不識玄旨     Not knowing the deep meaning of the Way

徒勞念靜     The disciple labors to quiet his thoughts

The concept of meditating by making your mind a blank is an error. You cannot make your mind a blank. – Lester Levenson (Keys to the Ultimate Freedom)

770. Things are differentiated but the Mind is one; they do not perceive this. They seek it in the causeless and non-functioning, which is a mistake.

771. When the Yogin empties his mind, he does not see Mind in his mind. Insight comes forth from the perceived; whence is the rising of the perceived? – Lankavatara Sutra (p. 361)

Hakuin:

A man who carries on his practice by shunning the objects of the five senses, no matter how proficient he may be in the doctrine of the emptiness of self and things, and no matter how much insight he may have into the Way, when he leaves quietude and enters into the midst of activity, he is like a fish out of water or a monkey with no tree to climb. Most of his vitality is lost, and he is just like the lotus that withers at once when it is near fire. But if you dauntlessly persevere in the midst of the ordinary objects of the senses, devote yourself to pure undistracted meditation, and make no error whatsoever, you will be like the man who successfully delivered the several hundred ryo of gold despite the turmoil that surrounded him. Dauntlessly and courageously setting forth, and proceeding without a moment’s interruption, you will experience a great joy, as if suddenly you had made clear the basis of your own mind and had trampled and crushed the root of birth and death. It will be as if the empty sky had vanished and the iron mountain had crumbled. You will be like the lotus blooming amidst the flames, whose color and fragrance become more intense the nearer the fire approaches. Why should this be so? It is because the fire is the lotus and the lotus is the fire.

If at all times even when coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, when asleep or awake, the practitioner accomplishes everything he decides to do and attains everything that he attempts to attain and, displaying a great unconquerable determination, he moves forward ceaselessly, then he will transcend the emotions and sentiments of ordinary life. His heart will be filled with an extraordinary purity and clarity, as though he were standing on a sheet of ice stretching for thousands of miles. Even if he were to enter the midst of a battlefield or to attend a place of song, dance and revelry, it would be as though he were where no other person was. His great capacity, like that of Yun-men with his kingly pride, will make its appearance without being sought.

There are some blind, bald idiots who stand in a calm, unperturbed, untouchable place and consider that the state of mind produced in this atmosphere comprises seeing into their own natures. They think that to polish and perfect purity is sufficient, but have never even in a dream achieved the state [of the person described above]. People of this sort spend all day practicing non-action and end up by having practiced action all the while; spend all day practicing non-creating and end up by having practiced creating all the while. Why is this so? It is because their insight into the Way is not clear, because they cannot arrive at the truth of the Dharma-nature.

What a shame it is that they spend in vain this one birth as a human being, a birth so difficult to obtain. They are like blind turtles wandering pointlessly in empty valleys, like demons who guard the wood used for coffins. That they return unreformed in suffering to their old homes in the three evil paths is because their practice was badly guided, and from the outset they had not truly seen their own natures. They have exhausted the strength of their minds in vain and in the end have gained no benefit at all. This is regrettable indeed. (Yampolsky, Orategama)

Zen meditation:

Great masters of meditation from of old have kept their eyes open. Yuan-t’ung, the Zen master of Fa-yun, has also had a strong opinion against the habit of closing the eyes, and called such practisers dwellers of the skeleton cave in the dark valley. There is a deep sense in this, which is well understood by those who know. When the position is steadied and the breathing regular, the practitioner will now assume a somewhat relaxed attitude. Let him not be concerned with ideas of good or bad. When a thought arises let him bring it into awareness; brought into awareness, the thought will vanish. When the exercise is kept up steadily and for a sufficient length of time, disturbing thoughts will naturally cease to arise and there will prevail a state of oneness. This is the technique of practising meditation.

Meditation is the road leading to peace and happiness. The reason why there are so many people who grow ill is because they do not know how to prepare themselves properly for the exercise. If they understand the directions as given above, they will, without straining themselves too much, acquire not only the lightness of the body but the briskness of spirit, which finally brings about the clarification of the consciousness. The understanding of the Dharma will nourish the spirit and make the practitioner enjoy the pure bliss of tranquillity.

