hsin hsin ming
by Sengtsan
Illustrations by Goyskusei Jikihara
The Way, My friend
Is not difficult.
If it is truth you wish to see,
then hold no opinions,
for, or against, anything.
To place what you like,
against what you dislike,
is the hanky-panky of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things
is not understood,
You bother yourself to no avail.
The Way, My friend,
Is perfect.
It is due to our choosing
to accept, or reject, that we
do not see the true nature of things.
When you try to stop activity
to achive passivity,
Your very effort fills you with activity.
When you deny the reality of things,
you miss their reality.
When you assert the emptiness of things,
you miss their reality.
The more you talk, and think about it,
the further you wander from the truth.
Stop talking, and thinking,
And there is nothing
you will not be able to know.
To return the root,
is to find the meaning.
But, to presume appearances,
my friend,
is to miss the source.
Do not search for truth,
only cease to hang on to opinions.
If there is even a trace,
of this or that,
of right and wrong,
the mind essence will be lost
in confusion.
When the mind exists,
undisturbed,
Nothing can offend.
And when a thing can no longer offend,
it ceases to exist in the old way.
If you do not discriminate between
coarse and fine,
You will not be tempted to prejudice
and opinion.
Even to be attached to the idea
of enlightenment is to go astray.
Just let things be,
in their own way
And there neither be coming nor going.
When thought is in bondage
the truth is hidden.
The burdensome practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefit can be derived,
from distictions and separations?
If you wish to move in the one way,
do not dislike even the world
of sense and ideas.
To accept them fully,
Is identical with true enlightenment.
The wise man strives to no goals.
but the foolish man fetters himself.
There is one way,
not many.
Distinctions arise from the clinging
needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind (Capital M)
with discriminating mind (little m)
Is the greatest of all mistakes.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams,
foolish to try and grasp them.
Gain and loss,
right and wrong,
Such thoughts
must finally be abolished at once.
If the eye never sleeps,
All dreams must naturally cease.
If the mind makes no discriminations,
The ten thousand things are as they are
of single essence.
To understand the mystery of this
one essence,
Is to be released from all entanglements.
When all things are seen equally,
The timeless self essence is reached.
No comparisons, or analogies
are possible,
in this courseless, relationless
state.
When such dualities cease to exist,
Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate finality,
No law, or description applies.