THE GREAT WAY

Good morning, the following text is from the Buddhist tradition. It was written hundreds of years ago by a Chinese Zen teacher named Hsin-hsin Ming, who was the third Zen patriarch.  To me, it is a wonderful treatise on the unhindered mind, which is our natural condition, our freedom. It is also a "sadhana" presenting a method enabling us to perhaps get a glimpse into our unfettered mind.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading and perhaps contemplating The Great Way. The painting is SIX PERSIMMONS by MU CHI. The "Tao" is the Chinese word for "The Great Way."

The great Way is not difficult for those who are have no preferences.
Let go of wanting and avoiding, and everything will be perfectly clear.
But make the slightest distinction and heaven and earth are set infintely apart.

If you want truth, don't be for or against anything.
The idea of good and evil is the primary disease of the mind.
If you don't grasp the deeper meaning, you trouble your minds complacency.
The infinite is perfect and lacks nothing.
But because you select and reject, you can't perceive the true nature of existence.

Don't be entangled in the world; but don't lose yourself in emptiness.
Be at peace in the oneness of things and all errors will disappear by themselves.

If you don't live the Tao, you fall into right and wrong.
Asserting that the world is real, you are forget its deeper reality;
Denying that the world is real, you are fail to see to the integrity of all things.

The more you think about these matters, the farther you are from the truth.
Step aside from all thinking, and there is nowhere you can't go.
Returning to the root, you find the meaning;
chasing appearances, you lose the source.

At the moment of profound insight, you transcend both appearance and emptiness.
Don't keep searching for the truth; just let go of your opinions.

When the mind is in harmony with the Tao, all self centeredness disappears.
With no doubting self, you can trust the universe completely.
You realize at once you are free, with nothing left to hold on to.
All is empty, brilliant, perfect in its own being.
In the world of things as they are, there is no self or non self.
If you want to describe its essence, the best you can say is "Not-two."
In this "Not-two" nothing is separate, and nothing in the world is excluded.

The Masters of all times and places have entered into this truth.
In it there is no gain or loss; one instant is ten thousand years.
There is no here, no there; infinity is right before your eyes.
The tiny is as large as the vast when objective boundaries have vanished;
the vast is as small as the tiny when you don't have external limits.
Being is an aspect of non-being; non-being is no different from being.
Until you understand this truth, you won't see anything clearly.
One is all; all are one. When you realize this, what reason for holiness or wisdom?
The mind of absolute openness is beyond all thought, all striving,
it is perfectly at peace, for in it there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.