Zen and Zen Classics 1: From the Upanishads to Huineng (Zen & Zen Classics)

Just get rid of The mind that thinks "This is good, that is bad," And without any special effort, Wherever we live is good to live in.

DO NOT SEEK FOR THE TRUTH, ONLY STOP HAVING AN OPINION.

Just get rid Of that small mind That is called "self", And there is nothing in the universe15 That can harm or hinder you.

this living fully without taking sides which Sengtsan urges upon us, is the poetical life.

Yield to the willow All the loathing, All the desire of your heart.

Were I a king, pensively Would I pace the corridors of the palace. The path I walk goes through the pine-trees; The sea is blue, a butterfly flits by. Miyoshi Tatsuji

Sengtsan attributes all our uneasiness, our dissatisfaction with ourselves and other people, our inability to understand why we are alive at all, to one great cause: choosing this and rejecting that, clinging to the one and loathing the other. There is a profound saying:

As soon as we are aware of our irresponsibility, all the cause of misbehaviour disappears in so far as the cause, (the illusion of self) is removed.

The unpoetical life is of two kinds. First, by aversion, we live in a limited world, a half-world. Second, by infatuation, we exaggerate, sentimentalize, weary by repetition.