If he has already a realization within himself, his practice of meditation will be like a dragon slipping into the water, or a tiger crouching against a hillside. In case he has yet nothing of self-realization, the practice will be like fanning a flame: there should not be too much effort [lest one extinguish it]. (Suzuki, 1953)

Lester Levenson: 

Meditation is basically thinking in the right direction and holding to it so that other thoughts keep dropping away until the mind is concentrated. When the mind is concentrated the answers become obvious to you. The ability to hold one thought concentrates the mind so that it can crack the secrets of itself.

Madame Guyon:

I think the way to enter into it is this: After having brought ourselves into the presence of God by a definite act of faith, we should read something substantial, not so much to reason upon it as to fix the attention, observing that the principal exercise should be the presence of God, and that the purpose of the subject is to fix one’s attention rather than to exercise reason.

This faith in the presence of God within our hearts must lead us to enter within ourselves, collecting our thoughts and preventing their wandering. This is an effective way of getting rid of distracting thoughts and of losing sight of outward things in order to draw near to God, who can only be found in the secret place of our hearts, which is the sancta-sanctorum in which He dwells.

When, then, we are thus buried in ourselves, and deeply penetrated with the presence of God within us—when the senses are all drawn from the circumference to the centre, which, though it is not easily accomplished at first, becomes quite natural afterwards—when the soul is thus gathered up within itself and is sweetly occupied with the truth read, not in reasoning upon it, but in feeding upon it, and exciting the will by affection rather than the understanding by consideration, then the affection thus touched must be allowed to repose sweetly and at peace, swallowing what it has tasted.

As a person who only chewed an excellent meat would not be nourished by it unless he stopped chewing in order to swallow it, so when the affection is stirred, if we seek continually to stir it, we extinguish its fire, and thus deprive the soul of its nourishment. We must swallow by a loving repose (full of respect and confidence) what we have chewed and tasted. This method is very necessary, and would advance the soul in a short time more than any other would do in several years.

But as I said that the direct and principal exercise should be the sense of the presence of God, we must most faithfully recall the senses when they wander.

This is a short and efficacious way of fighting with distractions, because those who endeavour directly to oppose them only irritate and increase them. But by losing ourselves in the thought of a present God and allowing our thoughts to be drawn to Him, we combat them indirectly, and without thinking of them, but in an effectual manner.

And here let me warn beginners not to run from one truth to another, from one subject to another; but to keep themselves to one so long as they feel a taste for it: this is the way to enter deeply into truths, to taste them, and to have them impressed upon us. I say it is difficult at first thus to retire within ourselves because of the habits, which are natural to us, of being taken up with the outside. But when we are a little accustomed to it, it becomes exceedingly easy, both because we have formed the habit of it and because God, who only desires to communicate Himself to us, sends us abundant grace, and an experiential sense of His presence which renders it easy.

Guyon, J. M. B. de la Mot (1875). A Short Method of Prayer. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle.  (Translated by A. W. Marston, who may be Frances Cashel Hoey) (https://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/spiritualformation/texts/guyon_shortmethodofprayer.pdf)

Levenson, Lester (1993). Keys to the Ultimate Freedom: Thoughts and Talks on Personal Transformation. Phoenix, Arizona: Sedona Institute. ISBN 0-915721-03-1 (download)

Suzuki, D. T. (1953). Essays in Zen Buddhism (Second Series). London: Rider and Company (pp. 327-328). Originally in Regulations of the Meditation Hall, compiled by Pai-chang (720-814) the founder of the Zen monastery in China (from a 1265 text). (Zen meditation instruction)

Yampolsky, Philip B. (1971). The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings. New York: Columbia University Press. https://terebess.hu/zen/Orategama.pdf

違順相爭     To set what you like against what you dislike

是爲心病     This is the disease of the mind

 

Yogananda:

Another day found me walking alone near the Howrah railway station. I stood for a moment by a temple, silently criticizing a small group of men with drum and cymbals who were violently reciting a chant.

“How undevotionally they use the Lord’s divine name in mechanical repetition,” I reflected. My gaze was astonished by the rapid approach of Master Mahasaya. “Sir, how come you here?”

The saint, ignoring my question, answered my thought. “Isn’t it true, little sir, that the Beloved’s name sounds sweet from all lips, ignorant or wise?”

