You Have But One Mind

Whether shackled or free, you have but one mind.
If it is a mind of understanding,
Then butcher stores and wine shops are paradise just as they are.
But if the mind is not so,
    Though you play the lute and raise cranes,
    Though you cultivate flowers and plant grasses,
    Though your tastes and pleasures are pure,
The goblin of interference will still be there.
As the saying goes:
    If you are capable of tranquility, the world of dust
        becomes the world of truth;
    If you have not yet understood, a monk is nothing more
        than a vulgar man on the street.
Is this not true?

                                       ---Hung Ying-ming---