The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin Pointers to Non Duality in Five Volumes

The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin

Pointers to Non-Duality in Five Volumes The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin Pointers to Non-Duality in Five Volumes By Roy Melvyn Copyright 2011 Roy Melvyn

Volume One: Aphorisms for Thirsty Fish

 Brief  Brief Backg Backgrou round  nd  It is widely believed that Wu Hsin was born during the Warring States Period (403-221 BCE), postdating the death of Confucius by more than one hundred years. This was a period during which the ruling house of Zhou had lost much of its authority and power, and there was increasing violence between states. This situation  birt  birth hed “the the hu hundred dred sch schools” ools”,, th the flflouri ourish shiing of many any sch schools ools of of thou thoug ght, each each sett settiing forth orth its own own conce concept ptss of of the the pre prere requ quiisite sitess for for a ret retu urn to a sta state te of harm armony ony. Th The two most influential schools were that of Confucius and the followers of Mozi ("Master Mo"), the Mohists. The latter were critical of the elitist nature and extravagant  beh  behavi aviors ors of of the the tra tradi diti tion onal al cul culture ture.. Th The ph philosoph osophiical cal movem ovement ent ass assoc ociiated ated with the the Dao Daodej dejiing also also was emer emerg ging at thi this titime. Wu Wu Hsin sin's sty stylle of of Daoi aoist phi philosoph osophy y developed within the context defined by these three schools and appears to be most heavily influenced by that latter. In addition, it most clearly contains the seeds of  what would become Ch’an Buddhism in China or Zen in Japan. Wu Hsin was born in a village called Meng, in the state of Song. The Pu River in which Wu Hsin was said to have fished was in the state of Chen which had  becom  become a terr terriitory tory of Chu Chu. We We might say say that that Wu Hsin sin was situ situat ated ed in the the bor border derllands ands betw betwee een n Chu Chu and and th the cen centr tral al plai plain ns—th s—thee pl plain ains cen cente tere red d aro arou und th the Yel Yelllow River which were the home of the Shang and Zhou cultures. Certainly, as one learns more about the culture of Chu, one senses deep resonances with the aesthetic sensibility of the Daoists, and with Wu Hsin's style in particular. If the traditional dating is reliable, Wu Hsin would have been a contemporary of Mencius, but one is hard pressed to find any evidence that there was any communication between them. The philosopher Gao Ming, although not a Daoist, was a close friend and stories abound of their philosophical rivalries. Wu Hsin’s work was significant for Daoist religious practitioners who often took ideas and themes from it for their meditation practice, as an example, Sima Chengzhen's ‘Treatise on Sitting and Forgetting’ (ca. 660 C.E.). He offers a highly refined view of life and living. When he writes “Nothing appears as it seems”, he challenges the reader to question and verify every belief and every assumption. Brevity was the trademark of his writing style. Whereas his contemporaries were writing lengthy tomes, Wu Hsin’s style reflected his sense that words, too, were impediments to the attainment of Understanding; that they were only pointers and nothing more. He would use many of the same words over and over because he felt that people needed to hear words repeatedly, until the Understanding was louder than the words. His writings are filled with paradoxes, which cause the mind to slow down and, at times, to even stop. Reading Wu Hsin, one must ponder. However, it is not an active pondering, but a passive one, much in the same way as one puts something in the oven and lets it bake for a while. He repeatedly returns to three key points. First, on the phenomenal plane, when one ceases to resist What-Is and becomes more in harmony with It, one attains a state of Ming, or clear seeing. Having arrived at this point, all action becomes wei wu wei, or action without action (non-forcing) and there is a working in harmony with What-Is to accomplish what is required. Second, as the clear seeing deepens (what he refers to as the opening of the great gate), the understanding arises that there is no one doing anything and that there is only the One doing everything through the many and diverse objective phenomena which serve as Its instruments. From this flows the third and last: the seemingly separate me is a misapprehension, created by the mind which divides everything into pseudo-subject (me) and object (the world outside of this me). This seeming two-ness (dva in Sanskrit, duo in Latin, dual in English), this feeling of being separate and apart, is the root cause of  unhappiness. The return to wholeness is nothing more than the end of this division. It is an apperception of the unity between the noumenal and the phenomenal in much the same way as there is a single unity between the sun and sunlight. Then, the pseudo-subject is finally seen as only another object while the true Subjectivity exists prior to the arising of both and is their source. All five volumes consist of what would appear to be his day-to-day reflections as they spontaneously arose. There is no progression in the pages, no evolution of  the concepts put forth. As such, reading pages randomly or from the beginning has the same efficacy. Nor should it be read with haste; a page or two at a time is sufficient to allow for the content to sink in, as a thrown stone falls to the bottom of the lake. In its essence, this Volume One is a collection of hooks; any one of them is sufficient to catch a thirsty fish

Translator’s Note

Material of this nature is not served well by language. It may seem that there are anomalies and contradictions. So, it is important to state that the translation of Wu Hsin’s words herein is not purely literal. Instead, it contains an interpretation of what was clearly implied, and this is where the limitation of words is quite evident. Compounding this problem, I have chosen to incorporate certain words into the translation which may appear to be incongruent relative to the time of Wu Hsin’s writing. The clearest example of this would be my use of the word ego which wasn’t to come into being for many of hundreds of years after Wu Hsin’s death. I have done this to best capture the real essence of the intention behind the word. The original Chinese word 个人 (ge ren) means the individual. However, using the individual doesn’t capture the sense of separateness that is better conveyed by ego. The Sanskrit language also provides us with some marvelous insight. In it, the word for mind is manas, which translated literally means that which measures and am the doe doer  r . Within the context of Wu Hsin’s message, the conveyance of  compares. That says it pretty well. The Sanskrit word for ego is ahamkara; its translation is I am

the idea of I am the doer is vitally important. As such, this and other small liberties that I have taken with the translation feel more than reasonable. RM

Text 

What follows is A dissertation on the Unspeakable. It is an attempt to Describe the Undescribable; To capture with words That which cannot be captured; The Unutterable. As such, it is destined to fall short. That having been said, Let us now proceed. These words are The transmission of Wu Hsin. Thanks be to Heaven for  Granting their approval. They transcend time and Therefore are beyond time. They will be as valid in Five thousand years as They are in this moment. In the absence of a resonance, They will have no meaning nor  Create any interest. This resonance cannot be willed into being. It is either inherent by nature or  It is not. These words come out from A place devoid of  Concepts and doubts. As such, they are not only spontaneous, but  Natural and true. They are not intended to Create new concepts, But, to instead, Dispel old ones. The words of Wu Hsin are  Not meant for discussion which only Distorts and pollutes. Take them in and Move on. This is the present condition: Birth is the entry to phenomenality. Death is the exit from phenomenality. All that requires insight is: Who is born and who dies? Or better stated: What is born and what dies? The attachment to beliefs is The greatest shackle.

To know that One does not know. One is what One absorbs It is easier to teach a blind man To paint than it is To convey What-Is with mere words. The end of questioning is The same as The end of seeking. Further and further explanations Do not provide That which is sought. Additional information Does not provide That which is sought. Drop these activities and Rest in what is Prior to all mental activity: Awareness. Sound is the same but Its expression Through various instruments is different. So it is with Being. Half knowledge cannot take one To full wisdom. Knowledge of the world is inferior to Knowledge of that which Births the world and is Prior to it. What problems can there be that The mind did not create? The solution to problems begins with The cessation in believing in The content of one’s thoughts. To know that one is, is natural. To know what one is Requires a diving into the depths of  One’s own being. The pearl rests on the bottom. An event becomes An experience through Personal involvement. Collecting experiences can be Helpful with the daily aspects of life, But it is not

It is understood that Sleep is the desire for  A period of rest For the body. It is less understood that Sleep is the desire for  A period of rest Away from the body. The inherent nature of mind is To process thought. To attempt the cessation of thought Goes against what is natural. The goal, therefore, is not The cessation of thought. The goal is cessation of  Identification with thought. All this running around, Praying and making offerings so that The next life will be better than This life. What silliness! Life after this death is  Not different than,  Nor better than Life before this birth. At the root, There is no difference between Separation and dissatisfaction. This is so because Feeling separate and apart is The primary dissatisfaction. Thoughts intrude, like Unwelcome guests at a party. Ignored and unfed, They depart. What is called peace by many is Merely the absence of disturbance. True peace cannot be disturbed; It resides beyond the reach of disturbance.  Nothing is as it seems. The common view is that There is a subjective observer  Observing an objective world; The former separate from The latter.  Nothing is as it seems.

Everywhere and  Now becomes Always, then One has succeeded. When one is enthralled with The beauty on the surface of the ocean, The immensity of its depths can  Never be discerned. The Source and Substance of everything Has no name. When Wu Hsin names it: The Eternal or  The Infinite or  What-Is or  That or  The Mystery or  The Absolute, He merely points to It. Make a list of  All your pains, Your sorrows, Your hurts and disappointments. This, too, is Part of It. There is reading But no reader of this writing Without an author. The merger of  The reading and the writing is Deep insight and understanding. How many have there been Who have come to Wu Hsin To ask “Why?” Why is this? or  Why is that? “Why?” As there are many perspectives, There can be many answers. Yet, in the end, The best answer to “Why?” is Why not? It is man Who is in movement Against the background of immobility. But who moves the moved? We are afloat in The Great River. All are carried along.

They, too, are carried along. The departure from what is natural is The birthplace of personality. The world of persons is A solitary place, Each separate and alone. To achieve peace, One must retrace the way one came. What is latent and What is dormant are  Not the same. The dormant arises and sets; The latent ever is. Only the fool Seeks to stop The shaking of  The moon’s reflection on the water. The acceptance of what Cannot be changed Paves the way to The changeless. All of the world, with its Past, present and future, Arises every morning and Sets every night, To arise again the next day. The knower of this has moved Out of involvement and Into the understanding that In order for this world to be known, The knower must precede it. The one who considers himself  To be free Is free. The one who considers himself  To be bound Is bound. The only prison is mental. Wu Hsin has no sumptuous buffet Presented on a silver platter. The offering is basic fare, To be eaten and fully savored. Then, there is nothing remaining For one to do. Controlling the mind doesn’t Take one to freedom. Controlling the mind

To one’s shackles. Regardless of how fast one runs There is no escape From oneself. The impetus of this escape is This state which is Believed to be unsatisfactory. To succeed, one must relinquish The smaller for  The greater. Whereas pain is A physical experience Suffering is a mental one. It is the sense that Things should be Other than they are. Its antidote is Acceptance. The trance of separateness is The jail. The imagination is The jailer. When one no longer believes What one imagines oneself to be, The cell door opens and The realization dawns that A life filled up with being somebody is An empty existence. When the waterwheel stops turning, What happens to The energy that turned it? Is it said to be used up or  That it remains dormant, To turn again? When the body dies, What dies and What goes on? That which animated the body Ceases to do so. This That is not affected and The cycle continues. Gods and their universes Come and go. Avatars appear in unceasing succession. In the end, that which was present At the beginning Remains. Instead of scurrying here and there,

That which supports him. Once stabilized, All scurrying becomes Spontaneous and appropriate. The reformation of others Must not take precedence over  The reformation of oneself. Reforming oneself requires The remembrance of the days Prior to which One became an individual. Solitude is not A condition of the body. Instead, it is A condition of the mind. Solitude may be found In the busy market or  May be elusive in the forest. Do no mistake The five points of a star  For five stars. All there is Is a single, unitary Everything. The seeker of union Must admit separation. For the knower of union, There is nothing to do. There is no difference between That which dwells Within a sparrow and That which dwells in The body of man. Two instruments; One large, The other small. The best altar has  Nothing on it. What Wu Hsin says Requires no explanation. Explanation requires concepts and Cogitation. That is not the way. Wu Hsin plants the seed in the soil; It grows at its own pace. Openness has no location in particular.

It contains thoughts and The absence of thoughts. It contains feelings and no feelings, Sights and no sights, Sounds and silence. Within openness, Everything is invited and Everything is accepted. There is no way To be open because There is no difference between Being open and Being. In human beings, There is a need To create order  Out of what is Perceived to be chaos. This ordering mechanism is The mind. As such, the mind seeks causes To explain what it Doesn’t understand. Is the carrot the cause of the chicken soup Or is it the chicken Or is it the broth Or is it the cook? With the apperception that Everything is perfect as it is, that Everything causes everything else, The mind, as fixer, As judge, As organizer, Loses its relevance. Words are the net used To capture the world. Mind is the means used To devour the world. Both fail; Can the wind be kept in A box? Truth is halved when It is told. A common misconception is The belief that thinking is The creation of thought. Rather, it is The reception of thought from A source which has no name and From a place that cannot be found. Since one can’t decide to think 

Thoughts’ contents, Why does one Claim their ownership? Is every sound Wu Hsin’s because He can hear them? Do not come to Wu Hsin as if  To a tailor  With an order for a garment where The style, fabric and measurements Are all predetermined and acceptable. Rather, desire to come away nude; Denuded of concepts, beliefs and All ideations. The personality is like A unique color. When its work is done, It returns to the colorless From where it emerged. Do not become preoccupied with What occurs after death unless There is willingness to die today. This death, which is only The death of identification, is The doorway to liberation. Immanence, Intemporal Impersonal and Infinite Is the canvas On which the world Appears and disappears. Drops on a canvas,  Noth  Nothiing more ore is is Man . All men are seekers from birth. First, they seek to suck  From their mother’s breast. Later, they seek wealth or fame Or security Or power  Or love Or peace. Seeking itself is The fundamental condition of the world and The seeker is merely the instrument Through which it occurs. Let us go upstream For a moment

You and me; Before All you’s and all me’s. This place is called Beginning. Empty, yet full Of potential, It is from here that All emerges. Here is the utter  Simplicity of the matter: In the absence of identification With any thing, Who are you? Or better still, What are you? The sight of the face of  Your god Continues to be elusive. How can the Formless, That pervades every aspect of  Every thing, Be seen Or heard Or smelled Or touched Or tasted? At the core, Wu Hsin asks: How is immanence discerned? The answer is known to those Who understand that There is no difference Between the substance and That which animates it. The Ultimate Understanding is An impersonal event Occurring in phenomenality. As such, there is no need for you, Or any you To be concerned about it. Go about your business and Enjoy life. For many, The first step on A spiritual journey is to Become lost. The final step is Losing one’s self. To draw water from this well

One must bring a bucket and Ten feet of rope. Most arrive with eight feet of rope, Then leave, Believing the well to be dry. It is as it is. Life is experienced As a series of events Happening to an individual. Wu Hsin says: Life is happening. The individual is merely One of the series Of events. Chasing after the things One yearns for is Inferior to Chasing after  The source of the yearning. The entire universe is The teacher  If one is willing to end The entrancement with The momentary. Lessons then becom bec omee boundl b oundless. ess. Ebbing begins when Tides are at their highest. When the unbearable is recognized To be bearable, Profound transformation occurs. How can it be otherwise? Perfection contains all Imperfection; The smaller within the larger. Do not chastise your gods For the aspects of life deemed Unacceptable. To search for happiness Implies its absence. This implication is a fundamental flaw. Happiness is ever present. It may become obscured, Such obscuration being temporary. All experience is like an echo, Occurring after the event and Distorting it by varying degrees. The distance between the event and

The scale of involvement of  The experiencer. Infancy comes, then Childhood and adulthood Followed by middle age and lastly, Old age. All these stages come and go upon That which is immovable. Viewed through the lens of time, Many important things are Rendered unimportant. Although a mouse in a well Knows nothing about The sparrows in the sky, In the moment of its escape Everything changes. The preoccupation with The foreground, the sights, The smells, The sounds, Takes the attention away from The The background. Yet, it is in this very background that The Mystery resides. When there is no inside,  No outs outsiide, de,  No top, top,  No botto bottom m,  No brea breadt dth h,  No width dth,  No surf surfac acee an and  No dept depth h, th then There is only here and There is no place else to go. One is carried on a raft Within a floating stream. One is neither the raft nor  The stream yet The perceiver of both. What is natural Follows no laws nor  Requires any. Can there be a rule for  The beating of the heart or  The blackness of the raven? There is a natural rhythm to The workings of the world.

While others cannot be discerned. It is the dance Between the two that Creates action. Trust that what brought you here Will take you there. The Infinite has no preferences. It kisses both the darkness and The light equally. Wu Hsin speaks of only One thing, and that One thing is Everything. As soon as the speaking begins, There is movement away from It. Words reduce the incomprehensible into Something more digestible. Contrary to popular belief  The perceiver and that Which is perceived are Two ends of  The same stick. The absence of one is The absence of both. The absence of everything Uncovers the presence of  The Seed of everything. Whatever has been clung to as myself  Disappears in the course of time. Yet, what has been steady throughout, is Overlooked. Many writings speak of  The Creator. Yet, in truth, This Creator is only Another creation. Who created The Creator? What begins as a crack  Becomes a window Then a door  Until the entire structure vanishes. Wu Hsin calls this The unfolding of awareness. There is no forest, There is no cave,

Where one can hide From oneself. One cannot acquire true knowledge and Maintain a hold on ignorance. The two are mutually exclusive. Release of the latter is A precondition for the Arrival of the former. When vision and compassion Expand to include the opposition, The opposition ceases to oppose. Slow ripening and rapid flowering Alternate. One is not superior to the other. Be not concerned with pace, Be concerned with depth. Worries about progress are for children. All there is is consciousness. Consciousness is all there is. In the absence of consciousness, What is there? All manifestation Appears in consciousness Disappears in consciousness. Consciousness is the precondition for  All perception. Everything perceived Is perceived By consciousness as An object in consciousness, Including the perceiver. Understand this and Then grow your carrots. Wu Hsin requires that One question those things that are  Not open to question. These are the rocks to which One’s feet are tied. All experiences are transitory. The wise man neither seeks nor  Rejects them. In this manner, One remains rooted in The Unchanging, The stage upon which All change occurs. For many, What they believe to be

Their jail. The addiction to the drug called intellect, Results in analysis of everything. All this perusal, Evaluation and Analysis complicates What is simple. Becoming purely receptive Strips away the false, Leaving the great gate to open, then What-Is is clearly comprehended. The greatest enjoyment is experienced When there is no concern for its duration. When there is indifference to outcomes, One is willing to work with Less than ideal means and Postponement is avoided. Utilizing the mind in the attempt to Achieve Ultimate Understanding is Akin to hiring a thief to Protect a house from burglars. Man can do Whatever he wants. However, he cannot Will whatever he wants. Your reading these words Is evidence enough to Wu Hsin that The hook is already In the fish’s mouth. I cannot tell you How long it will take To reel it in. Most fight, Some do not. In the end, All come into my net. Shadows working on shadows, Seeking to comprehend the Inconceivable immensity that is What-Is. Better it would be to Simply enjoy oneself, Doing what one is moved to do. If heat and cold Comprise temperature and Tall and short together  Comprise height,

The sum of life, The perceiver and the perceived? Suppression is a lack of acceptance, An attempt to nullify what is natural. The treatment of symptoms Does not cure the disease. Effects vanish when Causes are removed,  Not when they are suppressed. The deep secret is that You are beyond time, Beyond the heavens. You contact each at two points: Here and Now. Wu Hsin knows this, You do not. As such, you see yourself  As separate from the Totality When, in fact, You are the very Totality You feel separate from. Change your viewpoint and Change the world. Just as the eye Cannot see itself, The mind Cannot know itself. As such, all knowing Must spring from that which is vaster. To dig a hole, One employs a shovel. When the hole is completed, The grip on the shovel is released. In order to teach, Concepts must be used. Once the teaching is assimilated, The grip on the concept must be released. When the need for action Reaches an appropriate crescendo, Action occurs. This is the nature of  The world. The one who Performs the action is only The instrument of action,  Nothing more. The only wisdom One can acquire here is The full apperception of 

All else is like Asking an unmarried man if  He has stopped Beating his wife. The sum of a past is I was. The sum of a future is I will be. The continuous crossing back and forth Between the two Obscures the present moment, The I am, Being Itself. The empty cup Has emptiness inside. Wu Hsin asks: What happens to the emptiness When the cup is smashed? The dawning of a willingness To accept the unacceptable. Produces the cessation of worry. In a world without worry, The empty man is an emperor. You have an image of  What this outcome should be. I say to you: Drop it. There is no standard,  No bellwether, By which to measure. The appearance is of   No importance. All that can be said is You will recognize the unity Prior to all appearance. To grow is necessary. To outgrow is, likewise,  Necessary. Wu Hsin does not speak  In hypotheses. It is the direct experience Of What-Is that is conveyed. The fact that Words and concepts are The pointers to this are The inherent limitation In all communication.

