Hsin Hsin Ming - Verses on Faith Mind
by Seng-Tsan, Third Zen Patriarch - Translated by Richard Clark
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The Great Way (experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven) is not difficult for those who have no preferences.
When love (attachments) and hate (aversions) are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however, (identify with something you love or hate)
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart..
If you wish to know the truth,
then hold to no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
(belief in the separate self is the problem. Once this occurs one no longer experiences peace and is caught in a movement between that which which attracts us: attachments and that which repels us: aversions)
The Way is perfect as vast space,
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or rejecting that we do not know the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in ideas or feelings of emptiness.
Be serene in the oneness of things and erroneous views will disappear by themselves.
When you try to stop activity to achieve quietude, your very effort fills you with activity. As long as you remain attached to one extreme or another you will never know Oneness. Those who do not live in the Single Way cannot be free in either activity or quietude, in assertion or denial.
(Acceptance of what is is the way. If it's raining, accept it. If it's sunny, accept it. If your partner is angry, accept it. Never identify with thoughts or feelings, or events. Being alert to hear the "I am _____" thought of the Ego trying hard to keep you stuck where you are. If You catch the ego say e.g. "I am lonely" Accept the thought as you would accept a cloud passing in the sky. Don't get caught and start making a story about it reviewing all the reasons an idea like this wants to take hold)
Deny the reality of things and you miss their reality;
assert the emptiness of things and you miss their reality.
(the reality in all experience is the awareness that is witness to the experience.
This is what we are, and it can only be experienced. Words can not describe it.)
The more you talk and think about it the further you wander from the truth.
So cease attachment to talking and thinking, and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
(Even speaking to ourselves in our heads is a sort of attachment, keeping our attention on an imagined separated entity so that we miss the Being we all share)
To return to the root is to find the essence, but to pursue appearances or "enlightenment" is to miss the source. To awaken even for a moment is to go beyond appearance and emptiness.
(I have found Eckert Tolle and Mooji very helpful in this regard. To remain in the feeling of Being that you are rather than spending time searching outside of yourself for enlightenment)
Changes that seem to occur in the empty world we make real only because of our ignorance.
Do not seek for the truth; Only cease to cherish opinions.
(This is the way of acceptance. ACIM tells us that the world is here to teach us forgiveness. Forgiveness of others, of ourself, and of God. It's like a ladder that reaches from the earth (separation) to heaven (unity with Spirit. Krishnamurtu also said something simiular from his own experience.... get this quote) .
Do not remain in a dualistic state; avoid such easy habits carefully. If you attach even to a trace of this and that, of right and wrong, the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion. Although all dualities arise from the One, do not be attached even to ideas of this One.
When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, there is no objection to anything in the world; and when there is no objection to anything, things cease to be in the old way. When no discriminating attachment arises, the old mind ceases to exist.
Let go of things as separate existences, and mind too vanishes. Likewise when the thinking subject vanishes so too do the objects created by mind.
(Listen to Mooji videos on YouTube to get a jist of what this is about. Who is the thinker? Who is the unworthy one? Who is the victimized one? Don't think about it. Go inside to find out. )
The arising of other gives rise to self; giving rise to self generates others. Know these seeming two as facets of the One Fundamental Reality. In this Emptiness, these two are really one, and each contains all phenomena. If not comparing, nor attached to "refined" and "vulgar"—you will not fall into judgment and opinion.
The Great Way is embracing and spacious—to live in it is neither easy nor difficult.
(To live in this way is to live without self-identification, thus "easy" or "difficult" are meaningless)
Those who rely on limited views are fearful and irresolute: The faster they hurry, the slower they go. To have a narrow mind, and to be attached to getting enlightenment is to lose one's center and go astray. When one is free from attachment, all things are as they are, and there is neither coming nor going.
When in harmony with the nature of things, your own fundamental nature, and you will walk freely and undisturbed. However, when mind is in bondage, the truth is hidden, everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness. What benefit can be derived from attachment to distinctions and separations?
If you wish to move in the One Way, do not dislike the worlds of senses and ideas. Indeed, to embrace them fully is identical with true Enlightenment.
The wise person attaches to no goals but the foolish person fetters himself or herself. There is one Dharma, (Divine Law, Order, Way) without differentiation. Distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant. To seek Mind with the discriminating mind is the greatest of mistakes.
Rest and unrest derive from illusion; with enlightenment, attachment to liking and disliking ceases. All dualities come from ignorant inference. They are like dreams, phantoms, hallucinations—it is foolish to try to grasp them. Gain and loss, right and wrong; finally abandon all such thoughts at once.
If the eye never sleeps, all dreams will naturally cease. If the mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence. To realize the mystery of this One-essence is to be released from all entanglements. When all things are seen without differentiation, the One Self-essence is everywhere revealed. No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relation-less state of just this One.
When movement stops, there is no movement—and when no movement, there is no stopping. When such dualities cease to exist, Oneness itself cannot exist. To this ultimate state no law or description applies.
For the Realized mind at one with the Way, all self-centered striving ceases. Doubts and irresolutions vanish, and the Truth is confirmed in you. With a single stroke you are freed from bondage; nothing clings to you and you hold to nothing. All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no need to exert the mind. Here, thinking, feeling, understanding, and imagination are of no value. In this world "as it really is" there is neither self nor other-than-self.
To know this Reality directly is possible only through practicing non-duality. When you live this non-separation, all things manifest the One, and nothing is excluded. Whoever comes to enlightenment, no matter when or where, Realizes personally this fundamental Source.
This Dharma-truth has nothing to do with big or small, with time and space. Here a single thought is as ten thousand years. Not here, not there—but everywhere always right before your eyes. Infinitely large and infinitely small: no difference, for definitions are irrelevant and no boundaries can be discerned. So likewise with "existence" and "non-existence."
Don't waste your time in arguments and discussion attempting to grasp the ungraspable.
Each thing reveals the One, the One manifests as all things. To live in this Realization is not to worry about perfection or non-perfection. To put your trust in the Heart-Mind is to live without separation, and in this non-duality you are one with your Life-Source.
Words! Words! The Way is beyond language, for in it there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.