This document contains a collection of verses from an ancient Chinese Buddhist text that discuss nondualistic Zen philosophy and the path to enlightenment. The verses emphasize letting go of dualistic and discriminatory thinking, embracing equanimity and oneness, and realizing one's true nature and unity with the Tao or suchness of reality. They advise avoiding grasping or objectification, and instead dropping all views to see the inherent perfection and emptiness of all things. The collection encourages realizing the nonduality of existence and emptiness, and hastening to behold the Dharma realm of true thusness where there is no other or self.
This document contains a collection of verses from an ancient Chinese Buddhist text that discuss nondualistic Zen philosophy and the path to enlightenment. The verses emphasize letting go of dualistic and discriminatory thinking, embracing equanimity and oneness, and realizing one's true nature and unity with the Tao or suchness of reality. They advise avoiding grasping or objectification, and instead dropping all views to see the inherent perfection and emptiness of all things. The collection encourages realizing the nonduality of existence and emptiness, and hastening to behold the Dharma realm of true thusness where there is no other or self.
Original Description:
Jianzhi Sengcan Xinxin Ming translated by Andy Ferguson
This document contains a collection of verses from an ancient Chinese Buddhist text that discuss nondualistic Zen philosophy and the path to enlightenment. The verses emphasize letting go of dualistic and discriminatory thinking, embracing equanimity and oneness, and realizing one's true nature and unity with the Tao or suchness of reality. They advise avoiding grasping or objectification, and instead dropping all views to see the inherent perfection and emptiness of all things. The collection encourages realizing the nonduality of existence and emptiness, and hastening to behold the Dharma realm of true thusness where there is no other or self.
This document contains a collection of verses from an ancient Chinese Buddhist text that discuss nondualistic Zen philosophy and the path to enlightenment. The verses emphasize letting go of dualistic and discriminatory thinking, embracing equanimity and oneness, and realizing one's true nature and unity with the Tao or suchness of reality. They advise avoiding grasping or objectification, and instead dropping all views to see the inherent perfection and emptiness of all things. The collection encourages realizing the nonduality of existence and emptiness, and hastening to behold the Dharma realm of true thusness where there is no other or self.
Just avoid picking and choosing. If you have neither aversion nor desire, Youll thoroughly understand. A hairs breadth difference Is the gap between heaven and earth. If you want it to come forth, Let there be no positive and negative, For such comparisons Are a sickness of the mind. Without knowing the Great Mystery Quiet practice is useless. The great perfection is the same as vast space, Lacking nothing, nothing extra. Due to picking up and discarding You will not know it. Dont chase the conditioned Nor abide in forbearing emptiness. In singular equanimity The self is extinguished. Ceasing movement and returning to stillness, This is complete movement. But only suppress the two aspects How can you realize unity? Not penetrating the one, The two lose their life. 499
Reject existence and you fall into it,
Pursue emptiness and you move away from it. With many words and thoughts You miss what is right before you. Cutting off words and thought Nothing remains unpenetrated. Return to the root and attain the essence, For if you chase the light youll lose the Way. But if you reflect the light for but a moment, All previous shadows are dispelled. All previous shadows are transformed Because they were all due to delusive views. Its no use to seek truth, Just let false views cease. Dont abide in duality And take care not to seek, For as soon as there is yes and no, The mind is lost in confusion. Two comes forth from one, But dont hold even the one, For when even the one mind is unborn, The myriad things are flawless Without flaws, without things. With no birth, no mind, Function is lost to conditions, Conditions perish in function, Conditions arise from function, Function is actualized from conditions. You should know that duality Is originally one emptiness, And one emptiness unifies duality, Encompassing the myriad forms. Not perceiving refined or vulgar Is there any prejudice? The Great Tao is vast, With neither ease nor difficulty. If you have biased views and doubts, And move too fast or slow,
500
z e n s c hin es e h er ita g e
Grasping the world without measure,
Then your mind has taken a wayward path. Let it all naturally drop away And embody no coming or going. In accord with your fundamental nature unite with Tao And wander the world without cares. Being tied by thought runs counter to Truth, But sinking into a daze is not good. Dont belabor the spirit. Why adhere to intimate or distant? If you want to experience the one vehicle, Dont malign the senses, For when the senses are not maligned That itself is perfect awakening. The wise do not move, But the ignorant bind themselves. Though one Dharma differs not from another The deluded self desires each, Objectifying the mind to realize mind. Is this not a great error? Delusion gives rise to quietness or chaos, But enlightenment has no positive and negative. The duality of existence Is born from false discrimination, Flourishing dreams and empty illusions. Why try to grab them? Gain and loss, true and false, Drop them all in one moment. If the eyes dont sleep All dreams disappear. If the mind does not go astray The myriad dharmas are but One, And the One encompasses the Mystery. In stillness, conditioned existence is forgotten, And the myriad things are seen equally, Naturally returning to each ones own nature. When all dharmas are extinguished It is immeasurable.
ap p e ndix
501
Cease movement and no movement exists,
When movement stops there is no cessation. Since two are not manifest How is there even one? Finally, ultimately, Principles do not exist. Bring forth the mind of equanimity And all activities will be put to rest, All doubts extinguished. True faith is upright, And nothing then remains, Nothing is remembered, And the empty brightness shines naturally Without effort of mind. There, not a thought can be measured, Reason and emotion cant conceive it. In the Dharma realm of true thusness There is neither other, nor self; One should hasten to behold it. Just say, Not two, For in not two all things are united, And there is nothing not included. The wise ones of the ten directions Have entered this great understanding, An understanding that neither hastens nor tarries. In ten thousand years, a single thought, Not to be found within existence and nonexistence, But meeting the eye in the ten directions. The smallest is no different from the largest. Eliminating boundaries, The largest is the same as the smallest. Not seeing divisions, Existence is but emptiness, Emptiness, existence. That which is not of this principle Must not be preserved. The one is everything, Everything, the one.
502
z e n s c hin es e h er ita g e
If your understanding is thus,
What is left to accomplish? Faith and mind are undivided, Nonduality is both faith and mind. The way of words is cut off, Leaving no past, no future, no present. Source: Chanzong Baodian
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