Without a breath of censure or criticism, he surveyed the world with eyes long familiar with the Primal Purity. His body, mind, speech, and actions were effortlessly harmonized with his soul’s simplicity.* (Autobiography, Cp. 9)

Meister Eckhart:

You should know that true detachment is nothing else but a mind that stands unmoved by all accidents of joy or sorrow, honour, shame or misfortune, as a mountain of lead stands unmoved by a breath of wind. This immovable detachment brings a man into the greatest likeness to God. For the reason why God is God is because of His immovable detachment, and from this detachment He has His purity, His simplicity,* and His immutability. Therefore, if a man is to be like God, as far as a creature can have likeness with God, this must come from detachment. This draws a man into purity, and from purity into simplicity, and from simplicity into immutability, and these things make a likeness between God and that man. And this likeness must occur through grace, for grace draws a man away from all temporal things and purges him of all that is transient. You must know, too, that to be empty of all creatures is to be full of God, and to be full of all creatures is to be empty of God. (On Detachment)

*Simplicity: singleness or soleness, ‘one-ness’

Bodhidharma’s Method For Quieting the Mind:

17. If your mind values one thing, it will surely despise another. If your mind affirms anything, it must negate something. If your mind takes one thing to be good, then other things are bad. If your mind has more affection for one person, it despises others. The mind does not abide in forms, nor does it abide in formlessness. It does not abide in abiding, nor does it abide in non-abiding. If your mind abides anywhere, it cannot avoid being bound. If your mind functions anywhere, that is bondage. If your mind values things (dharmas), things will bind you. If your mind values one thing, other things are inferior. When you try to grasp the meaning of the sutras and treatises you should not value understanding. If there are parts that you understand, then your mind is attached to something. If the mind is attached to anything, that is bondage. The sutra says: “It is not through inferior, average or superior things that one attains Nirvana.” Even though the mind has entered delusion, do not push delusion away. Instead, when something arises from the mind, rely on the Teaching to gaze at the place from which it arises. If the mind discriminates, rely on the Teaching to gaze at the place of the discrimination. Whether greed, anger or ignorance arise, rely on the Teaching to gaze at the place from which they arise. To see that there is no place from which these can arise is to cultivate the Way. If there is anything arising from the mind, then investigate it, and relying on the Teaching, clean house! (Bodhidharma’s Method For Quieting the Mind)

 

M. O’C. Walshe (1987). Meister Eckhart: Sermons & Treatises Volume III. UK: Element Books Limited.

Yogananda, Paramhansa (1946). Autobiography of a Yogi. New York: The Philosophical Library.

毫釐有差     A hairbreadth of difference

天地懸隔     And heaven and earth are set apart

欲得現前     If you want it to appear before you

莫存順逆     Do not be for or against

 

The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The Unnamable is the beginning of Heaven and Earth. The Namable becomes the mother of the ten thousand things.
– Lao-tzu (Tao Te Ching)

Judge not, that you be not judged. For by whatever standards you judge will you be judged, and the punishment you mete out will come back to you in equal measure.
– Yeshua (Matt. 7:1)

 

Vimalakirti Sutra: (Burton Watson)

The Bodhisattva Field of Merit said, “To speak of deeds that generate good karma, deeds that generate evil karma, and deeds that generate no karma is dualistic. The true nature of all three kinds of deeds is empty. And if it is empty, then there are no good deeds, no evil deeds, and no non-karmaic deeds. One who allows no thought of distinction to arise with regard to these three types of deeds may thereby enter the gate of nondualism.”  (Wisdom Library)

Lin-chi:

If your mind moment by moment never differentiates, you may be called a living patriarch. If your mind differentiates, true nature and the world are set apart. But so long as it does not differentiate, true nature and the world are not separated.”

Someone asked, “What do you mean by the mind that moment by moment does not differentiate?”

The Master said, “The moment you ask such a question differentiation has already taken place: true nature and the world have been set apart.