You remain. Your sack of concepts Compels you To see things In a prescribed manner. Dropping this sack  Allows your eyes to open and For clarity to manifest. All your goodness, All your years of practice, All the prayers you have spoken, Mean little to Wu Hsin. Instead, tell me if  You are prepared to relinquish The control that you exercise On every aspect of your life? Are you now ready To enter into the flow of life Without the oar of your seeming will? A free man’s life is A life that is free of  Demands, Free of dependency. With nothing to drag along One goes where one will. Why is there so much Struggling with the practices, Techniques and Methods that are Alleged to end all struggling? The groundless expanse is Unknown territory. Men prefer what is known, Regardless of whether it is Painful or pleasant. Because there is nowhere To hide in the vastness and There is no place to run to, The choice seems simple. Yet, it is the very unwillingness To embrace the unknown That keeps it in the shadows. Is the perceiver  Separate from that which Is perceived? Tell Wu Hsin: What is it that sees my knee When I gaze upon my lap?

What is the world? The world is the sum of the known Embraced by the fullness of  The unknown and Protected by that which is Unknowable. When the mind feasts, True knowledge is lost. When the mind eats not, True knowledge manifests. The experience of  The Mystery is the banter of fools. Only objects, Overt or subtle, are experienced, While the Mystery is prior  To all objects. You are a sinner, You are a saint. You are a murderer and You are a monk. The entire world that You experience is Inside yourself. To fix the problems of  The world, You need only Fix yourself. Where is the line Of demarcation That separates heaven From this life? Can you show it to me? Does it exist at all, anywhere, Aside from inside your head? Do not come to Wu Hsin So that your questions may be answered. Do so in order that Your answers may be questioned. All that is required Is Understanding.  Not an understanding of things but An Understanding of  The Potential of All Possibilities That is prior to things. Understand this and You understand all. You came to this life

It was combined with The experiences you had To forge who you are. You had no say in the matter. You are a one-of-a-kind instrument Performing the work that Only you can In the service of That which Sent you. What can you really Claim to be yours When it can be taken, In the time it takes To snap a finger, By the One who Gave it to you? My father is This-Now-Here; My mother is This-Now-Here; My brother is This-Now-Here; My neighbor is This-Now-Here; All related. When each is gone, What endures? This-Now-Here. Thoughts are only Puffs of smoke Rising from the chimney of the mind. Attaching attention to them is The heart of suffering. What one really is Is what one is In the absence of  The who that One thinks one is. There is no requirement to Transcend the past. All that must be done is to Stop carrying it, Like a block of stone, On one’s back. Man is ensnared In the continuum called Past-Future. His attention remains fixated there, Uninterrupted. To free oneself from the trap,

Return to the point of presence, Of being. Of being no thing in particular. In this moment. Then, miraculously, The snare dissolves. Do not mistake A mere rearranging of the furniture For true change. Thinking creates more problems Than it solves. Do not look for It In moving water. Moving water distorts. Look for It In still water. Still water reflects perfectly. There is great joy when The raindrop is reunited with The ocean. Likewise, there is great joy In death. What dies, other than A story filled with much sorrow and Intermittent joy? Know Wu Hsin as The Untouched. Unaffected by time or  Space or  People or  Places or  Things, Wu Hsin is not While all else is moving. All doing is contained In being. When the attention is shifted from Doing to being, The doing takes care of itself  Without any intended doing and In the absence of a doer. What is it That brings people to The doorstep of Wu Hsin? It is simply the desire To know this What. When Wu Hsin says

Most go away disappointed. I tell you: You must open the doors. You must pull back  The shutters. How else can light enter into A darkened house? Why fight with External foes? Your neighbors are The very least of  Your problems. This is Wu Hsin’s open secret: The only evil is inattention. It is the father of stupidity and The grandfather of the twins, Suffering and sorrow. It is not possible to hurt another  Once one understands that All anothers are inside oneself and Emerge from there. Knowledge will take you To the goal. But, not knowledge Of things. Knowledge of things will Distance you from the goal. Wu Hsin tells you to Call off your search. Followers of the sun  Never know darkness. The Mystery is not reached with words.  Nor can the mind reach It. Unseen, Unheard, It cannot be taught. What remains is the experiencing Without an experiencer. The man of contentment Seeks nothing that He doesn’t have and Understands that Whatever he has Isn’t his to own. To live and to die

To be afraid To live and to die is not. If man spent as much Time and energy Demolishing his prison As was spent in building it, All would be free. You are not the main character  In the play. You are one of many characters. Each has a role to play. This realization is The first step toward The unity that is, always was and Always will be. So many things you could Give up and Still not achieve clarity. Instead, Simply give up your notions Of I, me and mine and Allow stillness to carry you forward. Forms through which action occurs, Be it plant, insect, tiger or human Behave according to their nature. Understand Nature and Understand all. The fundamental question is: Do you have awareness or  Does Awareness have you? The world cannot improve until The peoples of the world improve. The peoples of the world cannot improve until The person improves. The person cannot improve until All self interest is removed. The particular and the universal are not separate. They are merely two aspects of  The indivisible; One viewed from within, The other from without. The desire for understanding Arises from misunderstanding. The way out is through Questioning and examining the habitual.

The building block upon which You have been erected. Even after you have been torn down, The building block remains. Centering your attention there is The direct means to gain Primordial insight. What-Is or  You may call it the Truth, Must be apperceived. Once one attempts to express it, It becomes a concept and Food for discussion. Then the Truth is lost. Seekers of Truth must ask: What distinguishing marks will Allow one to recognize it? What does the orange tree Have to do To grow oranges? What does the sky Have to do To be blue? What do you Have to do To be? Wu Hsin takes many To the river, but Crosses it for none. Unhappiness comes to man Through two doorways The first doorway is named  Not getting what you want. The name of the second doorway is Getting what you want. Either takes you there; The former faster  Than the latter. The former teaches The futility of willfulness. The latter teaches the foolishness Of believing that Satisfaction and happiness are the same. When is there to live Other than now? How is there to live Other than now? Why is there to live Other than now?

Other than now? Desire is presupposed on the belief that The desired will convey Some lasting benefit To the one who desires. When this is apperceived to be false, The running after  Persons or things ends and Impartiality to all that comes and goes Takes root. Underneath is the support. It is the water  To the boat, and The sky To the cloud. The known is supported by The unknown which, in turn, is Held by the Unknowable. Ignoring this is The folly of men. Everything moves toward Its own destruction. The flame is lit. The flame is extinguished. What is between the two is Labeled time. Do not confuse Emptying the pot with Shattering the pot. A pot that is emptied Can be refilled whereas A shattered pot ceases to be. It is only when The very idea of changing is seen As false that One can perceive the changeless. The body is a borrowed thing. One uses it for a time; then It must be returned to That from which it was borrowed. There is nothing For me to tell you That will make a difference. There is nothing Wu Hsin can say That will bring about Your awakening. The sound of my own voice

 Nor should you Be enamored with it. Ask Wu Hsin to be quiet This has much more value. A viable strategy is to bring about The end of the questioner. When there is no questioner, Then there is no one Being questioned and There are no questions. Within this space All can be revealed Most easily. There is a birth, A life, and then A death. Throughout this cycle of  From the Source - To the Source, The Source remains ever as it was. To know the Source is to Transcend the cycle. This game being played is A subtle one; It begins with the mind Taking What-Is and Parsing it into Millions of pieces. The balance of the game, The balance of life, is Spent trying to Put it back together. Clear seeing is elusive Like trying to capture water  With a net. The particular net employed is The belief in the power of  The thinking mind. For as long as this mind is worshipped, Clear sight is not to be obtained. It is little wonder that The dog chasing its tail Becomes dizzy. You are not satisfied With the answers Given by others. So you come to Wu Hsin. But what you really seek  Are not answers But confirmation Of what you think 

If you were to admit That you know nothing, Then I will most gladly answer. Essence is the size of the sky. It holds the body and The mind as if they were Rose petals in its hands. The meditation of suffering is The meditation of: I am this body I am this story I am these thoughts and I am these emotions. The meditation of freedom is The meditation that lacks A meditator. All activity to hold on to That which is Inherently impermanent is futile and is The prerequisite for unhappiness. Releasing all attachment to The impermanent Brings with it the revelation of  The face of  The Permanent and is The harbinger of peace. Thinking is so tiresome, Requiring so much energy Solely for the purpose Of reinforcing the notion Of a thinker. What a waste! Stop thinking and Merely watch Everything being done Without your interference. The marriage of  Full consciousness with Life Is the most beautiful union This world has ever known. You don’t know what is good. You only know What is good for you. Tomorrow, that might change. Then, good will become bad and You will claim to know it. All this, however, is relative.

Might be bad for me. What is good for you today, Might be bad for you tomorrow. Wouldn’t it be better  To leave the judging To the fools? Do not use Wu Hsin’s words As a platform for  Launching new concepts. Instead, listen deeply, Apperceive and then Forget. Do not store the words away. Let them penetrate you, As would an arrow. The arrival of what is absent is Preconditioned on The departure of  What is present. So long as The inn is full  No rooms are available. I will not tell you What it looks like Because then You will assume that You know What you are looking for. You cannot know it You can only Be it and This being is without cause. So what is left For you to do? Whatever is embraced, Whatever is clung to, will leave. Why, then, empower it By making it important? When river water is Placed in a jar  Does its quality change? The container is irrelevant. The attention must remain upon What is of essence. To fixate on what is not, The past, the future, The way things ought to be,

See this and step out of it. What is natural Requires no study or practice for mastery. Does one study how to sleep? To reach what is natural Merely remove what is not natural. One must either be content with One’s individual accomplishments or  One must break free from The notion of individuality. Why do you offer  Such resistance to life? Has not Wu Hsin told you That resistance Only extends and intensifies Your pain and discomfort. There is a secret word Which, when used With sincerity, Aligns you with all of life. That word is Yes. Hope requires the future, Faith dips into the past, Trust that all is as it should be In the present moment. Look deeply inside yourself and Try to find yourself. The ensuing failure is The true finding. Do not speak to Wu Hsin of  Your godhead experiences. All experience is dualistic, Requiring a subject and an object. Is your godhead an object To be experienced? What could be more meaningless Than to say that What you are looking at Is the one who is looking? However, nothing is closer to the Primordial way of things than this. Do you wonder, then, Why Wu Hsin is laughing? The antagonism toward the world, Toward people,

Things, Is the impediment To the realization Of the peace that Underlies it all. Every No keeps peace An arm’s length away. How many of your questions Have been answered, But still You don’t have the answer? Is it possible that The answer isn’t Found in more questions? Is it possible that The answer isn’t Found in more concepts, More thoughts? Is it possible that The answer is Revealed in their very absence? The number of forms Within this manifestation is Without limit. Focusing the attention on This limitlessness, It is easy to become lost. The way back is The way out. Return the attention to That from which The limitlessness arose. For the world to change is Preconditioned on The acceptance of What-Is. Once accepted, there is no need For the world to change. How glorious is The purposeless life. Events occur in Their natural course and One need not do anything or  Be anything in particular. Can there be A greater freedom than this? Chasing after more and more is futile. It is only less and less that lastingly satisfies. In an instant,

The world arrives, Unbeckoned. In a short time, It recedes and is Forgotten until Its next arising. Understanding the stage on which This play is performed is The way out of it. Silence is the bridge between The Formless and The world of form. How can light find darkness? Darkness is merely The absence of light. How can one find one’s source? One’s source is revealed in The absence of one’s self. Beyond what? Beyond where? Beyond when? Beyond whom? This beyond Is not outside yourself, But is the vast, Limitless expanse Within. It is not knowable  Nor does it reside Within the space of the known. Stop running toward Positive states. Stop running from  Negative states. Stop. Take whatever comes As it comes; Without judgment, Without embellishment. Then, watch it pass until Whatever is to be  Next appears. The greatest crime is The overlooking of  Who you really are In favor of  The story of  Who you think you are. This preoccupation with Your personal drama is

The sun. I am sorry To disappoint you. But Wu Hsin has no teaching For you.  No method,  No way,  No system. Simply be as you are and All will be right. Turning the attention Toward the unfamiliar and Away from the familiar is a Prerequisite to the arrival at True understanding. Do not accept Any of the words of Wu Hsin As the truth. Investigate for yourself. This willingness to investigate, To deeply inquire into My words, into Your assumptions, is The front door to The house of illumination. Your hope For the future is that it will Bring salvation, A completion or  A satisfactory conclusion to Your unsatisfactory past and The unsatisfactory present. Wu Hsin tells you that You are mistaken. It has taken considerable time For your illusions To be built up. Yet, it takes no time at all To dissolve them, To replace them With simplicity in, and Acceptance of, Life. When a water bubble On the ocean bursts, It returns to the ocean. This is death; All deaths.

Returning to the Source, What is there to fear? Expectation is the grandfather of  Disappointment. The world can never  Own a man Who wants nothing. So many aspirants Seeking understanding from Magicians, Meditators, Representatives of hearsay, Intellectuals and World renouncers. Who amongst these can reveal The shadow of the Formless? The body is charged with Life Force Energy and Sustained by food. Where is the role of an individual in this? It progresses through life Reacting to people, places and events In a manner  Specific to its nature. Where is the role of any individual In determining this? Wu Hsin wants to know: What causes the belief that You are an individual? When a gale blows from the east, Walk to the west. When a gale blows from the west, Walk to the east. Acceptance of the hard and the soft is The foundation of trust that All is right. The adversarial relationship With life is the prison. Acceptance of life as it comes, Day by day, Moment by moment, is The key to the lock on the door. Maturity evolves upon The realization that Your numerous strategies For escaping Have failed you. Maturity brings with it

What it is you are trying To escape from. Maturity prompts the examination of  Whether you are really imprisoned at all. Make no effort to meditate Make no effort to not meditate Make no effort to make no effort Being is not something One does Being is what One is. Don’t come here so that Wu Hsin may Prescribe a path for you. Choose the path Of your inclination, Regardless of appearances Or opinion. All paths meet At the One Path which goes beyond All paths. The necessity to delineate Right from wrong, Truth from not-truth, Is itself the impediment. The truths of men are finite, With many nuances. Primordial Truth Has infinite expressions While removing all need For interpretation. Prior to the realities of man, There is an Ultimate Reality. Many have sought to speak  Its language, but In the end, They became ruled By dogma and ritual. Every form reflects It, Yet, It cannot be seen By the eyes. In silence, A subtle, inner eye opens, That sees the Real Underlying all appearances. When names and forms Are put away, When all judgment ceases, What remains is called

It appears like a mirror  In which the Infinite Is reflected. It looks back at each Who gaze upon It. Do not allow Your progress in understanding To become a concept. See it as a ladder, Reaching into the Infinite. Ladders are not for discussion, They are for climbing. It will help you to Climb to the place That contains your world, Yet is beyond it. Lu Pao had many preoccupations. Some were large and Others were small. When his clothes caught on fire,  None mattered any longer. A bone with no meat is better  Than no bone at all To a beggar. The words of Wu Hsin are All meat and no bone. Who is hungry for this? All necessary work is accomplished Without actively thinking. That which moves Wu Hsin Provides all his words. Thoughtless, Wu Hsin cannot be wrong. Do not divide Do not label or categorize. Rather than seeing the many Within the One, See the One Inherent in the many. If one focuses exclusively on Dissatisfaction, The cause of dissatisfaction and The end of dissatisfaction, Everything resolves itself in ease. Don’t pretend to be What you are not; Don’t refuse to be What you are.

If one saw oneself as The entire world, One could do no harm. Why see oneself as only Hands, Feet, Torso, Thoughts and feelings? This is a falsehood. Every effort Births more effort. What has been built Must be maintained. What was acquired Must be protected against loss. Seeing clearly is  Not mistaking imagination For reality. A life seen clearly is A life without conflict. All presence, that is, You, Me, It, Occurs against the background of  Total Absence. At the end of you, Me, It, Total Absence remains unchanged. What is pristine knowledge Other than The knowledge that Worldly knowledge isn’t worth A pile of straw. Admittedly, worldly knowledge can Take you through the world, but It can take you neither  Beyond it nor  Before it. Wu Hsin’s motivation is Easy to understand. It is the same as The bird’s motivation To sing. In the instant of action, There is no actor. It is only afterward that

This false identity, Appropriates the action as mine. When the mind is seen as Continually kidnapped by thoughts, The first step toward freedom Has been taken.  Now, cease listening to What is being heard. Instead, listen to What is listening. Relinquish the fixation On beginnings and endings, On past and future. All that matters is This-Now-Here. Once lost, It cannot be recovered. Four questions: How many more failed strategies Will you undertake To gain what you want? What do you want? What will getting what you want Give you? Who wants to know this? Everything comes and goes. That which gave them birth, Sustained them, And called them back  Goes by many names. Wu Hsin prefers Being Among the list. Beginning and end Are not two, But equal aspects Of one. The fruit contains The seed Which contains the fruit. The greatest wealth is contentment. The greatest happiness is Freedom from opinions. The greatest peace is attained Through the abandonment of desires. If one desires clear sight One cannot place one’s trust in reflections. The way in is

The room was filled with Hundreds of his devotees When Chow Ling asked, “Why are you worshipping the teapot Instead of drinking the tea?” Many there are Who come to Wu Hsin for help With their search. Wu Hsin says he cannot help; The search must fail, because All searching is for some thing and This Sought is no thing. If it is not an object, How may it be found? From the point of view of  The person Problems never cease. From the point of view of  The Totality Problems never arise. Perfection is disturbed by The arrival of judgment. Just sitting; Without a goal, Without a schedule, Without an intention, Without form and Without deliberateness. The seed opens into the fruit. Just sitting. There are some who Retire to the forests and mountaintops To avoid involvement with The world. Yet, the inner involvement continues. Every thought Cries out for involvement. This is the involvement from which Retirement is to be sought. To conquer the large, Begin with the small. To change your world, Begin by changing yourself. What needs to be changed? Only the point of view. The calligrapher begins with White parchment;

From there, All emergence is possible. In the presence of fuel, The oil lamp generates flame. When the fuel is exhausted, The flame is extinguished. The lamp remains, Ever as it was. The experience of one’s birth is not personal. Therefore, it is not remembered. Lao Yin lost his memory and Could not speak  Concerning his personality. There is no scripture That can take you Beyond the world.  Nor is any meditation or  Ritual the modality. Wu Hsin counsels that You stop deceiving yourself. Man is a part Of the Largeness Called Nature. One part in an infinity of parts.  None higher,  None lower. Each has value and Fulfills its purpose. Do not interfere. You are a microcosm Of the cosmos. Your body is comprised of  All the elements Of the world. The cosmos has donated itself  To make you. The day will come When she will request a refund. Grant it smilingly. Do not mistake birth For beginning. Likewise, Death is not An ending. Prior to birth is Existence without limit. This is the quality That is masked

