The Hsin Hsin Ming

The Tao is self-evident

To those who live in choiceless awareness.

When you perceive everything objectively,

Your path is clear and unobstructed.

When you deviate from it,

You fall into duality.

If you want to comprehend the Tao,

Remain impartial.

Not accepting things as they are

Leads to mental imbalance.

When you fail to accord with the Tao,

Peace of mind is lost.

The Tao is limitless as space

With nothing missing, nothing superfluous.

If you do not accept things as they are,

You will fail to comprehend the nature of things.

Detach from both worldly things

And the inner void.

Be serene in their oneness,

And dualism vanishes by itself.

Trying to maintain stillness

Leads to agitation.

If you do not accept things as they are,

How can you realize Oneness?

And when oneness is not realized,

You fall into error.

Reject reality, and you lose touch with it.

Plunge into the void, and you find only emptiness.

The more you talk and think,

The more you deviate from the Tao.

Return to silence,

And understanding manifests.

Return to the source,

And accord with the Tao.

Engage in worldly pursuits

And you lose your way.

As soon as you perceive the truth,

The world is rightly understood.

Taking appearances for reality

Denotes ignorance.

No need to search for truth;

Only cease to cherish opinions.

Don't hold onto relative views;

Avoid them.

If you choose between right and wrong,

Confusion enters and Tao is lost.

Duality is the “appearance” of nonduality,

But don't be attached even to nonduality.

When the mind is at peace,

The phenomenal world does not disturb it.

When the phenomenal world causes no disturbance,

It is if there is no “world.”

When the mind is at peace,

It is as if there is no “mind.”

When “agitation” ceases, the mind is quiet.

When the mind becomes quiet, agitation ceases.

“Things” exist because of mind.

The “mind” exists because of things.

The relativity of the two

Is born of their oneness.

In suchness, the two are one;

And all things are contained in each.

If you do not discriminate,

How can a dualistic view arise?

The Tao is all-embracing,

The Way is neither “easy” nor “difficult.”

Vacillating in duality leads nowhere.

Attachment leads to division.

You are sure to go astray.

Relax and let things go as they may.

The Tao remains unmoving.

Rest in the Tao and witness the flow,

Easy-going and free from care.

When you hold onto your beliefs,

You turn away from the truth, and fall into confusion.

When your thinking is unsound, you become troubled;

So what is the value of one-sided views?

If you want to be in accord with the Tao,

Don't deny the phenomenal world.

When you recognize the source of the senses,

You are open to enlightened perception.

The wise are passive.

The foolish tie themselves in knots.

Though the truth is undivided,

They become attached to particular things.

To try to catch the wind with the hand

Is a grave error.

The foolish vacillate between

Having and not having.

The wise show no preferences.

Delusions arise from the thinking mind:

Why treat the creations of the mind

As though they are concretely real?

The mind goes to extremes;

Let go of extremes, and return to equanimity.

When the eyes are wide open,

The dreams cease.

When the mind abides in nonduality,

All things display their true nature.

When this essence is fathomed,

Attachments cease.

When all things are perceived in their oneness,

The source is seen to have never been apart.

Distinctions and divisions end.

Objects appear to move,

Relative to objects at rest.

Objects appear to be at rest,

Relative to objects in motion.

The Tao is not bound by rules and measures:

The mind is accord with it

Abides in tranquil space.

Doubts and confusions cease.

Belief is dissolved by understanding.

Bondage to things and ideas has ceased.

All is effortlessly empty and clear;

Seeking and separating don't intrude here.

Here, there is neither self or other;

Subject and object are one.

All things are of this suchness, not one thing is excluded.

The wise all share this understanding.

Transcending the concepts of time and space,

The moment is eternal.

And in it,

The Tao is manifest everywhere.

Small is small, only relative to large.

Distinction being relative,

Distinction is unimportant

When duality is forsaken.

In the Absolute,

“What is” and “what is not” are the same.

Don't abide in what seems otherwise.

The all contains each,

And each is the essence of the all.

To live in this understanding

Is the essence of Tao.

The understanding mind

Is undivided.

No explanation is needed

Where there is no “mind.”

---translated by Robert Wolfe---