“Followers of the Way, make no mistake! The myriad things in this and other worlds are all devoid of true nature, of a nature that can cause things to arise. They are empty names, and the scriptures (ching) are likewise empty. If you take these empty names as real, you make a grave mistake. (Lin-chi)

Adi Shankara:

The Vedas declare that the ignorant man who allows himself to make the slightest distinction between the individual soul and the Supreme Self is in peril. Where there is duality by virtue of ignorance, one sees all things as distinct from the Self; but when everything is seen as the Self, then there is not even an atom other than the Self. In that state when one realizes all things as the Self, there is neither delusion nor sorrow, in consequence of the absence of duality. (“Self Realization,” translation by Yogananda, Cp. 21)

 

Paramhansa Yogananda (1946). Autobiography of a Yogi. New York: The Philosophical Library. (https://www.ananda.org/support/files/2017/11/AYEbookDownload.pdf)

Watson, Burton (1999). The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-chi. New York: Columbia University Press. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-zen-teachings-of-master-lin-chi/9780231114851.

至道無難     The Perfect Way is not difficult

唯嫌揀擇     Save that it excludes picking and choosing

但憎莫愛     Once you are freed from hating and loving

洞然明白     That which  is hidden will become clear and bright

Look therefore at that which is hidden from thee and see from today henceforth:
Lo, the way to travel is before thee; forget not thy departing.
Choose not the life of this body before eternal life:
put the fear of God in they heart and thou shalt live without toil.
Psalm CCLXV (MPB)

And Yahwe Elohim commanded the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat
But of the tree of the knowledge of good (טוֹב) and evil (רָע) thou shalt not eat of it;
For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  (Genesis 2)

What is the cause of good and evil?
The body is the cause.
What is the cause of the body?
Craving is the cause. – The Vimalakirti Sutra

Case 23  Think Neither Good Nor Evil

The Sixth Patriarch was pursued by the monk Ming (a former general of the third rank and a coarse and violent man) as far as Taiyu Mountain.
The patriarch, seeing Ming coming, laid the robe and bowl on a rock and said, “This robe is a symbol of the faith, not something to be fought over. If you want it, take it now.”

Ming tried to move it, but it was as heavy as a mountain and would not budge. Faltering and trembling, he cried out, “I came for the Dharma, not for the robe. I beg you, please give me your instruction.”

The patriarch said, “Think neither good nor evil. At this very moment, what is the original self of the monk Ming?”

At these words, Ming was directly illuminated. (The Gateless Gate)

Meister Eckhart:

He who loves God ought to deny himself, get rid of whatever he possesses, love his neighbor as himself, and to be so conformed to the divine will that he wants whatever God wants, and equally this and that; for if [he wants] unequally, then no longer does he love only God or God’s will, or God in all things, or all things in God.  (Blakney, “The Defense”)

Lexicon-Concordance Online Bible (http://lexiconcordance.com/hebrew/7451.html) (http://lexiconcordance.com/hebrew/2896.html)

Blakney, Raymond B. (1941). Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation. New York: Harper & Row. (Internet Archive)

The Perfect Way is not difficult
Save that it excludes picking and choosing
Once you are freed from hating and loving
That which is hidden will become clear and bright

A hairbreadth of difference
And heaven and earth are set apart
If you want it to appear before you
Do not be for or against

To set what you like against what you dislike
This is the disease of the mind

Not knowing the deep meaning of the Way
The disciple labours to quiet his thoughts

Perfect it is, like vast emptiness
With nothing wanting, nothing superfluous
When you grasp this and reject that
You cannot see its suchness

Neither pursue existence
Nor dwell in emptiness
Carry oneness serenely in your breast
And dualism will vanish by itself

Stop motion, and you stop it over and over
The harder you try, the more the motion
If you are merely in one or the other
How will you know oneness?

Not understanding oneness
You miss it in two ways
Pushing away existence, you are without existence
Pursuing emptiness, you never catch it

Too many words, too much thinking
Do not go round and round
Banish words, banish thinking
And there is no stage you cannot enter

Return to the Source and gain what you seek
Pursue enlightenment and you lose it
A flash of light
And you are beyond emptiness and things

The shifting and changing in emptiness that confronts you
Only seems real because of ignorance

Do not seek the true
Only cease to cling to views

Do not dwell in dual views
Be careful not to pursue them

The slightest trace of right and wrong
And mind is lost in confusion
The two exist because of the One
But likewise do not cling to the One

When the mind is one, nothing disturbs it
The myriad things are harmless
No harm, no things
No disturbance, no mind