Remove the mask and Remove the bindings. Emergence is The realization of  Potentiality. Things appear, Stay and ultimately depart. Grace appears In the world Like a giant cloud Pouring refreshment On the parched and On the thirsty. The closed ones Fail to partake Fail to benefit Because they are Otherwise engaged. Will adding copper to gold Improve it? What is inherent in each  Needs no improvement. What is not inherent is not Worthy of attention. What comes Will go. Only the permanent is beyond Coming and going. How much time is left, One minute or fifty years? Why squander it on The transient? Liberation does not occur  To any thing in the outer. It is an inner experience of  Freedom from attachments to the outer. The saint in prison is free, The emperor is bound. Save your time. Do not come to Wu Hsin. What you seek  Is below; It is above. It is behind you and In front of you. To the north, South, East and

Follow Wu Hsin, If you can. I follow the path Left behind by birds In flight; The trails of fish. And I answer to no one. How can leaves grow On a tree with  No branches? Believing oneself to be The author of one’s life is  No different than being The piglet of a barren sow. Desirousness is A bottomless well The only route To its bottom is Through desirelessness When your feet touch Solid ground Then you are free. Being aware of  The sound of the bell Does not mean that The bell belongs to you. Likewise, being aware of thoughts Does not mean that The thoughts belong to you. The shadow cannot exist Without the substance, but The shadow is not The substance. How can the world exist for you If you are not present To perceive it? Creation stories are for children. The world is created in Every new moment. Stand aside and simply marvel. Singular wholeness is always the same. It is unchanging. That which changes may appear on it. It is unchanging. Where is the observed In the absence of 

If the observed object requires A subjective observer  Is not this subjective observer  Also an object? Where, then, is The true Subject? Since the true Subject Is not an object The true Subject Cannot be found and The notion of where Loses all meaning. This mystery fulfills all its functions unceasingly Even though it appears to be Silent and unmoving. It is the field upon which The knower and that which is known meet. Wu Hsin is not different from you Except that he owns fewer things, Owns fewer opinions, Owns fewer concepts, Owns fewer thoughts. Renewal requires destruction. The old must be torn down before The new can be erected. Wu Hsin is so full that  Nothing can be added. Wu Hsin is so empty that  Nothing can be removed. The outer world of perceptions, The inner world of thoughts, Wu Hsin is neither yet The knower of both.  Nothing succeeds like failure. Failure is a natural Call for attention, Like pain. To pay attention is to Step out of your trance. To free the chick, The shell must be broken. To free what is inside One must shatter  What is outside. The key to understanding is The dissolution of  The barriers between

Knower and known and Seer and seen. In this condition, One cannot locate The markers of separation. What is known is familiar  Yet unsatisfying. What is unknown is feared Yet desired Life thrives in risks and Dies in stasis. Live. The Master is not the goal Fixation on the Master  Impedes reaching the goal Releasing the Master  Releasing all ideations About the goal Takes one a long way Toward the goal. To destroy the ego One must first find it. The bell rings then The sound ends. Hearing awaits. The fruit is sweet,  Now the taste is gone. Tasting remains. Believing oneself to be What comes and goes is High folly. Men are so entranced by The tree That they have forgotten The seed, The source of the tree. Forgetting the source is what Keeps men from The source. How much time does it take To apperceive conditions as they are? It takes much less time than You have and Much less time than You’re willing to allocate. By now, it could be completed If only you could relinquish Your stranglehold on appearances.

When there is hunger and Food is provided, Does one say that the mouth has Compassion for the stomach? When there are no others There is no compassion. What is a name? What is a form? Are they not the symbols Of someone who Regards himself as separate? The name…. Is it not merely The name of an ego? But the Nameless has no name. Wu Hsin asks: “Where does one end And the other begin?” The wheel of becoming Spins unceasingly. Becoming this, Becoming that…………. When one steps off of the wheel, What has always been, What need never become, is illuminated. All the strategies you use To protect yourself are actually The chains that Keep you bound. To be free of the world You must be free of yourself. The fear that is experienced When you consider  What must be done is merely These strategies fighting For their survival. Ignore what you hear  Ignore what you may tell yourself and Trust that which Wu Hsin tells you is The way out. This morning I take my pen in hand To write But who or what Is it that writes? Is it the pen? Is it Wu Hsin? Is it both Or neither?

But what is it That moves Wu Hsin? The world changes profoundly When demands on it cease. The real world and one’s imagined world Share little. Ridding oneself of ignorance is Worth more than the acquisition of knowledge. With memory gone The past is gone Relinquishing hopes and fears The future is gone. The present is upon you. In every moment. You are free. My friends come to me And speak of acquiring merit Through good deeds Wu Hsin asks “Why?” They tell me It is the way to Heaven. Yet when Wu Hsin asks “What is it that goes to Heaven?” All fall silent. What needs to be revealed Reveals itself by itself.  No coaxing, no persuasion,  No effort at all is required. It shines by itself and  Needs no illumination from the outside.  No mountain has only one side. At times, it is sunny on one side and Raining on the other. The side that has seen the sun Will experience the rain. A comfortable bed does not Lessen the discomfort of  A nightmare. This is only achieved by Waking up from the nightmare. Put the time, attention and energy That you use trying to get What you think you want To better use. Getting what you thought you wanted Has never brought you Lasting happiness.

Realize the fullness that is Ever present and All around you. Who dies When the body dies? What dies? In this inquiry, The sun burns away the fog and The mists lift. To have no thought and To make no effort is The first step toward Understanding. The second step is To go nowhere and To do nothing. Upon completion of these, Resting for a while is advised. Each being is a moment in time With a name and A form and A script To be performed In this play called Life.  None chose the name  Nor the form  Nor the script Yet each believes himself to be The master of his destiny. Once their sight clears, They, too, will laugh. Awakening occurs  Not when there is no more To be added But instead, When there is no more To be taken away. I am a shadow, A reflection mistaken for its image, An echo mistaken for its voice, A ghost mistaken for its substance. My true substance Is found in Every Moment Of Being Present  Now. Two men from the province of Yi,

Or vice versa, They are the source Of many laughs For Wu Hsin Those who have real knowledge,  Not concepts Or the knowledge of things Are free From both free will And destiny. They are lions Who follow no path But their own. What could be simpler to understand? Whoever thinks as, or on behalf of, An entity Which he thinks he is, Who works on this himself  Through prayer, Fasting, Meditation, Ritual or  Good works Has not yet begun to understand What it is all about. Moving the eyes from The front of the face to Behind the head Allows for the clear perception that One is not separate from manifestation, But rather a part of it. The space that fills the small pot is The same as the space That fills the large pot. A ripple appeared on the lake in Guangzhou. Most who saw it Became interested in the ripple and Forgot about the lake. The world has many distractions, Its background has none. Over the parched earth, Rain clouds appear. Yet, one cannot Make it rain. The ingredient that must be added is Waiting. To wait in the face of urgency Is to understand that All is as it is intended.

Through a beggar’s bowl. Asking for the fulfillment of wants, For the world’s acquiescence To one’s will, Insults the very deity That is prayed to By revealing that Trust in this god is absent. Illusion holds enormous power  Until its reality is investigated The greatest illusion is that There is a line Of demarcation separating Me and you. Flirting with time is A losing game. In the end, Time eats everything except The timeless. Man lives through his fictions. He acts as if  He will not die. He acts as if  There are gods that Reward and punish. He acts as if  He controls his life, Controls his destiny. It need not be otherwise; The next moment will Take care of itself. Substance is immanent in Every shadow. This is the gate without a gate that One must pass through To attain understanding. Are you willing to risk  Everything, to be Totally and utterly exposed? Are you willing to see How you defraud. Demean and trivialize The totality of your being By relegating it to This psychosomatic device Called you? Or would you rather  Be fishing? The ability to discriminate Between what appears to be and

The mark of the wise. They reside at the hub Of the wheel While others Revolve around the rim. Involvement is the Father of happiness and the Mother of sorrow. In the absence of involvement, The pendulum stops swinging and Peace and balance prevail. Being clean is Its own reward. It is the same with Being free from That which is false. As long as you are, A doer, Whether doing or not doing, Thinking or not thinking, Meditating or not meditating This you is  No closer to home Than it was On the day It left home. Your mind’s problems are not Your problems. Why get involved? Seeing the false as false is enough. Wu Hsin is like white paper  Before it is touched By the pen. Once the strokes are put down, The white paper is ignored. Can we agree that Madness is little more than The searching outside for what Can only be found within? To change the face in the mirror, One doesn’t change the mirror. Seeing requires two components: The seer and That which is seen. In the absence of a seer,  Nothing is seen. When there is nothing to be seen,

As the seer and the seen are Interdependent, So is all of this play called Life. The recognition of what one is not Goes a long way toward illuminating What one is. What comes and goes is Merely an appearance. That which perceives all Comings and goings is The only substance. Drinking this elixir, Life is recognized to be eternal. Staying sacred isn’t difficult. Its sole requirement is The removal of one’s lips From the mouth of the profane. Then sacredness blossoms like Flowers in the Spring. The relinquishing of all searching Allows the immobility to arise That reveals That there is no becoming; All already is. The world may be divided into Three parts: The known, The unknown and The Unknowable. It is to the last that One must go So that you may receive What you are after. The loss of habitual certainties is The gain of clear vision. The common man looks at things, Uncommon man sees through them. Upon the arrival of  The great death, All concerns for  The lesser death Disappear. Somebody becomes  No body in particular and Life goes on without fear.

The pass key to heaven nor  The escape route from hell. Both are available On this earth and are chosen In every moment. Everything can be seen in daylight, Except daylight. The play is An illusion; The stage is not. In the absence of  A distinct seer and A distinct seen All that remains is The seeing. Every being is An object To every other being Which considers itself to be The subjective. This misunderstanding explains The reason men believe They can act in a manner  That is counter to what is natural. But this is only a belief and Wu Hsin tells you that Most of what you believe is wrong. The newborn fish does not Learn to swim. It swims. The swimming arises from The natural state of things. Abiding in what is natural, One cannot make mistakes. A common error is to believe that The Eternal will reveal Itself to you On your terms, in your time and In your way. Throw away all notions and Simply be willing To see. Doing or not doing; Pick either, Only do not attach value to The outcome of either. In this manner, The flow of peace Remains uninterrupted.

If Wu Hsin’s words Create a resonance, then He is called a wise man. If they do not, He is dismissed as A bag of feces. The words are the same, The hearer is not. With the willingness to bear  Whatever comes, Comes the end of  The need of  Any and all strategies and Safety is recognized as The illusion that it is. It is not possible to love the world Without loving oneself first. Is one not Part of the world rather than Apart from it? Love the smaller first, Then the greater. In so doing, the space between Oneself and the world disappears; One becomes the world. Mo Hua, The wise old man from Li Jiang. Daily rode in his horse-drawn cart. Although it took him Wherever he wanted to go, He never mistook  His cart for himself. When the specialness is relinquished, All is well and natural. When the gold necklace is melted down, Is it not still gold?  Names and forms, The content of perception, Comprise the world. The world exists Because one exists. But one is not the world, Only its knower. The proof is that The arising of the knower  Precedes the arising of the world. The same power that is Plowing the fields is

Moving the wind. It resides in every thing to The special benefit of none. Place your ear into the Heart of Wu Hsin. Hear the words Before they are spoken. Absorb them directly by Bypassing the mind. This is the most direct means. The notion that human life Has greater value Than any other form of life is The greatest demonstration of arrogance. The harder the wood, The hotter the flame. The stronger the personality, The brighter the light generated Upon its demise. The arising of any thought, Feeling or emotion, is Independent of the person. It is only when involvement By a person occurs, that The thought, feeling, or emotion Becomes personal. When naturalness is lost Ideations and concepts rush in to Fill the void. Wholeness is seemingly lost when The world is viewed with self interest. Darkness cannot reveal The color of a flower. For how long Have you been seeking unity With your particular god? Why has it eluded you? Wu Hsin suggests that you cease Searching for this jewel. The necklace has, All the time, Been around your neck. Your only asset is The presence of awareness. With it, you are everything, Without it,

Do not plan to make changes. If change is required, It will arrive In its own time. Wait and watch. Every scene is a preparation For the subsequent scene. The sum of the scenes is Life. Is pain the interval Between two pleasurable experiences or  Is pleasure the interval Between two painful experiences? The absence of both, The absence of thought, This interval is Evenness and tranquility. Man is solely an intermediary Standing between What-Is and Its designed outcome. Instruments produce actions But take no credit for results. If you want to know the truth You must be able to recognize falsehood. Once the false is removed, The true stands illuminated. You see before you This body called Wu Hsin. But Wu Hsin is not the body. Wu Hsin is The seeing, The hearing, The perceiving, The smelling and The tasting of all that is Seen, Heard, Perceived, Smelled and tasted. The attention never goes to stillness; It always goes toward movement. The stillness, That which is prior to movement, is Therefore missed. Pay attention and See things as they really are. What other discipline is required? Personal freedom is

Freedom from the personal. As such, personal freedom is  Not available to any body. The easiest method to remove The ongoing condition of vigilance is to Remove the me whom The vigilance protects. Then, vigilance dissolves. Devotion to any teacher, any sage, Perpetuates the illusion of  Division and separation. That which animates the teacher  Animates all. Direct one’s devotion to That. The wise man does not  Need the people’s prayers. The wise man is The answer to The people’s prayers. When the tendency to Manipulate and control Every experience ceases, A new world arises, Filled with a balance and a peace Previously unexperienced. Ascetics are everywhere. They renounce shelter, Work, Fine clothing, Speech and Lifestyle. But they are self deluded. True renunciates renounce concepts, Ideas, Opinions, Judgments, Hopes, Past and Future. Show Wu Hsin a single one of these. Happiness comes, happiness goes. Stop chasing it. Sorrow comes, sorrow goes. Stop running from it. Relax into what doesn’t come and go, What is present in every moment, In every here and now.

Who is attached to so many things? There are many who practice to develop Wisdom, Generosity, Patience and Discipline. In this fashion, These are the products of the practice. Wu Hsin notes that with Clear understanding, All these arise as By-products while  No practice is required. One seeking transcendent wisdom Embarks on a journey where The mind cannot go. It is only in the Absence of preconceptions that What-Is can be revealed. There can be no observer  In the absence of  An observed object. The two comprise One whole. Fold oneself  Into oneself and Simply be The subjective witness of  One’s objective expression. All aspiration is self deception. It is preconditioned on The arrival of tomorrow. What can arrive tomorrow Can likewise be had in This moment if  The view is right. The stream of mind is A continuous flow. To believe that one can Permanently stop it is like Believing in one’s success at Burying one’s shadow. Once this is realized, It, too, is accepted. When the path narrows. Stand aside to allow Those rushing forward To pass you by.

The goal is to Fully experience the journey. The mind, The body and The world are not separate. They arise together, They set together. Upon apperceiving this, Methods are seen as useless. Everything arises from A single source which Resides in the space between. It can only be reached Through removal and negation. Take away this thought, Take away that object and What remains is What-Is. Inside a cloud, The vision is limited. Outside the cloud, The cloud is seen. Other clouds are seen. The sun is seen. The sky is seen and The moon and the stars. This is Wu Hsin’s invitation: Step out of the cloud. All goals, All getting, Serve to only strengthen the ego. The recognition That there is nothing To be gained or attained, That everything is already Here and now, is wisdom. Like water is shaped by its container, Man is shaped by The essences of the parents and The experiences of life. Controlling neither, One is what one is.  Never mind the mind. It is like pouring droplets of water into A hot frying pan. When one is struck by awe or wonder, There is no line of separation between

In this space, the world and Every act in it is spontaneous. Real happiness is causeless. Happiness that is caused is not real; It is transient. Believing that the transient Can take one to The intransient is Self deception. All musts are false.  No must can be spontaneous and Only that which is spontaneous is Real. The creation of distinctions Births the cycle of pleasure and pain. When everything is Accepted with equanimity, Calm is established. Wu Hsin plants a seed In the ground and waits for  The right season to arrive when It will sprout and Grow and Become a mighty tree. Looking through colored glass Colors what you see. What keeps you from clearly seeing What is real is the colored glass of  The mind. Its preferences, Its dramas and, Its need to evaluate are Keeping you from that Which you believed Wu Hsin could provide. All conflict Between friends, lovers, Family or states Begins as conflict inside yourself. Freeing yourself from conflict Frees the world of conflict. Words and concepts Are not to be regarded as Systems or methods to be adhered to. They merely facilitate a Deepening of understanding. They are a source of stimulation, and

Adopted as regimen, They are a hindrance. How many of the seemingly earnest are Devoting their energies to The attainment of liberation Which, by its most rigorous definition, Is unattainable? Is not the egoic striver  The real barrier  Between what one thinks one is and That which one wishes to become? How can one become What one has always been and always will be? Does sugar suddenly become sweet? You are not your cart,  Nor are you the horse pulling it. You are the knower of both and The identity of neither. Time can tear down mountains. Consider what the timeless source of time can do! Before there is clarity, Everything is viewed through a keyhole. After there is clarity, The door has been removed. Desire is the urge to be happy. Desirelessness is the Fruit of the recognition of  Inherent happiness. The accumulation of knowledge does not Lead to omniscience. Knowing what needs to be known, For every moment, In every moment is omniscience. It begins with Knowing one’s mind. One who feeds The wolves of excess is never alone  Nor ever appeased. By making oneself lower, One attains the highest. Long ago, Wu Hsin used to be somebody.  Now, he is in all things and All things are in him and He has become  No body in particular.

Being in the Way, that is, Alignment with Divine Intention Means simply not to Be in the way. Freedom is not something One possesses. Freedom is That which possesses. Until one escapes from The prison of the body, For every inside, there will be An outside. Morality is an illusion; Who can stop The movement of the world? Who can improve upon the sacred? It is only the empty man Who understands and embodies The subtleties of subtraction. It is he who is intimate with The Mother of all things. Life is the oscillation between Pleasure and pain. However, pleasure is not happiness. Pleasure is momentary, Dependent on circumstances or things. Happiness depends on nothing. What further evidence is required To prove your complete distrust of  Your god Beyond the fact that You worry about tomorrow? So many fear aloneness. This is the great paradox. Upon the realization that There is no other, Aloneness is understood to be What is natural. What follows is A listing of things One must do To attain Oneness: To make Wu Hsin laugh, One need merely talk  About one’s feeling of disconnection.

Wu Hsin laughs and laughs. Just as water is serene When it is free of ripples, Likewise, the mind is serene When it is free of thought. Free of thought: Free of judgment, Free of discrimination, Free of defense Free of agenda and Free of strategy. Free. Awareness alone exists. Prior to the arising of things, Awareness simply is. Upon the arising, Awareness is conscious of things. Things come, Things go. Birth, growth, dissolution. Amidst it all, Awareness is the Unmovable;  No where to go to,  No where to come from. Every man is a star in the sky Appearing, Moving for a time and then gone. Each star fulfills its purpose Without concern for whether  Its movements are right or wrong. As the long, winding road Unwinds, The sense of specialness Disappears and is replaced by The apperception of the unity With every thing. Only this now-moment is eternal and real. All else is mind. Spontaneity is presence in the present. Where is the place for mind there? To smell the flowers Growing amidst the pile of garbage, One must choose where to place The attention. This challenge goes on In every moment until one can utter  “This too”.

