FAITH MIND

[Guest guest]

by Sosan Zenji (Seng-Tsan)

- the 3rd Zen Patriarch

 

 

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-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

 

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 the 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 acheive 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 appearance 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 a 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 the One

 

When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way

nothing in the world can offend

 

And when things 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 (mind)

the mind (subject) is such because of things (object)

 

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 (attachment) 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 (your own nature)

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 practise 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 man strives to no goals

but the foolish man fetters himself

 

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 passion,

with enlightenment there is no liking or disliking

 

All dualities come from ignorant inference

they are like dreams or flowers in the 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 free from bondage

nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing

 

All is empty, clear, self-illumination

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 (enlightenment)

 

One thing, all things:

move along 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

 

VERSES ON THE FAITH MIND

by Seng-Tsan, the third Zen Patriarch.

Translated by Richard B. Clarke.