The subject vanishes with the object
The object gone, the subject submerges
The object exists because of the subject
The subject exists because of the object

If you want to understand the two sides
their origin is the one emptiness
In the one emptiness both are the same
Undifferentiated emptiness contains the myriad things

Do not discriminate between coarse and refined
And you will possess equanimity regarding for and against

The Great Way is open to all
Neither easy nor difficult
But those with a limited view are irresolute
Now hurrying, now lagging behind

Grasping for it excessively
Is sure to lead you astray
Letting go of it, it will certainly happen on its own
Substance never departs; it is abiding

Be your natural self and you are in accord with the Way
Calm and easy and untroubled
When thoughts are in bondage they stray from the truth
Becoming clouded and unsound
When thoughts are unsound, the spirit is troubled
What is the use of not-self and self?

If you want to follow the One Way
Have no aversion to the six sense-objects
Having no aversion to the six sense-objects
Is equal to true awakening

The sage does nothing
While the ignorant bind themselves up

Things are not separate and distinct
Yet ignorance leads to attachment
To use the mind to bind the mind
Is this not the greatest mistake?

Ignorance begets tranquility and turmoil
With enlightenment there is no good and evil
Dividing one thing into two sides
Is an absurdity born of discrimination

Dreams, illusions, flowers in the air
Why try to grasp them?
Gain and loss, right and wrong
Banish them once and for all!

If the eye never sleeps
All dreams cease by themselves

If the mind does not discriminate
The myriad things are of one suchness
In the deep essence of one suchness
Illusions are completely forgotten

When the myriad things are seen in their oneness
You return to your true Self
Putting an end to their cause
Nothing can be compared

Stop motion and you have no motion
But motion stopped is not stillness
If the two are not united
How will you attain the One?

Investigate until you are completely empty
And no discipline remains to follow
The mind in accord is in perfect sameness
Where all effort ceases

All doubts vanish completely
The true faith is straightened out
Not a single division remains
No memories at all retained

Empty, bright, shining
No exertion by the mind
This is a place no thought can measure
Knowledge and senses can scarcely fathom

In the higher realm of True Suchness
There is no other, no self
Swiftly to merge with it
Say only: Not two

In non-duality all is the same
There is nothing that is not a part of it
Sages from the ten quarters
Enter into this truth

This truth is beyond time and space
A single thought, ten thousand years
No existence, no nonexistence
It is everywhere before you

The smallest is the same as the greatest
Dimension and boundaries entirely forgotten
The greatest is the same as the smallest
No borders seen manifest

Existence is instantly nonexistence
Nonexistence is instantly existence
If you are not experiencing this
do not hold on to yourself

The One in all
All in the One
If you only realize this
You need not worry about attaining your goal

The believing mind is undivided
Undivided is the believing mind
Words go no further
No going or coming now

(The following is taken from Sacred-texts.com — http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/fm/fm.htm)

Hsin-hsin Ming is one of the earliest and most influential Zen writings. It is usually referred to as the first Zen poem. It consists of 146 unrhymed four-character verses, a total of 584 characters. The Hsin-hsin Ming was composed in shih form. Shih was the principal poetic form in use in the early period: it is first used in the Book of Odes (Shih-ching, Shikyõ). Like the early shih, the Hsin-hsin Ming consists of lines that are four characters in length, but contrary to most shih, no end rhyme is employed . . .

As a characteristic of shih, one line usually constitutes a single syntactical unit. Since one character represents one syllable, and since classical Chinese is basically monosyllabic, this means that there are usually four words to a line. Lines tend to be end-stopped, with few run-on lines, so that the effect is of a series of brief and compact utterances.

This concise form of four characters per line is shorter than the general run of Chinese verse, which usually has five or seven characters per line. Economy, even starkness of expression is a characteristic of the Hsin-hsin Ming. It is more of a verse than poetry and its brevity is one of the peculiar characteristics of this famous work. Its contents are closer to the Buddhist sûtras than poems; in fact, the Hsin-hsin Ming can be regarded as a sûtra. Many verses are like a short Zen saying and therefore can be taken as a single-sentence Zen maxim. The original text was not divided in stanzas. Some translators have divided the poem in different ways, with or without adding numbers to them.