It came, it will go; it is imperfect. The One who knows the imperfect is Perfect. There is nothing new here. Wu Hsin puts forth That which is most ancient. This life that you speak of, This life that you tell your friends about, This life that you are so unhappy with; Whose life is it? When mine is seen for the mirage that it is Then silence fills the void made by its absence. Everything you think, Everything you do, is for your self  But who is this self that is Claimed as yours? And who is the claimer? My body, My thoughts, My feelings and emotions. You are not them. Because they are yours, separate. Show Wu Hsin you’re “my”. The past is only A memory. The future is only A hope. All there is, Is this moment. The deep understanding, The clear seeing That there is no liberation Is itself, Liberation. Do not speak to me of the Truth As if Truth is something to be led around on a rein Or bottled. Truth resides in a dimension beyond thought. Beyond concepts. The beggar’s bowl may be made of  Pure gold, but if  The beggar does not know this, then He is a pauper. Unity has no thoughts Because, in unity There is no thing to think about.

Wu Hsin cannot help you Find your god. Your god is somebody, My god is no body. Your god is somewhere, My god is everywhere. Your god is something, My god is no thing, yet Everything. How can you expect Wu Hsin to help you? Wu Hsin cannot separate the flame from The fire. Stop demanding that Life provide happiness. Happiness is inherent and Internal to Being. Looking for happiness in the external May provide heat, but no light. The Great Mystery Cannot be thought through to solution. In a single flash, Clear Seeing occurs and The Mystery is dissolved. Memory is undependable. Selective, Sporadic, Exaggerating and Distorting, It is an unreliable storehouse. That which is unreliable Must not be empowered. As the sugar is completed pervaded By the sugar cane juices, This world is pervaded by The Light. When the Light shines; All is seen. My method has  No method. You need only to stop. Stop clinging, Stop scheming, Stop praying, Stop seeking, Stop analyzing, Stop all your strategies and lastly, Stop giving your thoughts The authority to define Who you are.

Reveal Itself. Wu Hsin will not Engage you in debate. Debate is food for  The mind. My preference is not to Feed the mind but to Starve it. Reject the path Reject the journey, Reject the desire to become Anything in particular. Reject time itself and Become enveloped in what remains. What is realization? Realization is the understanding That there is no one to be realized.  Nothing else. What one was before this, What one will be after this, is  No different from What one is now. Prior to a body, Prior to a mind, Prior to a personality, This is It. Chasing what is impermanent Brings joy on the Day of acquisition and Sorrow on the day of loss. Why not chase What is permanent instead? Man is not possessed By a separate self. He is merely possessed by His belief in one. Do not look at me. I come before you to Point you to the sun. Do not look at me. Look at the sun. Why do you complain About the darkness When there are unlit candles Beside your bed? It’s really quite simple:

Everything that you are not. What remains is what you are and Have always been. Wherever there are others There is a separate self, Wherever there are no others There can be no self, Wherever there is no self  There are no others, Because in the absence of self, One is all others. The temples and monasteries Cannot hide you When you are running away From yourself. There is no sanctuary Other than to dive inward and Investigate who is running away From what? Over the course of your life Your image of yourself  Keeps changing. Wu Hsin wants to know Why you convey So much power to Something so undependable? It is only through Losing one’s mind that One may come to One’s senses. All else is like Trying to smooth water. What is before birth and What is after death is The identical vastness. A life is only the briefest Interlude between the two. Identification is bondage. Whether it is identification With a thought With a feeling Or with an object It matters not. Only identification with the Limitless is Freedom. If it may be so called, My Concept is the

My Practice is the Practice of non-practice and, The Method of meditation is By non-meditation, This results in the Mind of no mind, The Thought of no thought and, The Action of no action. In summation, It is The Presence of the Absence of volition, Which is awakening.  Nothingness: Wanting nothing Getting nothing Having nothing  Needing nothing Doing nothing Being nothing Being no thing. This is Freedom. This is Fullness. Life is Its own purpose. There is nothing That needs to be done and There is no one to do it. The dissatisfaction with, The insufficiency of, This moment is All that need be transcended. The door to This transcendence is to be Found in acceptance. Habitual and normal are  Not the same.  Nor are Different and separate. Herein, the confusion lies. The person is a collection of  Habits and memories. Who is it to whom The person happens? In every instant There is change.  Nothing is constant. Where can one find Security in this? One cannot,

Attempting to do so?  No one is humble There is only Humility  No one is compassionate There is only Compassion Removing the one Reveals the One. Although preparation for change May be gradual, All true change is sudden. Seeing clearly is an impersonal event Occurring in the absence of  One intending to see clearly. In fact, it is the one Intending to see clearly That is the very impediment to Seeing clearly. Wu Hsin would happily Provide you with a way. But how does one go From here to here? How do you Describe color  To a man Blind from birth? All this talking, Why? Let the Stillness Speak  And all questions are answered. In an instant, An entire world is created When you dream. The dreamer merely watches, Having no control over what The dreamed characters are doing. Then you awaken. In an instant, An entire world is created. In the moment when The sight meets The mirror  There comes an explosion in understanding That there is no difference Between the two.

One may teach it to you Using five thousand words While another  Teaches it Using only five. This should not be A source of worry. Your ears will go to The one they can hear. The dungeon of individuality is a cold keeper. Liberation is liberation From the idea of liberation. The essence of what You see before you are The infinite reflections of  A single lamp. If the words are heard, Fully heard, not just Listened to, Then the work is over: You are What you have always been and Always will be. Therefore, what is left To be done or undone? And who is to do it? The central problem is not that You think too highly Of yourself   Nor is it that You think too lowly Of yourself. Instead, it is that You think constantly Of yourself. The failure to understand The Great Mystery Resides in the inability to perceive What should be obvious Due to a conditioned response That causes the looker  To always be looking in The wrong direction. My shadow is real Because it can be observed; It is unreal Because it cannot exist Independent of me. I am real

I am unreal Because I cannot exist Independent of That Which supports and preceded me. To be free of the obsession With the future, With the preoccupation of  What to do next, is Most well regarded by those that Others label as lazy. Even if it were so, It would be The highest form of laziness. Wishing for a better past, A different past, Is the cornerstone of unhappiness. Awash in the present, In every What-Is, Joy is boundless. When expectation and wants Are set aside, The flow Of the natural is unimpeded. Life softens And ease arises And one is that much closer to peace. Roots wither in darkness. Keeping the root healthy and Well watered Will insure that The fruits are sweet. Attention should always be Directed to the root. There is nothing that Wu Hsin has That another doesn’t have In equal measure. As such, what has Wu Hsin To give anyone, Other than the awareness of  Our equality? Becoming has no beginning. Becoming has no end. Becoming merely restarts itself  In every instant. Becoming this or that is A movement away from it. The universal is everywhere and

It cannot be discerned With eyes that are personal. The guises you employ To protect yourself  From the world Also deny you Full access to your heart. To love fully and completely Demands the willingness To be annihilated. Achieving immortality is easy. Only set aside Ownership of body and mind and Remain rooted in what was there Before their appearance. This knowledge came upon me In a flash: I sought to remember  What I was before Thoughts arrived, before The sense of the body arrived, before This me was born. What was revealed was that I was birthed from Nature, From the Totality of every thing. Shackled by time, Shackled by an identification Of my own making, With smallness. And when I am done, I will Return there; The cycle will be complete. Why are you so afraid of life? Why do you distrust it so? Why must you control Every aspect of  The environment around you? Why must you defend yourself  Against another’s words or actions, Regardless of how trivial? Why? For something to be seen Or known Or perceived or cognized, There must be A subject and An object. That which you seek is Prior to these.

When you find it? How can you find it When it isn’t an it? The notion of I is A basket into which So many other notions are thrown. Upon deep examination, The basket is revealed to be empty.  Name and form are a unit of time, Emerging from and returning to The Timeless. Birth and death are merely The beginning and ending of  A series of events. Stand on the outside, Observe them but Don’t get involved. Standing on the high cliff, The river below can be Observed and enjoyed without The observer getting wet. The promise of the future is A falsehood. How many futures have come and gone While dissatisfaction remains? Once the great awakening occurs Whatever ensues afterwards is of no consequence. Outward changes may occur, They may not. Outward signs need not announce Inner transformation. What is your life other than The functioning of  The Totality from The viewpoint of  The specific? The very next second Holds the possibility that You can disengage from Your enchantment with You life story and You can enter into The realm of  Complete peace. Wu Hsin wants to know: What are you waiting for? Admittedly, we are all objects

Yet, the knower of all objects Must exist Prior to all objects. Therefore, how can the knower  Be known? Only an object Can manifest The effect of a cause But an object Cannot know the effect. The subject Knows the effect. Suffering arises When the supposed subject Mistakes itself  For the object. The end of suffering Is the end Of objectification By the supposed subject. True innocence requires The willingness to be hurt, The willingness to be wrong, The willingness to be awed and Out of control. True innocence is The doorway to The eternal. In the beginning, There were no others. Then I arrived, You arrived, They arrived And peace departed. All that happens is The cause of  All that happens. Every event requires The cooperation of  The totality. All this running Back and forth In the name of doing. What does a rose do In order to smell Like a rose? What does the sky do So that it may be The sky?

All doing is inherent in being. Be. Wu Hsin is not The sun. The sun that knows  No night Was before Wu Hsin And is after Wu Hsin Yet during Wu Hsin. Who is Wu Hsin, therefore To speak of nothingness? Everything you have had Will be lost. Everything you have Will be lost. Everything you will have Will likewise be lost. Why make them important? Using your mind will not Take you to Freedom. How can the mind  Name the Nameless, Grasp the Formless or  Know that which cannot Be known? This tool cannot Cultivate this field. The success of Wu Hsin Rests on one act, That being, Keeping myself  Away from myself. It was not anything I did It was only What was done. The recognition of illusion as illusion Does not necessarily End the illusion. However, it ends the involvement With the illusion. This is enough. In order to achieve Understanding One’s focus need be less on What one is And more on What one is not. When the clouds All disappear  The sun is revealed

You are dreaming My child: Dreaming that you are asleep Dreaming that you are awake. All the while Life is being lived. What is required To keep your problems alive? The answer to this is your  Meditation on your suffering. Freedom from pain Freedom from suffering is only Freedom from my pain Freedom from my suffering. True freedom is Freedom from “my”. The people believe That the answer to happiness Lies in having more, Acquiring more. Wu Hsin tells you This is an error. Having twice as much Doesn’t make one Twice as happy. Take everything away Until all that is left is you. Then take you away And the abode of happiness Reveals itself. At all times, There have been Good people Doing what they thought They should do. At all times, There have been Evil people Doing what they thought They should do. This is the nature of the world. There is no such thing As a one sided coin. Those with wakefulness have lost everything. Therefore, they have nothing left to lose. They are fearless In the face of whatever appears. The process of Understanding is like

First the design fades,  Next the background, Until all that remains is Plain white. What began as white returns To where it began. My dear children, You are not What you think you are This what-you-think-you-are is A shadow of  What you are, Just as the moon Reflecting on the lake water is  Not the moon. A thing can become spiritual In any moment that Its reference point is Its Ground. Desiring nothing, Disdaining nothing, One cannot be impacted and is unassailable. You come to Wu Hsin and ask, “Can you take away My pain? Can you take away My unhappiness? Can you take away My fears?” Wu Hsin cannot take away Pain  Nor unhappiness,  Nor fear. Wu Hsin can only take away “My”. In so doing, My pain My unhappiness and My fears evaporate I am dying You are dying It has been this way Since birth. To be free from death Wu Hsin says Look to what you were Before this birth. Man spends far too much time

But what does not suit today May very well suit tomorrow By then It may be too late to retrieve it. It is better to accept All that comes With deep understanding That it is only temporary. If you knew this To be only a dream Would any of it Really matter? Hearing with the ears is Inferior to listening With the heart. Love and compassion Are natural To the man Lacking in Self motivation. To be,  No past or future is required. These are requirements to be Some thing in particular. Giving up the lesser  Gains the greater. True loving must be pure, Empty of all attributes. It contains no I and  No other. The entire world is Merely a play Performed on your stage while You are seated In the front row.

Volume Two: The Magnificence of the Ordinary

Forward 

It has been said that should someone find a bright star, they have no right to keep it in their pocket. Instead, they should carry it openly so that its light may shine on all. These lost writings of the ancient Chinese Wu Hsin are one such star. InVolume One: Aphorisms for Thirsty Fish, Wu Hsin spelled out the reality of being and stripped away the hallucination of the separate, individual doer. In Volume Two: The Magnificence of the Ordinary, he concentrates much of his writing in describing what it’s like to live from this different point of view. Surprisingly, it is not some cosmic, mind blowing, disassociation from everything. Instead, he suggests that the mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. He presents a view of the world where black is not separate from white. They are two opposite poles of a unitary wholeness. No good without bad, no high without low, etc. What may be good today may be bad tomorrow. Seeing this clearly, one understands it is best to live without judgment. He also draws a definitive distinction between knowledge and knowing. The former is of things, of form, of the world. It is cumulative. The latter is organic, inherent and not contingent on anything. It is the very movement from knowledge to knowing that is the unambiguous affirmation of a life lived naturally and in alignment with What-Is. He describes such a life this way: Wu Hsin has given up  All notions of what he is not:  Not the mind,  Not the body,  Not the senses.  He knows that he knows these  But is not them.  His is a life of ease.  No longer habitual,  No longer mechanical,  Remembering only What needs to be remembered;  Doing only What needs to be done, Spontaneously, in every moment. His words are often terse, yet undeniably potent; provocative and immensely profound. In a sense, each text is hologramatic; a seeming part containing the whole. A single statement within this collection is sufficient to jolt the reader into a new dimension of awareness. He prescribes no process, sets out no path to be followed. Everything unfolds. He stresses that none of this is something to be acquired. It is not something to be gained which can eventually be lost. It is here and now; it was here before and will continue to be here in the future. It is the very Ground of Being and it is available to all without further postponement or delay. He sums this up succinctly in his opening four lines: The world is a collection of objects. That which perceives the objects Cannot itself be an object. You are That. There will always be conscious beings wondering about the fact of their being conscious and enquiring into its cause and aim. What am I? Who am I? Such questions have no beginning and no end. And it is crucial to know the answers, for without a full understanding of oneself, both in time and in timelessness, life is an illusion, a projection from the mind, completely enslaved to neurology, genetics and circumstances. Simplicity and humility are the keynotes of the life and words of Wu Hsin. He espouses no teaching, claiming he has none to offer, no system or philosophy or  method to expound. He knows his own real nature, acknowledging that it is no different from another’s. The key, he suggests, is that the mind must cease its incessant movement and recognize and penetrate its own being, not as being anything in particular, neither here nor there, but just timeless being. This timeless being is the source of both the primal energy of life and of consciousness. Every human has it, every human is it, but not all know themselves as they truly are. Instead they identify themselves with a name, a shape, a personality and the collections and content of their thoughts. The only way to rectify the error is to understand the modes of the mind and to turn it into an instrument of self-discovery. In earlier times, the mind was originally a tool in the struggle for biological survival. It had to learn the laws and ways of Nature in order to conquer it. That it did, but in the process, the mind acquired the art of  symbolic thinking and communication, the art and skill of language. Words became important; ideas and acquired the appearance of reality, the conceptual replaced the real. The result is that man now lives in a world, where verbal pointers are mistaken to be facts.

To explore the sense of I, to reach its source, is the breakthrough into the real and away from the imagined. Discontinuous, the sense of I must have a source from which it emanates and returns. As to methods of realizing one’s unity with beingness and life, Wu Hsin is elusive. But for all, the portal, regardless of how one arrives at it, is the sense of am-ness, prior to the notion of I am, as something separate and distinct. It is through apperceiving the full scope and vastness of this am-ness, that one can realize the primordial and the ultimate. This dwelling on the sense of being is simple, easy and natural. No preparation is required and no effort, regardless of its intensity, can achieve it. The payoff is that one becomes fully conscious while remaining active and is therefore a gift to the entire world. Life goes on, but it is spontaneous and free, meaningful and happy. Volume Two, The Magnificence of the Ordinary continues Wu Hsin’s elucidation of this natural state. In it, he provides additional pointers to this effortless way of being.

Text 

The world is a collection of objects. That which perceives the objects Cannot itself be an object. You are That. Just as honey is not sweetness, The words of Wu Hsin are not The truth. However, time spent with these words is like The aftermath of rain. In due course, a sprouting of  Understanding will occur and Will bear fruit at a pace Outside of one’s control. Do not deem Wu Hsin to be insane Simply because you cannot hear  The music he dances to. Man is the one who is insane: His solution to his  Need for security is to Lock himself away in a prison. What could be more secure than A prison? He passes his time In a solitary cell labeled “me”. Believing he is now safe and that  No other can harm him, He has exchanged freedom For security. What is outside The walls of the prison is the unknown, Possibly not secure,  Not safe, Alien, at times hostile, and  Not at all predictable. Yet what sane man would choose Prison over freedom? Man is the one who is insane: He trades the experience of life, Here and now, For time and attention spent On regretting the past, Wishing for a better past and Hoping for a brighter future, For a future that will right What is now deemed not right. The fragrance of the apple blossoms, The laughter of a child, The blueness of the sky,

Mental preoccupations. What a waste! Man is the one who is insane: Yet, quite normal Within societal boundaries.  Numerous methods may lead one to Being more comfortable. But that is all you get: One who is more comfortable in their prison,  Not one freed from their prison.  Nothing gets a person out of their prison Because the person is the prison. Wu Hsin may say something well; That doesn’t mean he has Anything to say. What he speaks of is greater than Anything he can say about it. He will reveal it In much the same way As a sculptor reveals the image, By removing chunks from the block. These words are not directed to Any individual, Any personality, Any you. Instead they go to that Which supports the “you”, Sustains the “you”, Yet is prior to it. If one takes the rear end of a dog From the front end of a dog One has no dog. Yu Ping watched the moon rise Yu Ping watched the moon set. He saw the sun rise and the sun set. Day after day: Moon rise, set Sun rise, set.  Noticing that the sun always rose, After the moon set, Yu Ping wrongly concluded that The setting of the moon was The cause of the rising of the sun. How can black be known In the absence of white? The success of one Can only be measured against The failure of another.

To whatever degree Man attempts to control nature,  Nature responds in kind. It cannot be mastered but It can be destroyed. In so doing, Man destroys himself. It is the way of energy that It does not need a governor. Why perpetuate an illusion By seeking to control anything? All enemies are implicit allies In the game of hatred. In the absence of either, There is no game. Perfect archery Has no archer. The strategy of seeking An advantageous position Over life is The wellspring of sorrow. Wu Hsin did not Come into the world; Rather, he came out from it. Man and his environment are not Separate and distinct; Push one and the other moves. This interaction is an Integral process of a Unitary wholeness. At what point does Telling your god What to do and What you want, Become tiresome? At what point is this Seen through For the sham that it is? Time eats every thing. All life is a single event: One moment flowing into the next,  Naturally.  Nothing causing everything. Everything causing everything.

Is it the birth of the baby or  Is it the birth of its mother? What is the world other than  Numberless mirrors Reflecting the light from A single source? The Source of being Cannot be conceived. Only objects are conceived, While the subject remains Finer than mist. Wu Hsin advises to Stop searching for  What cannot be found and Instead realize that One’s inherent nature is that of  The sought.  No amount of study,  No attendance in any school Can teach one to be oneself. Being is everything, Being any thing in particular is An illusion. Like the scab on the foot Drops off when  No longer needed, So, too, do beliefs and traits Drop off when their service is  No longer needed. Let the scabs Attend to themselves. A mind kept independent of  The thoughts that arise in it has Attained the clarity of sight to which Wu Hsin refers. All declarations of Truth Declare that Truth is undeclarable. Any awakening to the Truth is an Intuitive and spontaneous process. There is nothing to be done. All matters resolve themselves In the course of time. If there is a need for  The involvement of the individual, Involvement occurs. Otherwise, why not rest and Smell the flowers?

