The great way is all embracing

In its essence the Great Way is all embracing; It is as wrong to call it easy as to call it hard.

Partial views are irresolute and insecure, Now at a gallop, now lagging in the rear.

Clinging to this or to that beyond measure The heart trusts to bypaths that lead it astray.

Let things take their own course; know that the Essence will neither go nor stay; Let your nature blend with the Way and wander in it free from care.

Thoughts that are fettered turn from Truth, Sink into the unwise habit of "not liking." "Not liking" brings weariness of spirit; estrangements serve no purpose.

If you want to follow the doctrine of the One, do not rage against the World of the Senses. Only by accepting the World of the Senses can you share in the True Perception.

Those who know most, do least; folly ties its own bonds.

Excerpt from the Xin Xin Ming, or Faith in mind by the third patriarch of zen Sengcan, translated by John Balcom

T. O. M's comment.

Thoughts that are fettered turn from the truth, sinking into the unwise habit of not liking.

My mind can sometimes come up with random thoughts, I'll catch them, maybe have a second thought, that the first thought was wrong.. This second thought has now got to the essence of it, and knows its shit.. 😁

Haha.. Its all just waves in the mind, picking up bits here and there. This thinking mind is great for looking at a concrete problem, maybe how to turn a heap of wood into a nice table, but when it comes to matters of the deepest nature, there isn't any concreteness to be grasped, yet the mind still wants to grasp, and be in control of events.

Zen is a way of seeing beyond the limits of this aspect of the mind. Seeing it for what it truly is, for if we don't know the limits of our tools, we can hurt ourselves in many ways, like the apprentice who strikes his thumb, when trying to make that table.

Peace.

Submitted August 31, 2020 at 12:48PM by transmission_of_mind https://ift.tt/3hVcFRq