S'eng Tsan's "Tsin Tsin Ming" - Duality vs. Non-Duality

[stirling]

The Tsin Tsin Ming is one of my favorite Ch'an (early Zen) documents - a remarkably concise appraisal of Duality and it's close companion Non-Duality, and the difference between them from the perspective of enlightened mind. I love all of S'eng Tsan's work, but in particular, his grumpy style on this one always makes me laugh.  

 

Some pull quotes:

 

Quote

Stop talking and thinking
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

 

Emptiness exists outside intellectual dissection. 

 

Quote

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.

 

Non-duality is the spaciousness of reality beyond appearance and emptiness. 

 

Quote

When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes,
and when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.
Things are objects because there is a subject or mind;
and the mind is a subject because there are objects.
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.

 

Meditation in open awareness is the field in which dichotomies of self/other dissolves. Rest the mind in its own nature and this field of emptiness reveals itself. It isn't any kind of mystery, it is VERY simple.

 

Quote

There is one Dharma, not many;
distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with discriminating mind
is the greatest of all mistakes.

 

Being divided amongst our dharma brothers is pointless. Why can't we support each other on the path instead. Getting lost in the minutiae of which practice, and right and wrong is a waste of time. Excelsior!

 

I could go on, but in the interest of brevity will just link to the full text. 

 

 

Quote

To live in this realization
is to be without anxiety about nonperfection.
To live in this faith is the road to nonduality,
because the nondual is one with the trusting mind.
Words!
The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is
no yesterday
no tomorrow
no today.

 

Full text:

 

https://terebess.hu/english/hsin.html#3

 

[silent thunder]

Thanks for sharing mate.

Synchronous reminder.