Self cultivation may require Unimaginable time but Clear seeing occurs in an instant. Those with insight are free. They have no desires. They want only what they have In every moment. They are the law unto themselves. They are without obligations, with  Nothing that has to be done. Their virtues arise effortlessly; Their efforts arise effortlessly. When the mind ceases to imagine, It ceases to be. Who, then, is to Know this mind? When its projections return, Its personal knower returns, yet Its impersonal knower has never left. Stillness, dreaming, waking; This is the Great Wheel. When the Knower  Of the three is known, The great gate opens. Those that are so upright that They cannot be bent Must continue their  Dissatisfaction with the world. It is the nature of the flame to burn. It is the nature of the moth to Fly toward the light. When the moth is destroyed By the flame, Can it be considered to be The fault of the moth? When the understanding arises that The personal will is The servant of That, Then one need not seek reasons for  Any action that occurs. Without all the why’s, Peace reigns. Can man become too secure? At what point has Spontaneity and aliveness Been sacrificed on The altar of safety?

Other animals are born Knowing who they are and What they must do. Why is this knowing so difficult for  Humanity to grasp? Might it be because In the kingdom of animals, There are no individuals? From the absence of Understanding to The presence of Understanding, There is a process at work. It is the same process that results in The growth of a baby in the womb and Both occur without conscious effort By anyone. Recognizing the body, One is apart from the body. Recognizing the mind, One is apart from the mind. This that is apart stands supreme; Prior to the arising of any thing. The background is The father to the foreground. Everything emanates from it and Returns to it. Lacking in qualities, It cannot be described. Trying to understand oneness is as futile as Trying to drink with the ears. To be nobody is to Have no body. That which is prior to  Name and form is What one truly is. Whatever it is called, when called It does not reply. The Life-Energy and Awareness arrive. In due course, The instrument’s purpose is fulfilled. The Life-Energy and Awareness depart. The cycle is completed. Understand this thoroughly and There is nothing else to do. When a golden dragon is Melted down,

It is what it was before and Yet, it is not. Golden dragon is no more; Gold remains. So it is with all things. A return to wholeness is An end of division.  No seer,  No seen, Only seeing. The return to the original nature is not A rising up But a sinking down. Whereas rising is active Sinking is passive. This return is therefore effortless. The man of complete knowledge is  No longer an individual. That which applies to the individual  No longer apply to this one, Thus making him Difficult to recognize. How different the world is When the identified individual is Absent from it. One becomes one’s thoughts When one claims Ownership of them. When they are merely noticed But not attended to, They can do no harm. Permanency is the primary misconception. Everything comes and goes. When this is fully comprehended, Clinging ceases and The joy for each thing is magnified. Clear seeing is The end of rushing. One realizes one’s Perfect alignment in time, In space. One is where One is supposed to be In the time One is supposed to be there. True knowledge is not

It is the absence of concepts. It is a knowing that Cannot be expressed and Where concepts are useless. Why limit oneself to A particular body? Return to the state of wholeness, Even though the body may be broken; To the state of riches, Even among the lack of earthly possessions; To the state of peace, Even if the world is aflame. There is no requirement for waiting. Do it now.  Nothing to be reached.  Nothing to be gained.  Nothing to be added. That which is sought is Here and now. Does one speak of space Entering a room? Preying on caged canaries may be Great entertainment to the housecat. It is far less so to the canaries. That from which  Nothing can depart Holds all,  Nurtures all, and Sustains all In much the same way as The ocean holds raindrops. One gains the power of the river  When one swims in The direction of its flow. Identity is difference. When the sandals are comfortable One feels as if barefoot. When the robe is comfortable, One feels as if naked. All discomfort is A call for attention. The eagle flies over the lake Casting a reflection without intention. This is effortless effort. To manifest this, One cannot attain know-how,

Boundaries can either divide or  Bind together. The absence of boundaries is The absence of  Division and togetherness. What remains is one. A centipede controls Its one hundred legs at once by  Not thinking about it. All intention is the beating of  A skinless drum. The thinker of thoughts is merely Another thought. The one who knows this is  No longer in his own way. The governor of Shu province Sent his courier to the south. Being a wise man, The courier never mistook himself  For the government and Understood that he was only Its messenger. Wu Hsin arrived Just prior to the world. I am, therefore, The world is. To understand the way things are Understand the way things were. Before a man, One was a boy. Before a boy, An infant. Before an infant, A seed and Before the seed, One was all. Thinking one thought at a time, It would take forever  To understand everything. The quicker route With the same outcome is To understand Nothing. In the beginning, no thing is. Then there is one, Then there is two, Then there is ten thousand.

One must return to it. When the aroma of  Springtime flowers Wafts down the hillside. One must trace The aroma to its source To find the flowers. So too it is With the aroma of being. Once the function of perceiving is Clearly understood, The notion of inside and outside vanishes. The world is merely The interplay of opposites; One and many, Solid and empty, Coming and going. This flow goes on Without end. The one unaffected by the flow is The one who has accepted it. In the absence of change, What one was is What one is and What one shall be. Hence, time is voided because Time is change. When the foreground Remains the same, Against the background of eternity, Of what use is time? Wu Hsin does not desire The other shore; This shore is more than enough. This very acceptance Transforms this shore into The other shore. The jump from the periphery to The center can Occur in an instant. The notions of preparation for it are Fools’ errands. The ignorant person is One who ignores That which is essential. To know of heaven and Earth and things but To not know oneself is The height of ignorance.

Make a distinction between Knowledge and knowing; Knowledge is always of things Whereas knowing is inherent, Like a seed knows how to sprout, The flower knows how to open or  The heart knows how to beat. Knowledge is the lock; It can be described with words. Knowing is the key; It is unspeakable. The wise man is unpredictable; He never reacts yet He always responds. Being ever present, His previous responses Cannot be used to predict What he will do in this moment. Once the mountain peaks have been viewed, Even from far away, There is an implicit invitation to Go there. Wu Hsin extends his invitation: Stop limiting yourself to yourself, Stop identifying yourself with what is thought. Moving from the circumference to The center is the enemy of fear. Fear cannot exist at the center; There is nothing to fear there. Ideas distort experience. The one who is empty of ideas Experiences life in all its fullness. Self cultivation can take An inexorable amount of time Whereas awakening to clarity Can occur in any instant. Its nature being instantaneous, It cannot claim a path. The present stands outside of time; Lacking in duration, It cannot be measured. To be timeless is To be present. Exchanging worldly desires for spiritual desires is The last gasp of the separate self. From infant to child, to teenager,

Less permanent than identity? To root oneself in identity is like Planting a tree in mist. The cured insomniac does not Lie awake all night recalling how He used to suffer. Do not fool yourself into Believing that Something has been achieved. To dismember is to tear apart; To re-member is to put back together. The old must be dismembered So that which was prior to it May be remembered. Therefore, to re-mind is To dismember and then re-member. The present moment resides Between imagination and stupor. When both are rejected, It shines like a lamp in A room with ten thousand mirrors. Ambition is the desire to be Something other than what one is. It is the deadliest of poisons. In the absence of ambition, All futures dissolve and One is natural in all things. One cannot count The number of beliefs that aren’t so. If nature cannot be trusted, How dare one trust oneself? If the sun is cautious of the wind, Does not the sky become a battlefield? When the innumerable searches are concluded, The realization dawns that The optimal place to be is Where one already is. It is an arrival at the place Where there is no solid footing beneath, The understanding of all things. Until the conclusion, The searcher is like A cod asking directions to the ocean. Chin Ho told Wu Hsin, “I must be going; there is so much I have to do”.

“The world goes along quite well Without you and your doings. Didn’t it do so Before you arrived in it? Don’t you believe it will do so After you’ve left it? Why not stay with me and Let’s do nothing for a while longer?” The average man cannot distinguish Between his problem and himself. To become what one believes, To become what one feels, is The definitive statement of hell. Adhering to the notion that Man can advance While his environment deteriorates is Tantamount to hugging smoke. When it is seen that Each depends on the other, Harmony ensues. Hell is worrying about the future. The only step on the journey One needs concern oneself with is This one now. The destruction of beliefs is Superior to the creation of beliefs. The destruction of identification is Superior to the Creation of identification. When all destructions are completed, What remains is the highest, Yet it is ordinary. When the trance is broken, All the qualities one has been Trying to cultivate Sprout spontaneously as if  Spring has arrived in the fertile valley. Defer all investigation until It can be begun without beliefs. In so doing, there can be no Taint on the findings. Any day, in any life, requires The acquiescence of  The entire universe To be as it will be. One night, Wong dreamt of 

Abundant with fish, Clear blue skies and Beautiful mountains that were Tens of thousands of years old. A barking dog Ended his sleep and He awoke to a beautiful world with Rivers abundant with fish, Clear blue skies and Beautiful mountains that were Tens of thousands of years old. The entire manifestation is One unitary functioning. As such, there is no room For an individual that is Separate from the whole. The plum tree is not Commanded to bear fruit. Such is Nature:  None giving orders,  None obeying. To be attached to something, Be it person, place, object or idea, Is to be shackled to it. How can the shackled one Realize their freedom Without the breaking of the shackle? A nose kept in books Cannot smell the dogwoods. While the scholars are Studying the menu, The wise are eating the meal. There are no sounds that are unheard,  No sights unseen. The One who Presides over it all Has been given many names, But no garment fits It. All effort to find It is like Driving a spike into the sky.  No monastery can provide sanctuary to The one running away from himself. Goallessness is itself the goal. Means become superfluous in The absence of ends. The efficacy of trying is revealed to be like Catching the wind in a sieve.

The natural follows no rules; It is a spontaneous outpouring Which is always correct. The cock that announces the dawn Has not been taught to do so. The world is a singular event. Looking at the pieces, Conflict is apparent. Looking at the whole, Harmony is apparent. The way things seem to be Depends on the vantage point. A movement toward higher ground Results in an improvement in vision. A push is also a pull. A life in alignment with What-Is is like The willow in heavy snow: Supple, bending, but not fractured. The pines succumb as Their rigidity is their undoing. The journey inward cannot be Taken on foot, Yet, it is as necessary as Salt is to stew. The return is always A source of joyous celebration For the one who returns although He is not the one who departed. There is nothing to be done In order to see clearly. Such seeing arrives suddenly, In the time it takes to realize that Fire is hot to the touch. It arrives causelessly; as such, Wu Hsin has no List of instructions that One must follow. The inherent tension between self and other  Cannot be extinguished by force, Just as one cannot Blow away the night. The tension ebbs and flows of its own accord, In a manner no mouth can describe. Following rainbows is The end result of clear insight into A black-and-white world.

Cannot be captured in a bucket. To seek to control life Is to deaden it. To try to gain An advantage over life is as difficult as Drawing a round square. The world may seem vast, But the space that contains it is Vaster still. This foreground and background are Two pieces of a unitive integrity. When the background is forgotten, The foreground is expensed. The full life is not measured By the breadth of the experience But by its depth. Those who are totally aware May have never left their home. At the most fundamental level, Man is merely the experience of sensation and The reaction to it. As such, he is revealed as  Nothing more than One of the many processes of life. The most craven of idols of worship Are not made of stone or brass, But of beliefs. The natural man has no preferences, Takes no sides, and avoids labels. His ordinariness is so vast that He is considered merely A part of the landscape. Yet, he has mastered the world by Disempowering it. The microcosm depends on the macrocosm To no less degree than The macrocosm depends on the microcosm. The death of a beetle affects the tides In ways too mysterious to understand. The individual perceives that Life is happening to him whereas The one who has Relinquished his individuality Perceives that life is Merely happening. This is the state wherein Tension cannot arise.

Many times has Wu Hsin been asked: “What is emancipation?” Emancipation is Freedom from attachment; Attachment to people, Attachment to things, Attachment to ideas and beliefs. With all attachments cut, One trusts that one will float Rather than fall. Many times has Wu Hsin been asked: “What is emancipation?” Emancipation is The horror of mortality Transformed into The ecstatic sense of  Freedom from the individual. One tiny insect can damage a Huge expanse of grain. Do not, therefore, Be deceived by size. Everything impacts Everything else and is Essential to the way of things. Those who do not know Mask their ignorance in Scripture and holy texts. Wu Hsin uses these merely to Wipe off the cloak of the intellect. Accepting that the snow is white and The crow is black and Summers are hot and Winters cold, Is the heart of understanding All that is. It is not the extraordinary that Demands attention, But the ordinary. Awaken from the trance or  Remain buried alive. Clear sight is similar to The demolition of a building in that It is a tearing down of  All the old structures. Then, the world appears to be Wearing a new robe. The state Wu Hsin speaks of 

Escaped via flight. It is here; it is now. Concerning oneself with How to attain it is merely postponement. The focus of attention for  A single second is sufficient. A single broken thread may Unravel an entire garment. Each thing bettered is The world bettered. To act without seeking benefit To act without seeking results To be disinterested in outcomes is To be aligned with What-Is as it is. The way out is To get out of  One’s own way. The goal of the individual is The perpetuation and preservation of  The individual. When the individual is understood As nothing other than a construct, All notions of the goal disappear. The simple man Leaves no track behind. He enters the water  Without causing a ripple. He walks through the valley Yet the grass is unbent. He is invisible to the powerful But their power  Pales beside his. Just watching.  Not trying to get anything.  Not expecting anything.  Not seeking anything.  Not hoping or praying.  Not commenting or judging.  Not intending to relax or breathe correctly. Purposelessly, just watching. Do not ask Wu Hsin to describe What happens next. How can he? Then, it would be watched for. Those in alignment Follow the order of What-Is, they Follow the way of What-Is, they

Follow the design of What-Is. They are calm; They are clear; They are real. Having arrived at the root, They are never confused by the branches. The beauty of music is felt,  Not analyzed. Grasp a single note for  A single second too long and The melody is lost. As such, Wu Hsin has  Nothing to give, Just as one man cannot Eat the other’s dinner for him. The nature of What-Is is Likened to eating food: It should be taken in, digested and Then eliminated. Trying to keep it is The surest way to lose it. Pulling the weeds Fortifies the plant. The removal of erroneous beliefs Prepares the way for clarity. The removal of those beliefs remaining Heralds the arrival. To be calm amidst inactivity is  Not difficult. The masterful ones are those who Remain calm amidst intense activity. To be the embodiment of calm is To be freed From the power of circumstances. It is easy to become Wet in a fog. The dry ones are those who have Escaped the trance of  Self and other. Living at the center results in Changes at the circumference. As the periphery continues to shrink  It becomes increasing difficult to Discriminate between the two. Every day is the arrival of Spring. Seeing through the veil, One no longer relies on

Instead, one allows oneself to be Maintained and directed by That which maintains and directs The sun, the wind, The water and the waves.  Noticing without fixating, One is free. All the beauty of the world Appears in the smallest and the least. When this is not recognized One is thinking about One’s third slice of cake While still eating the first. The cloud has no destination Which it must reach. It is purposeless. In much the same way, When there is no longer  A sense of worry, A concern for what comes next, One can walk without  Needing to arrive. That which has always been is Like a seamless ball. Its beginning is nowhere and Everywhere. Its terminus is everywhere and  Nowhere. Do you see It cannot be shown? To fathom the fathomless and Know the end of the endless is To arrive at the gate of  The Great Understanding. To be eternal is to Stand outside of the process of  Becoming and The field of time. Upon the clear perception that There is nothing to become and  No time in which to achieve it, Eternity is realized. The common man is chasing shadows; Here one moment Gone in the next. The man of clear sight Observes shadow But is not enamored with it.

The reflection of light On the background Creates the foreground. Focusing his attention on The background He sees all. Look without naming. Listen without naming. Thoughts come, The kettle whistles. Respond the same to each. That which occurs naturally Is vastly different from What occurs through effort. The former is aligned with the world, The latter, Only with the self. The stream flows effortlessly. What has to be done To bring the arrival of spring? It requires true courage to Reject the familiar and The convenient. Rigorously question What you’ve been telling yourself. Wu Hsin suggests that You have not been listening To a friend. The cost of anticipating The next moment is that This moment is lost. Every life becomes Sheer wonderment when The mental commentary is removed. The cup of black tea is Transformed into a holy moment. How much of one’s personal narrative Could survive if  The perceived enemies and The perceived adversities in it were removed? One who desires To live in emptiness, Cannot be empty. That which gives life to the living  Never dies. That which transforms things  Never changes.

The father and mother of all things. Rejecting illumination The way is dark. How easy it is To become lost. Events and activities occur like The grass growing by itself.  Nothing is superior or inferior. Whatever mental concept or image comes up,  Naturally happens by itself. Does the snake think about camouflaging itself? There is no need to discard or get rid of it.  Notice it, and it is finished. The exercise of true faith is The exercise of trust. When one is trusting, The need for gods to believe in Becomes superfluous. Pick up a single link in A chain and All the other links come too. Apperceive one thing correctly and One apperceives everything. There is no separateness. There can be The appearance of separateness, The experience of separateness, yet There is no separateness. Because the spaces that Serve as connectors are not perceived, Separateness is assumed. When space is perceived and The things spaces connect are perceived Unity is perceived. Caught between Memory and expectation, Xin Shu was enslaved by His mind. He freed himself by Putting one foot In front of the other. Either one trusts no thing or  One trusts some thing. To trust no thing is to Live a life of fear and vigilance. To trust some thing is to relax, Allowing that worldly matters are

One’s direct involvement. An excellent carpenter   Never makes his work more difficult by Standing in his own light. The bridge that does not sway In heavy winds, Usually tumbles in pelting rain. To move with What-Is, To not resist, Promotes longevity in all things. Words cannot explain The taste of water or  The taste of life. Only through direct experience Does one reach either. What is beyond here is Likewise here. Those who discriminate Between imaginations and reality Perceive that there includes here. The point of contact between The phenomenal world and The sacred is The sense of presence, The sense of being; I am.  Not I am this nor  I am that, I am. To one who is inattentive This year’s sparrows seem like Last year’s sparrows. The world begins anew when All the structures one has created, Have been torn down, When all the things clung to Have been released and When all the dramas one perpetuates Have been forgotten. The same step that is Too high for a child is Too low for an adult. The same step that is Too wide for a child is Too narrow for an adult. The same step, therefore, has The qualities of being high and low,

Reference is everything. What for one form of life is A waste product is, For another form of life, An essential nutrient. What is a predator for  One species is Prey to another. One cannot speak in absolutes Except about the Absolute. What is inside his skin, Man names his insides. Why then, does he not name What is outside his skin, His outsides? Were he to do so, His connection to everything Would be self evident. When the world is understood With clarity, It no longer disappoints. One cannot succeed Looking for the mind In the head; the mind is not In the head, The head is in the mind. In his first eighteen months, Chung experienced the world As himself. Then he was taught that He was separate from it, Different from it and that It was his adversary. It was then that Chung was truly born. To return to that Which is prior to this and that, Requires the undoing of oneself. Yet, it is the very same one Who cannot do this Anymore than The teeth can bite themselves. As such, if the undoing is to occur, It occurs of its own accord; All seeming effort At the undoing is A mere illusion. Problems are created when

When an event becomes, An experience, Trouble ensues. Arrange the blocks of life To your heart’s content. As long as The blocks don’t move, All is fine. One who sees clearly understands: Life is inherently change. The world is perfectly ordered. It appears not to be so only to The individual. Small vision cannot perceive Grand scale. The dropping of  Its leaves in autumn Does not affect The root of the tree. Likewise, essence is not affected When forms dissolve. All naming builds a fence Between that which is named and The one who names. There is always something To worry about, For the one who Does not know oneself. Living for the future is The surest way to Destroy the present. All life is momentary. If attention is otherwise engaged, Life slips away like Oil through the fingers. The eye makes no effort, Yet it sees. The ear makes no effort, Yet it hears. The tongue makes no effort, Yet it tastes. Action that is natural, Action that is appropriate, Requires no effort. The outcome of seeing clearly

A single sentence: There is nothing wrong. Memory is the corpse of experience. Why live with the dead when One can live with life? One is thirsty and One asks for water; One is hungry and One asks for food. One doesn't know and One asks. One is open to receive. If one thinks one knows and One asks, One is not open and receptive; One is only seeking confirmation of  What one thinks one knows. A simple man Can enjoy music without Knowing who wrote it. He can relish the fragrance without  Naming the flower and can Laugh with a child without knowing why. A simple man is also lighter on his feet, Lighter in his gait. He is lacking in All those concepts, All those beliefs, All those labels to carry around. He is complete despite All the things he lacks. He is the most Ordinary of ordinaries. Trying to explain the unknown Using symbols and words of  The known is like Trying to smell one’s nose. The greatest conqueror  Conquers only himself. With that conquest completed, The conquest of anything external is The play of children. Those who adhere to The experience of others Gain knowledge. Those who seek  Experience of their own, Know.

