The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction,
however, and heaven and earth
are set infinitely apart.
If you wish to see the truth,
then hold no opinions
for or against anything.
To set 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.
The Way is perfect, like vast space
where nothing is lacking
and nothing is in excess.
Indeed, it is due to our choosing
to accept or reject that we do not see
the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements
of outer things,
nor in inner feelings of emptiness.
Be serene in the oneness of things
and such erroneous views
will disappear by themselves.
When you try to stop activity
to achieve passivity,
your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain in one extreme
or the other you will never know Oneness. Those who do not live in the single Way fail in both activity and passivity,
assertion and denial.
To deny the reality of things
is to miss their reality;
to assert the emptiness of things
is to miss their reality.
The more you talk and think about it,
the further astray you wander
from the truth.
Stop talking and thinking,
and there is nothing
you will not be able to know.
To return to the root is to find the meaning, but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.
At the moment of inner enlightenment
there is a going beyond
appearance and emptiness.
The changes that appear
to occur in the empty world
we call real only because of our ignorance.
Do not search for the truth;
only cease to cherish opinions.
Do not remain in the dualistic state;
avoid such pursuits carefully.
If there is even a trace
of this and that, of right and wrong,
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.
Although all dualities come from the One,
do not be attached even to this One.
When the mind exists
undisturbed in the Way,
nothing in the world can offend,
and when a thing can no longer offend,
it ceases to exist in the old way.
When no discriminating thoughts arise,
the old mind ceases to exist.
When thought-objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes,
as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.
Things are objects because of the subject;
the mind is such because of things.
Understand the relativity of these two
and the basic reality:
the unity of emptiness.
In this emptiness
the two are indistinguishable
and each contains in itself
the whole world.
If you do not discriminate
between coarse and fine
you will not be tempted
to prejudice and opinion.
To live in the Great Way
is neither easy nor difficult,
but those with limited views
are fearful and irresolute:
the faster they hurry, the slower they go,
and clinging cannot be limited;
even to be attached to the idea
of enlightenment is to go astray.
Just let things be in their own way
and there will be
neither coming nor going.
Obey the nature of things,
and you will walk freely and undisturbed.
When thought is in bondage
the truth is hidden,
for everything is murky and unclear,
and the burdensome practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefit can be derived
from distinctions and separations?
If you wish to move in the One Way,
do not dislike even the world
of senses and ideas.
Indeed, to accept them fully
is identical with true Enlightenment.
The wise person strives toward no goals
but the foolish person fetters themselves.
There is one Dharma, not many;
distinctions arise
from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with the discriminating mind
is the greatest of all mistakes.
Rest and unrest derive from illusion;
with enlightenment
there is no liking and disliking.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams or flowers in air: foolish to try to grasp them. Gain and loss, right and wrong:
such thoughts must finally
be abolished 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 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 causeless, relationless state.
Consider movement stationary
and the stationary in motion,
both movement and rest disappear.
When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate finality
no law or description applies.
For the unified mind
in accord with the Way
all self-centered striving ceases.
Doubts and irresolutions vanish
and life in true faith is possible.
With a single stroke
we are freed from bondage;
nothing clings to us
and we hold to nothing.
All is empty, clear, self-illuminating
with no exertion of the mind’s power.
Here, thought, feeling, knowledge,
and imagination are of no value.
In this world of Suchness
there is neither self nor other-than-self.
To come directly into harmony
with this reality just simply say
when doubt arises, “not two.”
In this “not two” nothing is separate, nothing is excluded. No matter when or where,
enlightenment means entering this truth.
And this truth is beyond extension
or diminution in time or space;
in it a single thought is ten thousand years. Emptiness here, emptiness there,
but the infinite universe
stands always before your eyes.
Infinitely large and infinitely small;
no difference,
for definitions have vanished
and no boundaries are seen.
So too with being and non-being.
Don't waste time in doubts and arguments that have nothing to do with this.
One thing, all things,
move among and intermingle
without distinction.
To live in this realization is to be
without anxiety about non-perfection.
To live in this faith
is the road to non-duality
because the non-dual
is one with the trusting mind.
Words!
The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is
no yesterday
no tomorrow
no today.
From Liturgy Manual of Zen Mountain Monastery, (c) Dharma Communications
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