share a bed with the
tattooed Polynesian, Queequeg, a harpooneer who Ishmael assumes to be a cannibal. The next
morning Ishmael and Queequeg head for Nantucket. Ishmael signs up for a voyage on the
whaler Pequod, under Captain Ahab. Ahab is obsessed by the white whale, Moby Dick, who on a
previous voyage has severed his leg. In his quest for revenge Ahab has lost all sense of
responsibility, and when the whale sinks the ship, all crewmembers drown, with the exception of
Ishmael: And I only am escaped alone to tell thee (Job) says the epigraph. Ishmael keeps
himself afloat on a coffin until he is picked up by another whaling ship, the Rachel.

And Ishmael (Old Testament)

The name Ishmael is Biblical in origin: in Genesis 16:1-16; 17:18-25; 21:6-21; 25:9-17, Ishmael
was the son of Abraham by the servantHagar. In 16:11-12, the most significant verses for
Melville's allegory, Hagar was cast off after the birth of Isaac, who inherited the covenant of the
Lord instead of his older half-brother.
[5]

Melville shapes his allegory to the Biblical Ishmael as follows:

Biblical Ishmael is banished to "the wilderness of Beer-sheba," while the narrator

of Moby-Dick wanders, in his own words in "the wilderness of waters." In the Bible the
desert or wilderness is a common setting for a vision of one kind to another. By contrast,
Melville's Ishmael takes to sea searching for insights.

In Genesis, Hagar was visited by an angel who instructed her to call her still unborn
child Yishma'el, meaning "God shall hear." The prophecy in the name was fulfilled when
Ishmael, perishing in the desert, was saved by a miracle: the sudden appearance of a well of
water. In Moby-Dick, only Ishmael escapes the sinking of the Pequod, and "that by a margin
so narrow as to seem miraculous."
And so the name points to a Biblical analogy that marks Ishmael as the prototype of "wanderer
and outcast," the man set at odds with his fellows. Wright says that all Melville's heroeswith
the exception of Benito Cereno and Billy Buddare manifestations of Ishmael, and four are
actually identified with him: Redburn, Ishmael, Pierre, and Pitch from The Confidence-Man.
[6]

[7]

[6]

[8]

[9]

[10]

This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations.
Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (July 2015)
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(July 2015)

Huineng

Mummy of Huineng
School
Born

Chan Buddhism
Personal
638

Guangzhou, China
Died
713 (aged 75)
Senior posting
Title
Chan master
6th Chn Patriarch
Predecessor Daman Hongren
Successor Caodong/St School: Qingyuan Xingsi
Linji/Rinzai School: Nanyue Huairang
Religious career
Teacher Daman Hongren
Students Nanyue Huairang
Qingyuan Xingsi
Nanyang Huizhong
Yongjia Xuanjue
Shenhui

Huineng
Chinese name
Chinese

Japanese name
Kanji
Kana

Part of a series on

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Main articles
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Related schools

Huineng (Chinese: ; pinyin: Hunng, 638713) was a Buddhist monk who is one of the
most important figures in Chan Buddhismaccording to standard hagiographies. Huineng has been
traditionally viewed as the Sixth and Last Patriarch of Chan Buddhism.
His posthumous name is Dajian (Chinese: ; pinyin: Djin; WadeGiles: Ta -chien ).
4

Biography
Most modern scholars doubt the historicity of traditional biographies and works written about
Huineng. The two primary sources for Huineng's life are the preface to the Platform Sutra and
the Transmission of the Lamp.
Huineng was born into the Lu family in 638 A.D. in Xinzhou (present-day Xinxing County)
in Guangdong province. His father died when he was young and his family was poor. As a
consequence, Huineng had no opportunity to learn to read or write and is said to have remained
illiterate his entire life.
[1]

[2]

The Platform Sutra

The Platform Stra of the Sixth Patriarch is attributed to Huineng. It was constructed over a
longer period of time, and contains different layers of writing. It is...
[3]

[4]

...a wonderful melange of early Chan teachings, a virtual repository of the entire
tradition up to the second half of the eighth century. At the heart of the sermon is the
same understanding of the Buddha-nature that we have seen in texts attributed to
Bodhidharma and Hongren, including the idea that the fundamental Buddha-nature
isonly made invisible to ordinary humans by their illusions".
[5]

Citation of Buddhist Scriptures

The Platform Stra cites and explains a wide range of Buddhist scriptures listed here in the order
of appearance:

Diamond Sutra

Lakvatra Stra

Mahparinirvn a Stra

Mahprajpramit Stra

Brahmajla Stra

Vimalakirti Sutra

Lotus Sutra

ragama Stra

Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana

[6]

[citation needed]

[citation needed]

Diamond Sutra
According to the Platform Sutra, one day while delivering firewood to a store, Huineng heard a
customer reciting the Diamond Sutra and had an awakening. He immediately inquired about the
sutra, and decided to seek out the Fifth Patriarch, Daman Hongren, at his monastery on Huang
Mei Mountain. Some later versions of the story have the customer giving him 10 or 100 taels of

silver to provide for his aged mother. After travelling for thirty days on foot, he arrived at
Huangmei Mountain, where the Fifth Patriarch was presiding.