The world is the honey, Man is the fly. The harder one tries to gain release, The more stuck one becomes. The attempt to gain Control over oneself is like Trying to stuff one’s shadow Into a sack. Acceptance of one’s nature is A relaxation, A movement toward peace Within peace. Follow the trail of your blessings To their source. Follow the trail of your sorrows To their source and You will find that Both arrive at the same place. Investigation returns one To the root. Upon attainment of the root, Branches no longer confuse. Forsake all paths, Roam aimlessly and Find What-Is. The real ones consider everything To be minor. They take the world lightly. In so doing, Their heart cannot be burdened and Their mind cannot be unsettled. Tell Wu Hsin: How many have been killed Pursuing desires?  Now tell me, How many have been killed Pursuing desirelessness? There is great wisdom in  Not deliberating. It is within the nature of What-Is for  Whatever needs to happen To happen; Whatever needs to arrive To arrive and Whatever needs to depart To depart.

Does not require The understanding of one’s purpose. This is why a flute can be a flute and A horse can be a horse. Although the functions may be different The essences are one. Those with clear sight have befriended The beginning and the end, They hold no preferences. They understand that The good exists Only in relation to the bad as Does the sacred In relation to the profane. It is easy to be lost in imagination. More difficult it is to be Rooted in What-Is. Forsaking the former requires The willingness to see a world Different from the one you planned. To draw distinctions is to separate. To separate is to Move away from the natural. Into how many pieces, Can one cut the sky? To be early or  To be late Makes no difference To one who is out of time. That which is Supreme Has no skin; nothing to delineate The inside from the outside. There is nothing wrong in this moment Until one thinks about it. What problem can there be if  There is no one to refer it to? The description can never be The described. Wu Hsin’s word are not it; They merely point to It. They are a lamp Illuminating a darkened wall. Don’t look for the lamp On the wall. Thoughts are only Bubbles in water.

Then they’re gone. How can the water be enjoyed If there is preoccupation With the bubbles? I am this or  I am that is A translation by the mind of  The sense of presence. This presence is prior to Any thing that can be Referenced as this or that and is The inherent nature of the cosmos. This must become evident. The sun need not proclaim “I am shining”. The stars do not Fall from the sky. The seasons arrive; They depart. Flowers bloom; Leaves fall. The tides ebb and flow. It sustains the real and The illusion. That which governs these is The Mystery not dared named. To end strife, One must end opposition, The root of which is mind. Right and wrong, Good and bad, Past and future, Joy and sorrow, Desire and aversion are all Created by this thought factory. Taking the attention away from mind is A movement toward peace. Open the eyes; Seeing happens. There is nothing else To be done. Who is it who claims “I saw”? The thought I see, Can’t see. The thought I hear, Can’t hear. Yet, there is seeing; There is hearing without

Anyone in particular. The entire cosmos works by itself,  Not needing assistance from The great or the small. What more does one need to understand? Does Wu Hsin want to live 100 years? Of what use is longevity to One who is beyond time? Those who see clearly Want nothing,  Need nothing, not even a god.  Not needing any god, they become Greater than any god. All experience, All perceptions are outside of  That which experiences and perceives. Remember only this and Identification with the local will end. Life becomes other than it is When there is acceptance that Life is the way it is. One is the knower of the world Through the sense organs; The knower of the sense organs Through the mind; and The knower of the mind By knowing alone. Actions, perceptions, thoughts and feelings All come and go. But knowingness never departs. In the world of change, Knowing is the only constant. Mind as mind knows no peace, and Mind at peace is no mind at all. Diversity only relates to objects. That which perceives them all is One and the same. The primary sin is Identifying oneself with Any thing in particular; Identification with the transient, Identification with the limited. Freeing oneself from the particular, One encounters oneself as One really is.

Man has been taught To be individualistic, separate. Man has been taught  Not  Not to to acc accept ept but but to to fi fight. Man has been taught  Not  Not to to tru trust st but but to to dou doubt bt.. Man can either begin The lengthy task of unlearning or  Return to the point that is Prior to when the learning began. The common man Sits by the stream and Hears its gurgling. The awakened man Sits by the stream and Hears ten thousand hymns. Those who act in The name of their god are A danger to all. Those who claim to know What is good for others are Likewise dangerous. Only those who know that There are no others are The possessors of wisdom. Li had an old cat. It lived naturally and  Nev  Never had a wor worry ry.. Li observed it every day until He lived naturally and  Nev  Never had a wor worry ry.. The delusional want to Make things happen. They are in a hurry To get to the future. The wise allow Things to happen. They are at home in The present moment.  Nev  Never con confuse Rest as a state of mind with Rest as a state of being. The former comes and goes Like dew on grass Whereas the latter is The source of all activity. All experience terminates in the mind. What is beyond the mind

All experience conduits through the personal. What is beyond the personal Cannot be experienced. Living consciously is Life’s only purpose. Just as the rising of the sun Obliterates the stars in the sky, So too does discernment Obliterate delusion. With the questioning of every assumption, The false is discarded and The reality of What-Is shines through. The movement away from holiness is Characterized by the belief that Something need be added to What one is. When the mind becomes Entangled in its happenings, One misses out on What is happening. The integrated man Refuses to contend. He understands the fundamental fellowship Between yes and no. He discerns the manure in The fragrance of every rose. The end of unhappiness occurs In the absence of any one Who is unhappy. Chow Wang had found His god's house, yet He balked at the door and Could not knock on it. Overcome by fear of  His absorption in his god, of  Losing who he thought he was, He ran away, never to return.  Now  Now Chow Chow Wang ang prea preach ches es:: "I know where he lives; I can show you too" He lives in one long moment Having no beginning and no end. What comes is accepted, What goes is accepted. Everything appears and disappears In front of him as

He knows himself to be  Nam  Nameles elesss an and for form mless ess aw awaren arenes esss wh while People refer to him as Wu Hsin. The quality of ownership is the great undoing. My opinions, My thoughts, My actions, My body, My mind. But where is the owner? Those that are Free of the world are Blessings in the world. They stand beyond conflict as They are the very antithesis of conflict. In the time it takes To snap one’s finger, Everything changes. What before had been perceived from An individual center is  Now  Now perc percei eiv ved from rom the the tot total aliity, ty, As the Totality. What before was division is  Now  Now merel erely y dif differen erence ce.. Difference does not separate. What before was a particular event is  Now  Now seen seen as a lilink in in one one wh whole. ole. The small pieces, Cut up as they were by the mind, are Returned to a single, integral unity. The contraction within life ceases; There is fullness. There is nothing about knowledge that Direct experience cannot cure. Stop trying to be anything, then See what happens. Shi Fang was an excellent cook. He would gather all his ingredients, Cooking them all in his marvelous way and Once they were delicious, He knew nothing further need be added. Likewise, when one’s view changes and Life is seen as delicious, then It is understood:  Noth  Nothiing furth rther need eed be be adde added. d. There is no secret formula. Wu Hsin’s words are to be Treated like food: Bite them off,

Then swallow them; Involvement is over. Whatever Whatever happens happens afterward is Automatic and unconscious. The particular and the universal are inseparable. They are two aspects of that which Cannot be named. One is the view from the inner, The other from the outer. Ones with clear sight do not Shun one or worship only the other. All desire is The urge to fill that which is Deemed to be not full. When the sun of clear sight Burns this cloud away, Striving comes to an end. The wise are forever peaceful. They remain calm and composed during their activities. They realize that they are Moved by something that is No Thing and are Unaffected by what others do, say, or think. They have no worries, anxieties or cares because They understand that nothing is theirs and that Everything is being done by this Something that is No Thing with which They are in conscious union. Things are the way they were because That is the way they are supposed to be. You are your only obstacle. The way beyond yourself is Through yourself. Seeing both sides of a coin is The only way to understand it.  Not  Not pre prefferri errin ng one one si side To the other is The only way to know it.  Noth  Nothiing is good good or bad. bad. Seeking to make it otherwise is The root of unhappiness. Preoccupation with objects of the senses, Preoccupation with thought, Draws attention away from their source and Reduces life to a series of  Inconsequential instants. Both the process of seeing and

The former facilitates the latter. A single sun is reflected in Ten thousand drops of morning dew. Seeing passed appearances, The one source is seen. Wanting life to be Other than it is is like Wanting a river to Flow uphill or  A cat to bark. Hu carried a large rock  Wherever he went. If someone suggested he Set it down, he replied “If I do, I’ll have nothing left” However, the day came when The rock became too heavy to carry. Hu was obliged to set it down. On that day, he acquired A lightness of being and wisdom. The greatest knowing is inherent and  Need  Need not be sear search ched ed for. or. Understand the nature of things and The need for emotion subsides. Can one resent a fig tree for  Secreting its juice? When asked what is The key to his happiness, Wu Hsin replied that He simply forgoes the non-essential. Death is the end of  Enslavement to the body and the mind. A fortunate few have died Before they died and In so doing, They reached the deathless. What is natural is Always for the best as  Natu  Natura rallness ess is is th the Epitome of equilibrium. Words are no more than pointers. One can’t cure an illness by Repeating the word “medicine”. To each person, the world appears different. This is so because believing is seeing; however,

It only arises after its perceiver does. Its nature is as the reflection of a crystal. The color it radiates is dependent upon The backdrop against which it is held. What injures the hive Causes injury to the bee. When the wise man finds The well that quenches his thirst, He sleeps beside it. All that exists is the seedling From which emerges All that exists. Outside of the skin is A mechanical process that Most call the world. It has no regard for  Any thing claiming individuality. When a wise man is Confronted with the world, He softens, melts and Returns into it. Since the beginning, Man has sought to define himself  In relation to the world Outside himself. However, all definitions must Dissolve at the instant of  The clear insight that There is nothing outside oneself. The world one sees is The world one is. One who sees the present moment clearly has Seen everything clearly. Peace that is Dependent on circumstances is not Peace. Happiness that depends on people or things is not Happiness. True peace, true happiness is Independent of the world. When the attention Shifts from past and future to The present instant, there is A commensurate shift from There being never enough to What-is is enough. Then, the desire for 

Comes to an end. There is something unknown Doing what cannot be understood. Why get in the way? Each definition Limits one further. Each limitation Defines what one Appears to be. The person is only an appearance, Like the space in the pot Appears to have the shape of the pot. The sense of separation Results in fear. This fear produces A sense of further separation. This toxic circle is broken upon The recognition of  The inherent oneness of  Self and other. Be no one in particular. Pure water only flows from A pure source. The actions of one who is integrated are always Appropriate to the moment. Complete understanding does not involve Knowing what one is; It only requires Knowing what one is not. The bin that holds the garbage Must be emptied and cleaned before It can become a home for roses. Let the thoughts come, Let the feelings come, Let the dirt come. For them to go, They first must come. Being enough is enough. One who has awakened to The workings of the world Understands that the mind Fills space with objects and Time with events. Released from captivity of the mind, One is finally free. Shutting the door may

It doesn’t eliminate the sun. All that is required is The transition from Seeing oneself in the world to Seeing the world in oneself. Identification with the personal localizes. It is a contraction, a smallness. When this is dropped, One expands to encompass The entire cosmos. You ask me to describe How I view the world. Wu Hsin declares: All the world is my object, and I am the changeless subject. I live in the best way, which is Aligned with living and only living, Completely forgetting the ‘How’ and the ‘why’ of it. The sum total of the work is to Replace the object of attention with The subject of attention. The answers to the questions Do not reside in The already known. Any personal point of view is Merely a fraction. One can clearly see the Totality by Summing endless fractions or by Ending all fractions. When there are no longer any goals, then The goal is attained. What could be A greater sign of a fool than His continuous antagonism To the present moment? He thrives on conflict, Defines himself in conflict. In the absence of conflict, What is he? He is a former fool. Diving in is The only way out. There is no place where Wu Hsin will send you to because All there is, is here.

To see things clearly is to understand that The world is exactly as it should be. As such, there can be no mistakes. All so-called mistakes are personal, Labeled by a person as  Not right, not acceptable or not desired. The balanced man knows that All there is, is Life. He apperceives that What is seen and What is experienced are the many Forms of this Life and that He is the space in which It all occurs. When discrimination was born, Heaven was lost. There is great liberation when Life doesn’t have to be A certain way. Belief establishes reality. What one believes in is What is real for them. His investigation of his beliefs Brought Song Jing to the understanding that He creates the world he experiences. As such, he was The subject to every object. What he experiences may Depend on many things; That he experiences Depends on no thing. The food is as much the singularity as is The excrement. Retreating to the point of creation, What can possibly be said? The voice of silence Says it best. To know that one is, is natural. To know what one is, is The fruit of deep investigation. Once self-interest and self-concern are transcended, An opening occurs. What had previously been important Becomes unimportant. What had previously been ignored Becomes the sole focal point.

The cart is moving, One must be out of the cart. Otherwise, it appears that The landscape is moving and The cart is still. Likewise, in order to Clearly see the world, One must be out of it. Wu Hsin has given up All notions of what he is not:  Not the mind,  Not the body,  Not the senses. He knows that he knows these But is not them. His is a life of ease.  No longer habitual,  No longer mechanical, Remembering only What needs to be remembered; Doing only What needs to be done, Spontaneously, in every moment. The feeling of separateness, The feeling of individuality is The mother of desire; The wanting of things that One is seemingly not. In the apperception of wholeness, All desire vanishes. One cannot want what One already is. One’s ideas of oneself  Change over time. Being is constant. Therefore, the choice is between Attending to the changeful and Attending to the changeless. What is death? The candle is gone. The flame is gone. The smoke is gone. The sky remains. All names pertain to forms. All forms come and go. Who then dares to Assign a name to The Nameless?

You dream of a snow leopard. Just as it is about to pounce on you, You wake up. Likewise, this Wu Hsin is about to Pounce on you and The end result will be the same. The paradox is that When the awakening occurs, “You” is not to be found. You cannot see the moon with The use of Wu Hsin’s eyes. What changes you Moves through you in the same way That water always takes The shape of its container. Its qualities cannot be Described any more readily than if  Wu Hsin were to describe the sweetness of sugar. To know it, you must eat it. Stillness is not the absence of thought. Stillness is prior to both The absence and the presence. It cannot be created but It can be found. The one who observes their mind is Free of their mind. All paths lead somewhere. Wu Hsin tells you:  No path is needed, There is no place to go. You are the destination. Regardless of the certitude one feels Regarding a feeling, A perception or  An idea, Wu Hsin reminds that there are Other possibilities. True living is what occurs when There is no one trying to Direct life. Belief is the food of experience and Experience is the food of belief. Animation is the arrival of  The observing energy Combined with

For the one who knows these,  No other god is necessary. Those with limited views are Constrained by fear. The faster they hurry, The slower they progress. Division is contrary to The nature of things. Good and bad, Better or worse, are merely Personal judgments Lacking in basis. How much can one receive Who is not willing to give? The superior man lives without intention, not Projecting the past into the future. Living without end-gaining, Spontaneously, Without referencing the already known. His is a life without restriction, Overflowing with fullness, Seeing the magnificence in The ordinary. The entirety of manifestation and The observer of the manifestation Rise and set together. It is only the fool who Chases after more knowledge. Is the one who is most knowledgeable The one who is the happiest? When he focused on his smallness, Chun San was filled with anxiety. When he saw his vastness, Anxiety was nowhere to be found. All art is created in The absence of the artist. So it is with all action wherein The notion of an actor arrives After the action is completed. To make a thing transparent; To see through it, is To understand it. This is clear sight. To speak the truth, One must see the truth clearly.

One with deep insight Does not discriminate between Out there and in here. His reality is not determined By the majority. Some may call him crazy But to this one, It is merely a different viewpoint. He revels in the womb experience:  No individual,  No self and other…. Only all. To look to the mind as The reference point of who one is Overlooks what was present Before the mind arose. Many there may be who listen, But few there are who hear: There is no way to Teach who one is. There is no way to Learn who one is. All that is required is to Be who one is. A dislocated bone is painful because It is out of alignment. So it is with the ill ease that Pertains to the individual. The integrated ones understand this; Most do not. For movement to be perceived, For change to be perceived, Requires a changeless, Unmoving, continuous background. This is the truth of what one is; The clear point, the non-dimensional Source of all dimensions, onto which All perception is displayed. Learning is inevitable. One either learns from Wu Hsin’s words or from One’s own mistakes. The jail cell is built with The imagination and the Self-identification with The imagined. Inattention is the great obscurer. Attention is the universal solvent.

The secrets to living are these: First, the past cannot be improved upon. Acknowledge what was and move on.  Next, the future cannot be molded. Then, why bother? Last, nothing can ultimately be controlled;  Not the past, nor the future, nor the present. Accept this moment as it is. Honoring these three, One lives without shackles. When the mind is filled with false beliefs There is no room for  What is true to abide there. Too much time is squandered on What was and What might be Leaving only table scraps for  What-Is. This mystery of which Wu Hsin speaks: It is unperceivable, yet It is the very root of perception. Although unfelt, It causes all feeling. The father of thought, The mother of being, It is the immovable background upon which All motion occurs. To name it is to Diminish it. Wu Hsin references it as That from which all emerges and All returns. Saying even this is A movement away from it. Why chase after more and more? What Wu Hsin needs to eat is provided; What Wu Hsin needs to know is provided. What-Is is like a great river; It flows, yet It is eternally there. Only what is limited Can be made perfect. The unlimited is already perfect. Seeing the latter in oneself is easier than Working on the former. Wu Hsin is aware of many things, yet He is none of them.

Clear sight is obscured. Much has been said about silence. Yet, all talk of silence is mere noise. If the questions didn’t seem so meaningful, Finding the answers wouldn’t Be so important. The state of no questions belongs to Those who have seen through the façade. Man is the greatest enemy to himself. When this becomes clear, What he is doing Becomes less important than What he stops doing. What must be lost Becomes greater than What is gained. The one who follows a method Continues to follow the method Until the one who follows the method is  No more. Wu Hsin says One is never alone. The closest friend, The life force, is always there. When the actor walks off of the stage, When the life force departs, One is said to have departed. Only what was one’s own In the beginning Will be one’s own in the end. The interim is filled with Gaining and losing. To find what is one’s own is To find the great jewel of clarity. Words contain little, Action contains much. Hearing “rice” does not Satisfy the hunger. The mind mirrors the world. Albeit imperfectly. The person mirrors the mind, Perfectly. When the sun rises, The lamp is not longer required. Likewise, with the arrival of clarity,

The mind becomes like The moon in the sky in daytime; It is there but It is not needed. Enormous effort must be made to Earn the realization that Effort takes one nowhere. Those seeking to know their god Must begin by knowing themselves. In knowing one’s self, One’s god is known. The change in perspective of which Wu Hsin speaks is Easy to understand. One is no longer on the outside Looking in, but instead is On the inside Looking out. The one who looks is not Apart from the world Looking at it, but instead is An integral part of it. When this is realized, The true looker, The conscious center of perception, Has been found. Many worry unceasing About the future. Wu Hsin says: It is better to understand the present than To worry of the future. Once the present is seen clearly All worries of the future are gone. All that appears, All that disappears Can only occur against A changeless background. When one knows oneself  To be That and Only That, There is nothing left to do. This identification, This individuality, This self-consciousness is The least refined. Transcended, it is Pure consciousness, The perceiver of all things.

