Obey the nature of things (your own nature), and you will walk freely and undisturbed.
When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden, for everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefit can be derived from distinctions and separations?
If you wish to move in the One Way do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.
Indeed, to accept them fully is identical with true enlightenment.
The wise man strives to no goals but the foolish man fetters himself.
There is one Dharma, not many.
Distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with the (discriminating) mind is the greatest of all mistakes.
Rest and unrest derive from illusion; with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams or flowers in air—it is foolish to try to grasp them.
Gain and loss, right and wrong, such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.
If the eye never sleeps, all dreams will naturally cease.
If the mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence.
To understand the mystery of this One-essence is to be released from all entanglements.
When all things are seen equally the timeless Self-essence is reached.
No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relationless state.
Consider movement stationary and the stationary in motion, both movement and rest disappear.
When such dualities cease to exist Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate finality no law or description applies.
For the unified mind in accord with the Way, all self-centered striving ceases.
Doubts and indecision vanish and life in true faith is possible.
With a single stroke we are freed from bondage; nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.
All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind’s power.
Here thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination are of no value.
In this world of Suchness there is neither self nor other-than-self.
To come directly into harmony with this reality just simply say when doubts arise, “not two.”
In this “not two” nothing is separate, nothing is excluded.
No matter when or where, enlightenment means entering this truth.
And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time and space; in it a single thought is ten thousand years.
Emptiness here, Emptiness there, but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.
Infinitely large and infinitely small: no difference, for definitions have vanished and no boundaries are seen.
So too with being and non-being.
Don’t waste time in doubts and arguments that have nothing to do with this.
One thing, all things, move among and intermingle, without distinction.
To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.
To live in this faith is the road to non-duality, because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.
Words! The Way is beyond language, for in it there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.
Source: Seng-T’san, 3rd Zen Patriarch. Verses On the Faith Mind. Found in The Heart of Dharma Collection. Used with permission from https://sourcepointglobaloutreach.org/what-we-offer/
Another reference to Verses on the Faith Mind is as follows:
Verses on the Faith Mind
by Chien-chih Seng-ts’an
Third Zen Patriarch [d. 606 AD]
Tr. by Richard B. Clarke
Zen teacher at the Living Dharma Centers, Amherst, Mass.
http://www.mendosa.com/way.html
The above link is found at:
https://terebess.hu/english/hsin.html
“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.”―Seng-t’san
The Hsin Hsin Ming, Verses on the Faith-Mind, was written by Seng-t’san who was the third Chinese patriarch of Zen.
This work continues to be a widely-admired piece of Zen writing.
The content remains relevant for today — in a world where stress abounds.