The Great Way is not difficult....
-
Hsin Hsin Ming
Inscribed on the Believing MindThe 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 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.
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 [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 practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefits 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 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 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 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. -
信心銘
　至�無難　　唯嫌�擇　　但莫憎愛
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信心銘之終 -
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Hsin Hsin Ming
Inscribed on the Believing MindThe 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 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.
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 [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 practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefits 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 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 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 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.Ha ha... of course the Great Way is not difficult, if only you can have no preferences. But to have no preferences is very very difficult. If it's not difficult, then everybody will be a Buddha by now. Even to recognise that everything is empty and firmly believe in it is difficult enough.
-
Originally posted by Rick555:
Ha ha... of course the Great Way is not difficult, if only you can have no preferences. But to have no preferences is very very difficult. If it's not difficult, then everybody will be a Buddha by now. Even to recognise that everything is empty and firmly believe in it is difficult enough.
Just accept that love and hate arise. No preference for non-preference. THIS is It! Everything is a perfect unfolding of consciousness, and nothing can be added or subtracted from the ISness of All. Like a mirror that impartially reflects everything including emotions and feelings of love and hate, even love and hate is simply a pure reflection, IS actually a perfect expression of, and is the Mirror (pure awareness) itself! All there is is simply this simple Isness.
-
The surrender into complete acceptance of What Is, as the perfect unfolding in Consciousness, is a primary characteristic of waking up; it can be found over and over in the writings, and all of the Teaching points to it. Acceptance is a very deep, is infinite: and it starts here, in your own heart. Whatever arises is accepted. If resentment arises, there is acceptance that resentment is happening in this body/mind. If there then comes a layer of judgement, that the resentment should not be happening, then the acceptance can go deeper, to accept that the judgement is happening.
If there is another layer, of feeling bad about yourself perhaps, or an unhappiness that you are the 'kind of person' in whom resentment arises, or feeling bitter or hopeless, or whatever; then that too can be included in the infinite acceptance. If there is an urge to be more mindful or attentive to the root causes of resentment, then there is acceptance that such a motivation is arising. There is no end to the acceptance. And then it extends outward, to events and situations and other people. Deep acceptance, at all levels, of whatever arises; even if it is not liked; even the not-liking itself.
Despite appearances, there is nothing happening here. Nothing that appears to happen matters at all, is of any importance. It is all perfect as it is. How do I know? Because it is what is; how then can it be other than perfect? This becomes obvious when it is seen, is probably incomprehensible and difficult to accept until it is seen.
Meanwhile, of course, there is simply being. Things happen in your life; good things, not so good things. There is watching this happen. Again, if emotions arise, then they too are arising in Consciousness, and there is watching them arise. If thoughts or judgements arise, then there is watching these also. Always knowing, this too shall pass. No assumptions need be made, nothing needs to be labeled or held on to.
-
Quote from AEN's post:
When no discriminating thoughts arise,
the old mind ceases to exist.
When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes.
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.~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sound like the " Source" was spake thru author's mind after his old mind is gone
-
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Just accept that love and hate arise. No preference for non-preference. THIS is It! Everything is a perfect unfolding of consciousness, and nothing can be added or subtracted from the ISness of All. Like a mirror that impartially reflects everything including emotions and feelings of love and hate, even love and hate is simply a pure reflection, IS actually a perfect expression of, and is the Mirror (pure awareness) itself! All there is is simply this simple Isness.
And guess what..? The emotions of love and hate, like any other feeling and thoughts, are just spontaneous happenings, by no one to no one. They are not I, they are not mine, (there is no I and mine -- both are illusions) they are simply spontaneous happening, arising and subsiding by itself in clarity. All feelings, emotions, doings, thoughts, and so on are all the impersonal functioning in consciousness expressing according to the conditionings of that particular body/mind organism.
We just have to allow them to 'happen', and even that is not quite it, for in truth there is no "I" that can allow or reject the appearances: there is simply and always only the appearances arising/happening spontaneously and 'naturally' according to conditions. Presence simply Is along with how causes and conditions unfold.
To 'allow' simply means to drop the false notion of self and doership, the sense of being a separate entity that is the 'owner' of thoughts and emotions and deeds and furthermore can 'control' the way thoughts and emotions unfold, or end, or that one is a 'doer' that can control and manipulate how things end up being done by "me". 'Allowing' or 'acceptance' is not about passivity, rather it simply means to drop this illusory notion and simply let the natural radiance to express by itself in everything, in every action, thought, sensation, and so on.
It's not that things cannot show results in a predictable way if a 'time-tested' way of doing is being followed, or that emotions cannot stop or the thoughts cannot stop, but rather, all deeds are only the Being Done, and there is no separate doer or controller apart from that deed. And if thoughts and emotions stop, it is simply the subsiding of the thoughts and emotions, not due to a separate agent controlling and ending the thoughts.