Introduction to Hongren
The first chapter of the Ming canon version of the Platform Sutra describes the introduction of
Huineng to Hongren as follows;
The Patriarch asked me, "Who are you and what do you seek?"
I replied, "Your disciple is a commoner from Xinzhou of Lingnan. I have travelled far to pay
homage to you and seek nothing other than Buddhahood."
"So you're from Lingnan, and a barbarian! How can you expect to become a Buddha?" asked the
Patriarch.
I replied, "Although people exist as northerners and southerners, in the Buddha-naturethere is
neither north nor south. A barbarian differs from Your Holiness physically, but what difference is
there in our Buddha-nature?
[citation needed]

Huineng became a labourer in the monastery, doing chores in the rice mill, chopping wood and
pounding rice at the monastery for the next eight months.

Succession of Hongren
The Platform Sutra contains the well-known story of the contest for the succession of Hongren.
According to the text, Huineng won this contest, but had to flee the monastery to avoid the rage
of the supporters of Shenxiu. The story is not a factual account, but an 8th-century construction,
probably by the so-called Oxhead School.
[4]

Becoming the Sixth Patriarch

The Sixth Patriarch Cutting the Bamboo, Liang Kai (, c.1140-1210)

The first chapter of the Platform Sutra tells the well-known apocryphal story of the Dharmatransmission from Hongren to Hui-neng. Hongren asked his students to...

... write me a stanza (gatha) [...] He who understands what the Essence of Mind is will be
given the robe (the insignia of the Patriarchate) and the Dharma (the ultimate teaching
of the Chan school), and I shall make him the Sixth Patriarch.
Only Shenxiu wrote a poem, anonymously on the wall in the middle of the night. It stated:
The body is a Bodhi tree,
The mind a standing mirror bright.
At all times polish it diligently,
And let no dust alight.
[7]

[8]

[citation needed]

After having read this poem aloud to him, Hui-neng asked an officer to write another gatha on
the wall for him, next to Shenxiu's, which stated:
Bodhi is originally without any tree;
The bright mirror is also not a stand.
Originally there is not a single thing
Where could any dust be attracted?
[9]

[citation needed]

Nanhua Temple, where Huineng taught and lived.

Hongren read the stanza, and received Huineng in his abode, where he expounded the Diamond
Sutra to him. When he came to the passage, "to use the mind yet be free from any attachment,"
Huineng came to great awakening. He exclaimed,

How amazing that the self nature is originally pure! How amazing that the self nature is
unborn and undying! How amazing that the self nature is inherently complete! How
amazing that the self nature neither moves nor stays! How amazing that all dharmas
come from this self nature!
[citation needed]

Hongren then passed the robe and begging bowl, symbols of the Dharma Seal of Enlightenment,
to Huineng and he thus became the Sixth Patriach.

Interpretation of the verses

According to the traditional interpretation, which is based on Guifeng Zongmi, the fifthgeneration successor of Shenhui, the two verses represent respectively the gradual and the
sudden approach. According to McRae, this is an incorrect understanding:

[T]he verse attributed to Shenxiu

Write what you feel...

Something amazing
Posted by Anonymous on 2016/04/11 under Life
When I am working on my computer I almost always want to listen to music, and I watch
in incognito mode. The two songs I usually listen to is sing sing sing by bebo best and
thrift shop pmj cover bart and baker remix. I did this so much that if you watch sing
sing sing by bebo best then the next song in autoplay will be thrift shop pmj cover bart
and baker remix almost always. So cool.

Funny how I used to wanted to please the entire human race. I wanted to be a leader so
bad that I needed to be cool. I tried so hard not to care, not to let others know how so
self conscious I was.
Ha. Well, f*** all of them. About time I woke up.
Why would you want to have a 1000 friends when one girl can make you feel happier
than every one of them could? Why do I care as long as I love myself. I finally told my
parents that my dream is to involve myself in the fashion industry.
You shouldve seen the disappointment on their faces, it was hilarious. The second I
saw their reaction, I knew I was doing the right thing.
Do what you love. Youll never know how beautiful color is if you never open your eyes.