The knower of no things, Pure potentiality. This is the highest to which One must return. Inquiring deeply into The source of unhappiness, One becomes clear about unhappiness. When one is clear about unhappiness, One becomes clear of unhappiness. Whereas awareness is the eternal potential Consciousness is the eternal actual. Consciousness is the surface; Awareness is the limitless ocean. Consciousness is the guide for the journey Through the known and into The unknown. In truth, they are not two, but Aspects of a unified whole. Dull people deny existence to What they cannot imagine. Wise people deny existence to What they do imagine. The desire for happiness is The very seed of unhappiness For the one whose happiness is Dependent upon conditions. Those with insight are happy because There is no desire for happiness to Obstruct their inherent happiness. It is of less importance to Try to change the course of events. It is of greater importance to change One’s attitude toward them. To discriminate between The important and the unimportant Facilitates the arrival of wisdom. Things may happen as One wants them to happen or  One may want them to happen as They happen. Clear beings have no preferences. Awakening is like a bottomless well; When an individual falls into it, The individual disappears.  No action is wasted; Everything tills the field for 

Recognizing an illusion As an illusion Does not make it disappear; It makes it transparent. Those seeking clarity must not List all those things already given up. This is not important. What is important is to List all those things not given up, and then To do so. The removal of misunderstanding is The prerequisite for understanding. The central misunderstanding is Believing oneself to be An intermittent, momentary, changing Collection of memories and reactions Referred to as the person. To see the usefulness of everything is knowledge. To see the uselessness of everything is wisdom. At what point does Low become high; Small become big? Those who apperceive The continuum of all things Don’t waste their time on such matters. The Source of all things resides Prior to all things. It is therefore quite foolish To seek among things For the Source of all things. Wholeness is simply The perception of the  Non-existence of any parts. When asked to describe clear sight, Wu Hsin could only say It is the difference between Being inside a cloud and Being outside a cloud: Inside the cloud, one barely sees one’s hand, Outside the cloud, one sees The sky, the sun, the moon The stars and all eternity. A realized man apperceives that He is neither  What is the inner mentation or 

As the knower of both, What is there left For him to do other than To simply be? One is closer to the truth When one sees oneself  As a process rather than as An entity and that The sum of all processes is The world. Under a rock, There is always darkness, Regardless of how bright the sun. To see matters rightly is only To emerge from under the rock of  Identification with the personal. One thing is most clear: The only man who is Free in the world is The man who is Free of the world. The real giving up is in The understanding that There is nothing to give up because One has nothing to give up because  Nothing is one’s own. This “you” has a life of its own, Separate from You. It is a mechanical process, One of action and reaction. It is that which life happens to. There is nothing to be Done about it; When one understands it for  What it isn’t, one Sees it for what it is. “I” is a false notion, Merely an idea of a thinker, a doer. There are none. There is only thinking and doing With no one to refer to either. All searching takes one Away from oneself. Wu Hsin can’t give it; How can he give What one already has?

Peace and freedom are  Not available here and now, Requiring time, Requiring the future in which to find it, Must believe in the Ill-formed idea of practice. It comes when it comes: If there were a formula for it, Which there is not, It would be the absence of imagination, The absence of will, The absence of effort, The absence of no effort, The absence of all movement In any direction, On any level, In any dimension. The end of illusion is the end of you. You can't be without illusion; Being you means Acknowledging illusion. That is what “you” is. Wu Hsin is a fragrance, One of millions of fragrances, Emitted from the flower of being. I am and the world is is A single sun, Rising and setting, Rising and setting. If change is necessary, Change will occur. A wise man never worries about Improving what-is. One loses one’s self in One’s activities. The end of enforced activity is The beginning of discovery. Real contact is made when There are no persons,  No personalities,  No individuals to meet. One is not part of the world. One is the mother of the world, Birthing it in every moment. Life is never complex unless

This object, The body, of itself  Contains neither pain nor suffering. Pain and suffering require A person to claim them. Likewise, happiness and peace are personal. All these come and go. The constant, Unmoving remains. When there are  No fixed standards defining The way things ought to be, Everything is fine, Just as it is. Within the realm of the known, Everything is organized, Qualified and classified. Beyond the known lies The realm of unending discovery. Those who are free are Little different from Those who are not, except that They are no longer controlled by Habit and reaction. Just as the skin is One’s physiological border, Thought is One’s intellectual border. To go beyond these borders is The doorway to A vastness beyond comprehension. The discontinuous framework of  Being somebody Ultimately depends upon The continuous framework of  Being no thing in particular. A common impediment to Securing what is everlasting is The pursuit of  What is momentary. To live in a world of  Right and wrong, Should and shouldn’t, is to Live in prison. Those who are free  Naturally know what to do In every moment.

The heart beats Without a beater. The hair grows Without a grower. Actions occur  Without an actor. When the children leave home or  The crops fail, It is not a happening to oneself; It is a happening in oneself. The basis of all action is thought. Until one apperceives Where thought comes from, One remains in the dark. To live as a personality is To live in restriction. The fullness of life cannot be Constrained to the confines of a jar. In order for insight to blossom, It is not what one does that matters. What matters is What one stops doing. The flower is not Concerned about tomorrow. It doesn’t plan. It doesn’t worry about death;  Nor  Nor does does it make eff effort ort to to Smell beautifully. The flower teaches being, Being what one is. The calling is not to Go beyond the mind. The calling is to be, which is Prior to the mind. To live with anxiety, That thought moving between  Now  Now and and wh what-i at-iff, is is To live life unnaturally. The natural life is A life of full consciousness in The absence of thought. Life is, Existence is, Before it can be name Before it can be labeled. This is the Ground from which

To return to the Ground, To go Home, is merely to Go back the way one came. What is not natural Cannot be permanent. What is not permanent is  Not  Not wor worth th purs pursu uing. The extinguishing of  The sense of individuality is A most worthwhile endeavor. But, who is there To do it? There is no inherent need to think. The need to think serves only to Perpetuate the notion of a thinker. These so-called searches are so barren. It is like using a lit candle to Seek out fire. When what one is Is clearly discerned, The need for searching is extinguished. The Silence of which Wu Hsin speaks is beyond The presence or absence of thought. It is prior to both and It is their foundation. When one perceives What is not silent, The perception is from this Silence. Teachers are pointers, Markers, signposts;  Noth  Nothiing more. ore. If one attaches oneself to a signpost One can never continue onward. The fear of death is really The fear of becoming nothing. Here, Wu Hsin asks: What if you are already nothing? To depart from this vast nothing In order to be A small something is The folly of the individual. Allow Wu Hsin to help you Find this god that You are seeking. This god is everywhere that

Dong Ma owned a beautiful rug which He sent it out to be cleaned. Because his vision was not clear, He could never see the floor; He only saw The absence of the rug. Because of the sun, The light is. Because one is, The world is. All manifestation is The expression of its Source. When there is no place One has to be, When there is no one One has to be, This is freedom. When the false is Seen as false and Everything is accepted As it is, This, too, is freedom. When one creates labels for oneself: Husband, Husband, father, father, farmer, student, When one assumes roles or  Judges and discriminates, The whole is broken into pieces and Authenticity is destroyed. A fragment can never  Understand the Totality. It is at best a partial, incomplete view. Only from wholeness Can Wholeness be seen. What-Is is Perceived without evaluation, Through attention without effort. When it is seen clearly, Old modes are dropped Like hot stones. One is not really a dancer  If the only dance danced Is the dance One was taught. Living is the dance danced, Spontaneously. When all intention is released There is no reason

 Nor  Nor is is th there ere a reas reason on For not doing anything. What happens, happens Purely through The functioning of That. All searching is A movement away from What-Is. This What-Is is already present, Already manifest. Where need one go To search for what is Already there? The Source of all things, Makes manifest only two things: Me and Other than me. See this clearly; That is enough. The notion of  A thinker of thoughts is  No more ore val valiid th than The notion of a digester of food. Both are mechanical acts, Absent any doership. Those who apperceive this  Nev  Never lay clai claim m to Any thought as mine. When there is identification with thought, This very identification is The impediment to understanding. Any rumination on The words of Wu Hsin is A movement away from What they point to. The seed is planted, The soil is ready, There is nothing to do. Does the sun know When it rises and sets? Does the ocean now High tide and low tide? First understand what it is That is born. Then the mystery is dissolved. The mind is like A cup that refills itself. Emptying it is not sufficient;

Once the cup is shattered, The task is complete.

Volume Three: In the Shadow of the Formless

Forward 

You hold in your hand a most unique tutorial on the subject of being. In one sense, it is unique in that the subject of how-to-be does not receive much attention. In another sense, its uniqueness rests in the simplicity and clarity in which the subject is presented. These lost writings of the ancient Chinese Wu Hsin are completely devoid of compromise. They challenge the most fundamental assumptions we make about ourselves and our world and, when viewed from openness, are truly transformative. In Volume Three, In the Shadow of the Formless, Wu Hsin continues his great treatise with some surprising statements. For example: One inherent error is The preference for  The song of the future over  The seeming blandness of  The present moment.  Another error is Using the mind  To try to understand  The words of Wu Hsin. The mind is a tool  Unsuited to this task. The proper tool is silence. The seed is in the ground; The sun will shine; The rain will fall;  Nothing need be done.  Nothing need be done. After all the words have been read, after their meaning has been pondered with new concepts possibly added, nothing need be done. How hard this is for the Western mind to accept. “What do I need to do to get it?” is the usual question. Here, Wu Hsin provides the disconcerting answer “Nothing need be done”. Behind this statement lies the even more disquieting question “Who is there to do anything?” Therein, the reader is returned to one of the central themes of Wu Hsin, that is, that there really is no such thing as an individual: There is a belief of separateness, That you are separate from the rest. There is nothing you can do To rid yourself of this belief because “You” is the belief. Stated in modern terms, the philosophy of Wu Hsin could be summed up in this manner: There is thinking and there is functioning, distinct from thinking. Thinking reflects the programming for survival, for continuity, which manifests through the psychosomatic apparatus. A reference point is created via the thought me. This me is the sum or totality of all fears: the fear of pain, the fear of loss, and ultimately, the fear of absence. Most of the thoughts regarding me are repetitious, an extraneous feedback loop in the nervous system. Interestingly however, thought is not born in the brain any more than a radio creates sound. It is merely transmitted through it. Functioning occurs through the workings of consciousness and the life-force. Functioning is effortless and natural. Cells are replaced, wastes are eliminated, what needs to be done gets done. There is an aware-presence-energy. Giving attention to thought perpetuates the programming. Giving attention to the functioning, the aware-presence-energy, facilitates the de-programming. The "I/me" is latent in the apparatus at birth, as the flower is latent in the seed. The preliminary programming is installed genetically. At some point between 18-24 months, sufficient memories, both pleasant and unpleasant, have accumulated thereby triggering the "I/me" or self consciousness to arise. Seeing itself as separate and insecure causes the activation (boot) of the programming as a means of protection. It is perpetually modified and adjusted (upgraded) by the experiences of the apparatus and is further “tweaked” by the moment-by-moment adjustments made by the endocrine system. From that point forward, the hardware (soma) receives the input from the environment. It is processed by the software (psyche) which provides the output ([re]action). There is no individual, as such, doing anything. Everything that happens is the cause of everything that happens. There is no center to infinity. I strongly doubt that Wu Hsin would want readers to take him at his word. Instead, he would ask that each investigate the matter deeply within oneself. Search for  the individual, locate the operating center. This is the lasting challenge of one of the most profound teachers of all time

Text 

Using the flutist’s flute Does not make one A flutist. Wu Hsin has no tools,  No method to render. He speaks of how it was for him,  Not implying that it will be Likewise for another. Wu Hsin has no intended outcome in The offering of these words, Just as water is unconcerned Whether or not It quenches thirst. All individuals die. Only those Who are no longer individuals Live forever. One inherent error is The preference for  The song of the future over  The seeming blandness of  The present moment. Another error is Using the mind To try to understand The words of Wu Hsin. The mind is a tool Unsuited to this task. The proper tool is silence. The seed is in the ground; The sun will shine; The rain will fall;  Nothing need be done. You believe that There is nothing more than Your God. Wu Hsin says There is nothing more than Your God and I am that Nothing. The reconciliation of  The feeling of separateness with The reality of unity is The enlightened view. That which provided The feeling of separateness

There is nothing to be done. What is derived from effort Relates to the physical realm only. What is derived from effortlessness, is True knowing.  Not a knowledge of things, but A knowing of What-Is. Just as a spider  Spins a web out from itself, So does each man spin his world Out from himself. Seeing this is The beginning of the end. Everywhere one looks, One sees aspects of  A single unity. How can the seer, therefore, Believe itself to be separate? Is not the one who sees Merely another aspect of  That which is seen? Although feeling lost is an illusion, It is the first step in Finding That which can  Never be lost. Being is the seed of manifestation in which All actions happen. Just as a forest of trees is Contained in a single seed, So all of life is in The seed of being. Who, therefore, is doing anything? Different instruments produce Different sounds constituting The melody of life. The incense stick is lit. It burns until It is completely finished. What remains is The lighter of the stick. He who sees the stick in himself and Understands what Wu Hsin has said, Has done very well. Thoughts are like The promises of politicians and Should be treated accordingly. What is this body but An animated corpse? The investigation of the animator 

Wu Hsin speaks. The music is latent in The flute just as The child is latent in The mother. See that you have Brought your world with you. Then, let it go. Giving attention to What-Is and  Not giving attention to What appears to be, is The key to opening The prison door. There may be many receptacles that Hold the river water. Yet, the quality of the water  Remains unchanged. To identify with the receptacle is The only error. All seeking is for  The cessation of pain. When the seeker is gone, The pain is gone. Trace your good luck  Back to its source or  Trace your bad luck  Back to its source and You will discover that The Source is the same. From the One Comes the Many. As a baby nurses at Its mother’s breast, One must nurse at The source of life’s sustenance So that one may discover  The essence of being. Being natural is Being sacred. Movement away from there is Movement toward unhappiness. The position is quite simple: The One manifests as The Many. The water taken from the river is of  The same quality as The water in the river although It may appear in

If one sees oneself as The center of everything with The power to shape things To suit one’s desires, then One has become One’s god. A dog does not know He is a dog. He only knows He is. If only man Could be so fortunate. Identification with a body is The birth of the person, The individual. The personality then acts To protect the body from That which is Other than itself. When this false identification is Seen through, That which one truly is Manifests and shines. Deep understanding, True understanding is permanent. The pickle never  Returns to being a cucumber. Until the boundary between Inner and outer dissolves, All changes are only minor. In the cessation of duality, Oneness is revealed. There can be no Being one with………… There is only being. In ancient times, Before there were individuals, There were no problems. Then, the individuals Turned this against that and Problems arose. Identification with a body is Merely a habit, Taught to the child Early in its life. Breaking this habit is like A chick breaking its shell.

To depart from a vast no-thing To become a small some-thing is The pinnacle of foolishness. Living spontaneously leaves  No time to think. This is true living. Choice is an illusion. The individual having choice or   Not having choice is Also an illusion. What is an illusion? It is when things are not As they seem. Once a realignment occurs, One watches What is happening Without believing that One is making it happen. The body does what it chooses; It wakes without permission, Gets ill without permission. Dies without permission. All of this is to say, A role is played;  Nothing more. Those who have re-cognized Their true condition Welcome whatever comes, thereby Living life to its fullest. The person is A phenomenon in time. Being is eternal. Devotion to a teacher is Far less important than Devotion to a teaching. True stillness, Stillness without someone Trying to be still, is The solvent in which All individual conditioning Can be dissolved. What remains is a neutrality, An acceptance of What-Is. That which is often Referred to as Emptiness Could as easily be Referred to as Fullness Insofar as it contains The potential for every thing.

When the maker of the problems is  No longer part of the process. That is to say that The solution to all problems is The removal of  The creator of all problems. How many eyes are required to See the appearance of Being? To change the world One need only change The color of the glass One looks through. All there is is This manifestation and Its perception. This is the soup with All the water boiled off. Any identification with objects Cuts off access to subjectivity, that is, To the perceiving of  The wholeness that is inherent. Life is its own purpose. That which perceives Perceives the totality and the void. This perceiving is prior to both. Wu Hsin is but an appearance; Appearing to speak, Appearing to convey concepts. In fact, this here is Only an object. One in a world of objects. It is through this object that What-is is made known. There is no specific way that Things are supposed to be. Something may be right one day and Wrong the next. Seeing things as they are, Without judging, Without labeling, is A quality of those Who live naturally. Before there is a clear understanding, When the bell above the door rings, One opens the door. After the clear understanding, When the bell rings, The door is opened. The tyranny of the personal is that

The glory of being. Confined to its cage, The canary can never fly, It can never soar. What is life other than The Absolute functioning Through Its instruments, Resulting in this, which in turn, Results in that. In this fashion, The web of causation is spun. What happens after death? The answer is simple: The foreground no longer  Intercedes with the background. Although not truly a return, It is a return to that condition Prior to birth. The body is here to do What its nature requires. It has nothing to do with Anyone in particular. When all intention is abandoned What remains is silent awareness Out of which emanates Spontaneous living. The fixation on objects, of which Thought is one of many, is The sole impediment to Perceiving What-is. Those who realize this are  No longer the body’s accomplice. A full bowl can have  No further utility. Only when it is emptied, Can it be put to use. The Great Harmony is Preceded by the emptying. To the blind, The world is darkness. To the deaf, The world is silence. The world is therefore What the senses make it. In turn, What is sensed is Filtered by the mind and, as such, is What the mind interprets. The self-perpetuating mechanism

An artifact of memory. It is like a top That spins from its own inertia. Do not seek progress as Progress exists only in time. The goal stands Outside of time. Believing in an independent entity is like Believing that the wind Blows the air. The air is blown; The blower cannot be found. Who is Wu Hsin other than A bronze mirror in which To see oneself clearly? One cannot see The whole world by Looking through A hole in the door. Attaching certitude to A limited view Perpetuates all misconception. One's lamp may be Different from Wu Hsin's lamp, But the light is the same. In naming, The namer and the named Become separate. This is the beginning of the confusion. Through the filter of  The personal One can never see things The way they are. One can only see things The way one is. One may dwell on these matters for decades, but Until insight triumphs over thought,  No lasting change can occur. In the search for the Ultimate, The intellect is as useless as A lamp at noon. Being is irrefutable;  None can make the claim I am not. Do not remain A prisoner of imagination and hearsay. Inquire into The validity of your beliefs and Realize the foundation of all things.