In fact it is due to the dropping, subsiding and seeing through of the false notion of a doer or a self, a simple letting be, allowing, that thoughtlessness can be 'attained'. And even if thoughts arise, that's also fine. They're not 'yours' and there is no 'you' to which the thought is happening nor is there a 'you' that is the thinker or controller of thoughts. Just don't pursue, attach, or seek them (the thoughts). Undistracted, uninvolved. Let them arise and subside in its own accord in the vast aware spaciousness.
Hence, thoughts can stop, but not through forceful controlling (due to the sense that there is an "I" that can forcefully push out all thoughts), or worse still - suppression (which we simply push into our subconscious which will re-surface again repeatedly at later dates), it never works this way. It is through a gentle allowing and letting go/de-grasping of the thoughts that they can gradually die down.
So if emotions arise, it is simply Arising without a thinker or a doer, if they subside, its simply subsiding without a thinker/doer. Likewise to all other thoughts and feelings. In hearing, there is just the sound, no hearer. In seeing, there is just the seen, no seer. In thinking, there is just thoughts, no thinker. In doing, just the deed, no doer. Always So. Scenery sees. Sound hears. Thought thinks. Deeds acting. Enlightenment is simply the insight, the quantum shift of perception into this Reality.
"Here, we speak of another possibility, a possibility the seeker in his/her desperate quest for spiritual enlightenment could never, ever accept: That there is only ever the present appearance of life, with no separate "individual" at its core who could ever escape, even if they wanted to. This message is about nothing less than the possibility of absolute freedom from suffering and seeking, right here, right now, in the midst of this very life. A life lived by no-one. A life without a centre...." -
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Just accept that love and hate arise. No preference for non-preference. THIS is It! Everything is a perfect unfolding of consciousness, and nothing can be added or subtracted from the ISness of All. Like a mirror that impartially reflects everything including emotions and feelings of love and hate, even love and hate is simply a pure reflection, IS actually a perfect expression of, and is the Mirror (pure awareness) itself! All there is is simply this simple Isness.
Well, 'THIS' is difficult to achieve, isn't it? Knowledge is one thing, practising it is another. Do you really have no preference at all? If really so, then I salute you! You're already a Buddha.
Even Buddha acknowledged in 'Sutra of the 42 sections' that practising the Way is difficult (look at section 12).
Of course, this shouldn't stop us from trying to achieve it, just as I believe that your degree of preference may be less than other people.
And wow! You actually stayed up so late? Bad for health you know. Take care!
-
Originally posted by Rick555:
Well, 'THIS' is difficult to achieve, isn't it? Knowledge is one thing, practising it is another. Do you really have no preference at all? If really so, then I salute you! You're already a Buddha.
Even Buddha acknowledged in 'Sutra of the 42 sections' that practising the Way is difficult (look at section 12).
Of course, this shouldn't stop us from trying to achieve it, just as I believe that your degree of preference may be less than other people.
And wow! You actually stayed up so late? Bad for health you know. Take care!
THIS cannot be achieved or attained, simply because THIS is always and always will be THIS and is inescapable, even if you try to. (any attempt to escape is an illusion and immediately a failure and will just lead to more suffering)
If 'practice' is trying to push away thoughts and emotions and suffering and things like that, then you are simply doing more things, adding more things that covers up your true nature, and re-enforcing the sense of a self/doer/controller/thinker.
And again like I said, even if preference arise that's totally fine -- just allow and accept that the preference is happening, just don't have preference for non-preference. Even the thought of preference is an appearance of THIS, simply Is.
The so called 'practice' is simply a non-doing, and even that is not quite right, there can't really be a 'doing nothing' -- there is simply the ISness of every moment... whether you accept or reject, it simply is. Everything simply arises and dissolves in its own accord. Without self (and all along there isn't a self except we tightly hold onto the illusion due to ignorance), there is simply the pure experience, the feelings and sensations and thoughts, without any sense of a separate perceiver.
There is only the flickering self-luminous appearances of life without ever a separate agent or self apart from the arising and subsiding. Practice requires us to be completely honest. Even if suffering is arising, the suffering is unavoidable. When there is suffering, there is no "beyond it" too.
It is said to be incredibly simple and difficult at the same time, it is simple because it is our natural state which is ever-present -- there is nothing that can be 'done' to achieve or lose It, but it is difficult to see because we have the tendency to hold onto our dishonesty and our illusions. As our moderator longchen wrote in one of his articles,
http://www.dreamdatum.com/new-phase.html
...One important point to note: We tend to think that Enlightenment is an attainment. This is not entirely true. Enlightenment is simply a concept. It is a non-attainment. The egoic mind or sense of self can only understanding way of relating and achieving in terms of striving. However, the state of non-dual awareness cannot be recognised in the striving. That is why Enlightenment cannot be achieved by striving. Therefore it is a non-attainment. Ironically, non-attainment is such a struggle to achieve...
-----------------
"Here, we speak of another possibility, a possibility the seeker in his/her desperate quest for spiritual enlightenment could never, ever accept: That there is only ever the present appearance of life, with no separate "individual" at its core who could ever escape, even if they wanted to. This message is about nothing less than the possibility of absolute freedom from suffering and seeking, right here, right now, in the midst of this very life. A life lived by no-one. A life without a centre...."And yes, I have a bad habit of staying late.