The Hsin-hsin Ming has an important place In Ch’an Buddhist tradition. The poem has been very influential in Zen circles and many important commentaries were written on it. The opening stanza, “The best way is not difficult; it only excludes picking and choosing” is quoted by many Zen masters as well as in the classical Zen works such as the Blue Cliff Records. Along with other influential poems, it is considered to be a poem that reveals the essence of Zen philosophy

Problem of Authorship

Although the the Hsin-hsin Ming has traditionally been attributed to the Third Patriarch Seng-ts’an, contemporary scholarship doubts whether he was in fact the author. [In 592 Seng-ts’an transmitted the Ch’an patriarchate to Tao-hsin (Dõshin). Seng-ts’an died in 606.] There is no record that Second Patriarch Hui-k’o or Third Patriarch Seng-ts’an left any writings.* The expressions and idioms used in the work have caused certain scholars to give the composition a much later date. [*This is not accurate: parts of The Long Scroll are attributed to Hui-k’o. See Broughton, 1999.]

Niu-t’ou Fa-jung (594-657), a disciple of Tao-hsin, composed a poem called “Mind Inscription” (Hsin Ming), and the similarity between the Hsin-hsin Ming and the Hsin Ming has caused some scholars to speculate that Hsin-hsin Ming was actually written after the time of Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng (638-713) as an improved, condensed version of the “Mind Inscription.”

According to Japanese scholars Nishitani Keiji and Yanagida Seizan, the Hsin-hsin Ming was composed in the eighth century, two centuries after Seng-ts’an. Yanagida Seizan and other scholars speculate that the Hsin-hsin Ming is the work of Fourth Patriarch Tao-hsin (580-651).

On Faith in Mind – Translation and Analysis of the Hsin-hsin Ming

By Prof. Dr. Dusan Pajin, Belgrade University, Yugoslavia

Since Leng‑chia Shih‑tzu Chi was discovered, Seng‑ts’an’s authorship of the Hsin‑hsin Ming has been doubted because of the remark that Seng-ts’an did not leave any writings. Ui proposed that Seng-ts’an perhaps only recited the text, and that it was written down by someone else. Nishitani and Yanagida added some further arguments, believing that the text was written in the eighth century, two centuries after Seng‑ts’an. This was accepted as valid by other authors.

Contributions of the Hsin-hsin Ming

Dumoulin was among the first to recognize that in many passages the composition of Hsin‑hsin Ming is akin to the Avatamsaka Sutra, especially the closing stanzas (30‑36).

Actually, there is some resemblance between the concepts of one mind (stanza 123), oneness (stanzas 5, 6, 7) and one vehicle (stanza 19) in Hsin‑hsin Ming, and equivalent concepts developed in Hua‑yen. However, the obviously common subjects of Hsin‑hsin Ming and Hua‑yen are relativity and interpenetration of time and space dimensions (in stanzas 32‑33), equality of things (stanza 33) and the famous “one is all, all is one” principle (stanza 35), which are explained later in detail (in “Analysis of the Text” – related to sections VII and VIII of the Hsin-hsin Ming). On such grounds we can conclude that this text should be at least partly associated with the Hua‑yen tradition (i.e., not exclusively with Ch’an).

We can outline two significant contributions of the Hsin‑hsin ming to the overall tradition of Chinese Buddhism.

1. The first is “faith in mind”, which could be considered as a “Ch’anist” response to the Buddhism of faith (Pure Land), since the object of faith is not Amitabha, but mind as a means of awakening.
2. The second contribution is the principle of oneness (i‑chung). It is particularly mentioned in stanzas 5, 6 and 7. Otherwise, it is the running idea of the whole text, continually warning against various dualities: liking‑disliking (stanzas 1, 19, 21), grasping‑rejecting (st. 3), conditions/form‑emptiness (st. 5, 14), motion‑rest (st. 6, 21, 26), truth‑views (st. 10), right‑wrong (st. It, 23), dharmas‑mind (st. 123, subject‑object (st. 133), coarse‑fine (st. 15), strange‑familiar (st. 18), sense objects-awakeness (st. 19), dharmas‑suchness (st. 24), profit-loss (st. 23) other‑self (st. 25, 30), moment‑eon (st. 32), here‑there (st. 32), small‑large (st. 33), one‑all (st. 35). These dualities should be refuted or transcended with the perspective of one mind -– in emptiness and real suchness.

