Introduction
Page One ... Page Two ...
Page Three ... Without Commentary ... Cleary Translation ... Shinjin-No-Mei D.T.Suzuki
A translation known as Faith Mind by Clark is a W.I.P.
as is the original Chinese
- Clark tranlation of Faith Mind ...
- needs formatting ...
- will get to it when i can -ts-talk 18:14, 26 Aug 2005 (UTC)
- FAITH MIND by 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 isturbed 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 ail 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 arguements that have nothing to do with this
- 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 tommorrow
- no today
(VERSES ON THE FAITH MIND by Seng-Tsan the third Zen Patriarch. Translated by Ricahard B. Clarke).
Introduction
Page One ... Page Two ...
Page Three ... Without Commentary ... Cleary Translation ... Shinjin-No-Mei D.T.Suzuki
A translation known as Faith Mind by Clark is a W.I.P.
as is the original Chinese