Broadly speaking, Hsin‑hsin Ming is an elegant exposition of Right View and practice [taken from the Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist sutras]. With approximation, we can say that sections I, V, and VI mostly deal with Right View (oneness, one mind, emptiness, suchness), sections II, III, and IV mostly deal with practice, while sections VII and VIII describe the enlightenment experience.

If I ever leave this world alive

The days of thy life are running from thee:
why dost thou vainly waste thy zeal on the things of the earth
and puttest behind thee all the things of heaven?
Thou hast spent thy life sunk in the worries and cares of the world,
working thyself into a decline through the pains and the sorrows.

Thou art a stranger housed in a body of the earth defiled:
How long therefore hast thou been heedless of what thou ignorantly doest?
Thou toilest all thy time to nourish thy body:
yet hast thou not worried, poor thing, in what way thou canst be saved.
Thou weepest and sheddest tears for a son or a friend dying:
yet thy own departing, the thought of it enters not into thy heart.

Look therefore at that which is hidden from thee and see from today henceforth:
Lo, the way to travel is before thee; forget not thy departing.
Choose not the life of this body before eternal life:
put the fear of God in thy heart and thou shalt live without toil.
Psalm CCLXV, MPB, p. 82 (From Davidson, 1995)

“I’m not talking my own book. It’s just that I went to the last chapter of the book, and it’s not a happy ending. Leave.” – Thomas Kaplan, resource speculator and conservationist

I created this site after I experienced an awakening on June 12, 2018.  Like the Japanese master Hakuin, I had no one to guide me at that point, so I turned to wisdom literature, beginning with some books by D. T. Suzuki I already owned.  I had two aims for the site: to keep a record of my own experiences, and to organize the resources that I considered effective.

I quickly discovered remarkable similarities, often using the same words, among the wisdom teachings of the major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Catholic mysticism.  This showed me that Neander (1825) was right when he wrote:

“It is a gross error to infer from the resemblance of certain religious phenomena, the relationship of which is to be traced to a common inward cause, inherent in the human mind, that they have an external origin, having been copied from the other. (Ginsburg, 2005, p. 68)

How best to use this site: if you have entered the stream, I don’t need to tell you what to read.  If you have not yet entered the stream, I suggest that you first read “Hsin-hsin Ming.”  It is forty verses long, so if you only read one post on a verse per day, it will take you less than forty days.  Pay particular attention to Jeanne Guyon’s guide to “prayer” (Do not labor to quiet your thoughts), which is an introduction to mindfulness meditation (as opposed to releasing, which you must also learn how to do).  With Jeanne’s method you pick a sacred writing and you read a short passage from it.  After reading the passage, you pause for a time and focus your thoughts on what you have read.  The text itself matters less than the fact that you aren’t thinking about other things, but writings such as the Hsin-hsin Ming or Adi Shankara’s Self-Realization are good subjects for meditation.  Less poetic but no less true are the words of Lester Levenson in The Ultimate Truth.

After you have read Hsin-hsin Ming and have become familiar with some form of meditation, I suggest you look over Ten Practices.  If you don’t understand the purpose of a practice, read a related post, such as The Perfection of Acceptance, The Perfection of Faith and The Perfection of Love.  Then, when you have a good idea of the purpose of each practice and how you are going to accomplish it, set aside three months of your life, put on “The Secret of Healing,” and become your glorious unlimited Self.

I will end this introduction with the words of National Teacher Zhong:

It is a rare privilege to be born
as a human being,
as we happen to be.
If we do not achieve
enlightenment in this life,
when do we expect to achieve it?
— Nanyang Huizhong (675-775)

Diana Barahona
(Updated on 12 March 2022 in Long Beach, California)

(Find me on Substack:  https://dianabarahona.substack.com)

Davidson, John (1995). The Gospel of Jesus: In Search of His Original Teachings. Element Books.

Ginsburg, Christian D. (1863-1864) The Essenes: Their History and Doctrines and the Kabbalah – Its Doctrines, Development and Literature. New York: Cosimo (2005).