The separate self is Only a function, Similar in this regard to digestion. Wu Hsin asks: Why identify with it and Live as a fraction of fullness instead of  Fullness itself? What is true can shine only Once what is false Has been disrobed. A thorough examination of  One's assumptions and beliefs is All that is required to see that There is no map for  The way things are Supposed to be. Awareness is The Source of the world. In its absence, Who is aware of what? Objects are dependent upon this awareness For their existence. Awareness depends on nothing. It is self-sustaining, primal and The underlying foundation of all things. The quality of knowing to which Wu Hsin speaks is demonstrated by The answer to the question Are you alive?  No thought,  No thinker is required. The response is spontaneous. What one is Is without direction. Therefore, all going Takes one away from it. In the absence of all movement, In stillness, It arises of its own. Where is the world In the absence of  That which observes it? The light of the fire Casts shapes and shadows Onto the wall. It is the fascination With the images that Causes the forgetting of  The wall that supports them. The face and

Are not separate, Are not two. Once the timeless perfection is seen For what it is, What can one want to add? What can one want to take away? That of which Wu Hsin speaks is not An altered state. It is the natural condition. What most people perceive is An altered state. To become re-established in the natural, May bring about a profound change or  It may be as subtle as A knowing that one knows that Something is different. Wu Hsin cannot say What to look for or  Where to look as This naturalness cannot be  Named nor localized. Solitude is a reflection of  The condition of the mind. One can be in the forest, Yet it can be said that One is not in solitude or  One can be in the busy market and Be in complete solitude. One's Source is not External to oneself. It is the foundation upon which The notion of one's self is constructed. Tear down the structure and The foundation remains. To find the I Within every my, is The key that unlocks The Great Gate of Understanding. The power of the will alone cannot Bring one to the goal. Only the One Who Brought you to here can Take you to there. Being a person is Only an idea. It serves to mask  The underlying essence In the same way that Clouds obscure the sun. When this idea is seen through,

Living is the reaction to stimuli, to People, events, and thoughts. To examine the reactor is to Inquire deeply into The root of being. That which contains the mind Cannot be known Via the mind. In pristine silence, This primal lucidity makes itself known. Wu Hsin has no desire To instill either fear or hope. Instead, the sole purpose is to Portray matters as they are, and Thereby provide the ultimate freedom, The freedom from concepts. In order for understanding to flower, One must forget everything, Ceasing to set one thing Against another. Becoming an empty slate upon which Writing appears and disappears. All problems are created by the mind and Related to the body. In the absence of either, Where are the problems? Everyone is a single thought away from clarity. Drop that thought and See what remains. The end of the tyranny Created by the false sense of  A center controlling all that Appears to happen is Like a sun-filled dawn following Weeks of rain. One must not forget that Wu Hsin's words are mere pointers To something greater, and not The Greatness Itself. Just as one cannot drink  The word water, One must not substitute these words for  The direct experience of What-Is. Pei owned a bird that He wanted to set free. He opened its door but The bird did not move. Wu Hsin told Pei:

Opening the door. Until the fear of the unknown subsides, Until the desire arises To fly away, The bird remains where it is, Preferring the known To the unknown. Taking away, Taking away. When everything has been Taken away, What remains is The Ground that supports The totality. Seeing the Ground is Being the Ground. Man is ensnared by What he does no clearly see. He becomes like the waterwheel, Spinning, turning, Purely mechanical. See yourself as that in which Worlds arise and set. You are the unmovable background in which All movement is perceived, The weaver of all tapestries. What can exist without you? Answer this and All other questions are finished. That which is false Cannot withstand The light of investigation. The examination of  One’s most central belief, The existence of an acting me , is The portal beyond. This life is like The wind; One cannot know it directly. It can only be known Through its expressions. While Wu Hsin has grown older, While his body has changed, Presence remained unaltered throughout. To take the changeful For the changeless, is The primary delusion. To be fully accepting of 

Eliminates fear and anxiety, Expectation and desire. This is the natural way to Set all things right. Once there is the apperception that One is but an instrument of  The Source of all things, One can do what one pleases and Live in whatever manner one chooses. To relinquish the focus on I was, and The focus on I will be and To remain fixed on I am, The very seat of being, The fundamental presence, is to Return to the beginning, To the Seed of Life That one has never truly been left. Digestion is a process. Thinking is a process. Just as there is no digester, likewise There is no thinker. Thoughts appear. Inquire onto what Do they appear. Being, expressed through the mind, is I am. This is the undeniable root. Anything added to I am is A movement away from It. To understand that One’s true nature is Imperceivable and inconceivable, is The deepest understanding. One who achieves this Does not seek the good nor  Shun the evil. What comes, comes; and Sees clearly that, in time, Everything comes. There is no one choosing to hear. There is no one choosing to smell. There is no one choosing to think. There is no one choosing to choose. Yanming Wei at last found peace. There was nothing He was attached to,  Nothing he was detached from. He lost his opinions and Found his way.

Cognition is prior to Recognition. The former arises in Being, The latter is personal, Arising from the mind as memory. Whereas cognition is pure, Recognition is tainted by The supposed self-centre. The world cognized is A beautiful, wondrous world. The world recognized is Filled with alternating joy and sorrow. It is not the mind that Comes to this understanding. It is the knower of the mind Who knows this. The moon’s eclipsing of the sun  Never negates the existence of the sun. It merely masks it. Likewise, the personal eclipses The divinity that Resides in every man. Its presence is felt in The absence of  The seeming separate self. Relinquish everything That has been acquired and Return to that state that existed Prior to the first acquisition.  Now, tell Wu Hsin: Who are you? In the single instant, Absent any thought, There is the clear revelation that  Nothing is wrong. The return of thoughts herald The return of problems.  Nature and its natural functioning are The beginning and the end of all things: Creation, Sustenance and Cessation. The me is merely a distortion; A personalizing of the impersonal. When one discovers the truth of this, All stories and dramas then Become empty of meaning. The past is dead, yet The memory of the past Lives on in Someone with a past. Ultimately, the liberation of which Wu Hsin speaks is the understanding that

Watching the actors perform. One is a part of the play. In so doing, The notions of inside and outside are Transformed into a single totality. To some, the words of Wu Hsin are like A spark in a container of cotton. Others are wet cotton; The spark has no effect.  Neither Wu Hsin nor  The spark nor  The cotton can be faulted; What-is, is. Going out precedes returning. When one has had Their fill of the world, One turns away and Begins the return to The abode that they never left. To live in unity, There cannot be any one who is Separate from any other. All else is deception. For your search in this darkness,  Not even Wu Hsin can be one's lamp. One must shine one's own light On every belief  To come to the truth. In the beginning, There was Potential. When the Potential, By its very nature, Becomes the actual, Space is born. Time is born. Duality is born. The world is born. One is born. This is the crux of  Unitive understanding. To be open to discover this, One must relinquish One's death-grip on All mental possessions. Each being is Moving toward the intended outcome of  Their inherent nature. There is action But no actor.

There is no greater misfortune than Misunderstanding. To perceive That which makes the tongue speak but Cannot be spoken by the tongue, is The great good luck. There is no greater fortune than Understanding. Fear is the attempt To control the present moment. When it becomes clear that There are no others to fear, Fear dissolves. With perfect insight that Time is only the relegation of  Objective experience to Past, present, and future; to Recollection, consciousness, and anticipation, One lives naturally, Reacting spontaneously and appropriately To every calling. What is the mind But a succession of thoughts, Like beads on a string? Deep understanding of  The workings of the mind is The cutting of the string. To understand that the mind is The great divider, Dividing function, seeing, into Seer and seen, is A great leap forward. When the confusion between Beliefs and the actual is reconciled, The world is seen in a new light. The sole function of the mind is To change, to alter, to modify What-Is. To reside prior to mind is To reside in What-Is. The way of Wu Hsin is Through yourself to Beyond yourself. Don't tell Wu Hsin What you have relinquished. It doesn't matter. All that matters is What you continue to Hold on to.

His own. When one understands oneself to be The ground from which All things grow, When there is no separate I, How can there be any mine? Functioning comes before thought. Seeing precedes I see In the same way that Being precedes identity. To focus on the latter  At the expense of the former is to Miss the mark. Being-Awareness is every where It is every when and It is every thing. All else is overlay. The removal of the unnecessary Allows what is primal to shine. Dark clouds, mist and thunder  Have no effect on The sun. Seeing that you are That is True freedom. They live in this present moment, In the absence of the past. Lacking a past, They lack personality; For what is personality but A reaction to the past in the present? Yet, in the absence of personality, Can these be called persons? Thoughts, feelings and perceptions may Spontaneously appear. Then, they subside. Claiming ownership of them is the error. Allowing them to arise and set without Making them one's own is The portal to peace. The solution cannot be Found in time. How much time is required to be What one already is? Sometimes, the shortest distance between two points Runs through hell. Wisdom is the meeting of What-Is With the same passion as One’s entertainment of what should be and

A cessation of confusion, Equating different with separate, Takes one to clarity. Everyone is aware but Only the wise are Aware of being aware. To these, thinking and digestion Function in the same manner, Without attention or interest. Inside the bucket, There is space. Inside space, There is the bucket. Where then, is outer? Where then, is inner? Reality for the individual is Made up of context, not content. The characters on the scroll Have different meanings to Different readers. The fire that is Bad for the forest dweller  May be good for the forest. What-Is is needless as It already contains everything. The mind cannot know any thing Any more than the ear  Can know the heard. Of all the renunciations, Renunciation of the belief in A separate, doing-self is the highest. The common man seeks to Straighten crooked trees and Aid the growth of shorter ones. The wise sees all the trees and Fully accepts each as it is. To remove a diseased tree from the soil, One does not attack the branches  Nor the leaves. One goes directly to the root. To remove the spell of individuality, Wu Hsin attacks the root of it. In the end, it is revealed that All seekers seeking are merely Shadow boxing. Simply be. Within pure being,

Already reside. They arise naturally and spontaneously, Unaided by any one. From within the cage of imagination, False views arise. When seen as false, These views dissipate, Leaving only pristine clarity in their place. Life makes one conscious, Wu Hsin makes one aware. Those who seek  To control events Can never be liberated from Bondage to events. To know that one is, is natural. To know what one is, Requires thorough investigation. Whatever comes, Must go. What-Is is permanent, Beyond all comings and goings. Whereas you are focused on the structure, Wu Hsin is concerned Solely with the foundation. Whereas structures rise and fall, Foundations remain. Whereas all experience is transient, The ground of experience is Immovable and permanent. To be what one is Requires no practice. The mind cannot discern What is beyond the mind. However, what is beyond the mind Knows the mind intimately and Supports it in the same way as Silence is the support of all sound. Wu Hsin's advice is simple: Let there be nothing that You want to know; What you need to know, You'll come to know. What is common to every experience is Awareness of the experience. You are That. The rest is imagination. There is a belief of separateness, That you are separate from the rest.

To rid yourself of this belief because “You” is the belief. Understand fear to be Estrangement from the Source. Understand desire to be Longing for the Source. One can then see how Returning to the Source is The elimination of fear and The satisfaction of desire. And what is returning to the Source? It is the recognition that One is the sun and not The clouds that obscure it. Phenomena are merely phenomena. They arise and set continuously. Labeling a phenomenon “me” is The root problem. When the attention is turned to That which is primal, All imaginations lose their hold. What remains is pristine, Unstained and ever-present. Wu Hsin calls this Home. One truly does not know What one is and therefore Takes oneself to be What one is not. The end of imagination is The end of illusion. The core of being Requires no effort. What is there That must be done to Be aware? One is nothing that One is conscious of. Yet one creates it all. When the structure is dismantled, The foundation is revealed. Wu Hsin can point to the sky; The seeing of the stars is One's own. Great effort is required to see that Clear sight is not The result of effort. Overlooking what is obvious is The common obstacle. To see what has been

The simple remedy. So much time spent, Seeking what one is. So much better is it to understand What one is not. Then what remains is pure and What one is. Movement is inherent in The very nature of the mind. That is to say, Thoughts appear. To believe that One can stop thought is Tantamount to believing that One can make a tiger bleat. Correct one's jaundiced eye and  Nothing will appear to be yellow. The I in “I think” is as real as The it in “it rains”. How can it be that So many would choose The doorway to A public discourse on heaven over  The doorway to heaven? Separating oneself from One's beliefs Results in the ending of the beliefs and An ending of the separate self. Clear seeing is Understanding that one is not A fragment of the whole;  Nothing more and  Nothing less. Once freed from all opposing pairs Such as good and bad, Desirable and undesirable, What one does Can never be wrong. The body, the mind and the intellect All grow, become mature and decay. However, That which sees this Remains unmoved, As it ever was. One can easily see Oneself in the world. But only those who can see The world in oneself are truly free.

Requires no effort. One is present, One is aware, Therefore, one is.  No authority,  No teacher, Can give one What one already is. Taking an illusion to be real is delusion. Recognizing an illusion As an illusion does not Dissipate the illusion. It dissipates delusion. This is lucidity. There is never enough time In the present moment To have a thought about The present moment. Difference does not mean separation. Fingers may appear different, but They are not separate from The hand, which is not separate from The body. When all is seen as A single, coherent unity, Fear must dissolve because There is nothing Apart from oneself to fear. The only thing that is More difficult than Looking for a grain of rice in A pile of straw is Looking in the wrong pile. Where are you looking for  What you are seeking? If it is outside yourself, you are Looking in the wrong pile. The actual arises from The potential; The manifest arises from The Unmanifest and, In its appropriate time, Returns to It. Mortals call this Life. It is correct to say I am nowhere. Likewise, it is correct to say I am now here.

To arrive at the taste of the mouth, Requires the elimination of  All tastes in the mouth. Likewise, to know what one is Requires the elimination of  All that one is not. The Cave may have been dark  For ten thousand years.  No matter. Shine a torch inside it and All darkness disappears. The mind cannot be The arbiter of  That which is Beyond its jurisdiction. One need not wait To become What one already is. From the unified view, There is nothing that is mine, Just as there is nothing that is  Not mine. The more one thinks about What-Is, The more one veils What-Is. They come and ask Wu Hsin What to do. What is to be done? By whom? Being the very heart of Being Can be the only reply. The individual desires liberation. But, liberation from what? Liberation from the pain of  Being an individual. Can you not see why Wu Hsin laughs so hard? A central misunderstanding of  Those who visit Wu Hsin is that They believe that There is something to attain to. How can one attain to What one already is? Confusion is a mental state based on

Unexamined assumptions. What can be simpler  To understand than this? One lives in the house, but One is not the house. Everything ultimately returns to The Infinite. Water evaporates, A body dies; There is no difference. To live naturally, To be in that Natural state, Requires no effort. Effort is only required To be something in particular. All practices are performed by The individual. When the individual is Understood to be a shadow,  Not a separate and distinct entity, The need for practices drops off. Investigate the reality of the shadow and It must disappear. The fear of death is The penalty for accepting The idea of individuality. When the particular is seen to be  No different than the universal The fear of death is gone. Pang Yi stared out across The expanse of the blue ocean. He decided he wanted to Have some for himself; so He went to the shoreline with his bucket. Yet, regardless of his efforts  No blue water went into his bucket. Man lives with illusions. Knowing illusions to be illusions is The way out of illusion. The heart beats. The body excretes. Thoughts come. Thoughts go. All there is Is the functioning. All else is story.

More enamored with the path Than with the goal. To believe that Wu Hsin has Something to give is an error. To believe that one  Need  Needss to to get get som someth ething is Yet another error. There is nothing to be given  Nor  Nor an anythi thing to be gotte otten n. Seeing illusion as illusion Does not dissolve the illusion, Only its power. Although clouds may appear, The sun is not fazed. They come and they go; The sun remains. My child, you are the sun itself. Immortality, that is, Eternal life, can only be realized Through daily death. In so doing, That which cannot die is revealed. The desire to Acquire some esoteric knowledge Can hold great power. But esoteric knowledge will never  Take one to the place that is The support of all knowledge. Such support does not Reside in the unknown. Rather, it resides in the unknowable.  Nev  Never all allow con concept ceptss to to Substitute for direct insight. When no energy is directed toward Perpetuating a story about an individual The individual vanishes. What school must one attend to Learn how to be oneself? My dear, what you are looking for is Right in front of your eyes. What you are looking for is likewise Behind your eyes. All supposed problems are of the mind. What is mind?

Where are the problems when They are not thought about? All manifestation is in The realm of the opposites: Good and bad, Hot and cold, Beautiful and ugly. Before these arise is One’s natural Home. The image in the mirror may Appear to have a life of its own. This is only an illusion. In the mirror of pure awareness, Forms may appear to have lives of their own. This, too, is an illusion. Lao Bing tried to Drive his fencepost into the ground with The use of his whip. Wrong tool! Do not use the mind to Comprehend the words of Wu Hsin. Wrong tool! There is only pure functioning; There is no functioner. The heart beats; There is no beater. The lungs breathe; There is no breather. Seeing this clearly is emancipation. Fruit does not ripen itself. Therefore, what is there to be done? Although there is seeing, That which sees Cannot be seen. Wu Hsin calls this The Great Mystery. Why bemoan what one was, What one might have been, While ignoring what one is In every moment? Is this not The heart of unhappiness? When thought is stopped, Being goes on. Thoughts come, Thoughts go.

Does not move. You are That. Ruthless examination of one’s assumptions About oneself, About who one is, About what one is, Removes all the falsehoods that Undermine clear sight. What remains is what had been Overlooked from the beginning. Oneness has no reference point,  No cen center. ter. What is it that can Stand outside of everything? Understanding is everything. When the cause of the problem falls away, The effects of the problem do likewise. Why visit Wu Hsin when What is sought is within? Winter never wishes It was summer. Remove all resistance to What-Is. This is completion. Light is there, Darkness is there. What holds them? In what do they reside? The solution to this mystery is The solution to your own mystery. A thought appears, lingers and then disappears. Where did it come from? Where does it go? There is a birth, a life, and then a death. Where did it come from? Where does it go? The only salvation that one needs is The salvation from one’s own imagination. The personal is Merely an appearance. What the person perceives is Also an appearance. The perceived and the perceiver are  Not  Not sep separ arat ate; e; They are the flavor of perception.

Source of light by which Everything is seen. Those who have understood, know that They are That. The sound of the gong Fills the entire space of the room. In the same manner, Consciousness fills The entire space of space. You come before Anything that can be observed. Discern this fully and The world cannot hold you. Experiences can be described in Thousands of ways. But, who is it that can Describe the Experiencer? Experiencer? Lan Xi sought wisdom. His first teacher taught him “You are the screen on which all appears and disappears”. Lan Xi was not satisfied. His second teacher taught him “You are the screen on which all appears and disappears”. Lan Xi was not satisfied. His third teacher said, “First you must serve me for ten years. Only then will I teach you” And so it was that For ten years, Lan Xi served the teacher, Cleaning the dung from the animal stalls, Sweeping the floors, Cooking the meals and Washing the clothes. At the conclusion of the ten years, Lan Xi said: “I have fulfilled my commitment and I am now ready to receive your teaching”. “Very well” said the teacher. “You are the screen on which all appears and disappears”. What substance can a belief have Once its falseness is seen through? Once all the falseness is seen through, What remains is What-Is. When the light of consciousness is Cast onto that which is called life, It creates a shadow that Runs parallel to life. This shadow is the thought I-am. The movement of life is

The movement of thought. One must not forget that That which runs parallel can never  Touch that to which it runs parallel. The mind caught up in seeking Misses what is obvious. The vastness in front of one’s eyes is  No dif differen erentt th than the the vas vastn tnes esss Behind one’s eyes. Every thing is simply Primal energy Appearing in a form. You are no different. Seeing this clearly  Noth  Nothiing is ri right or or wro wron ng. The known may come and go, while Knowing remains, unchanging. Thoughts appear on this Knowing. The concept of a thinker is Added afterwards. One cannot carry any scripture through The doorway of liberation. Make no distinction between The awareness of presence and The presence of awareness. There is none. The word is not the thing. One can’t drink the word water. Exercise extreme caution not to Confuse one for the other. How many more years can you Ignore what is basic and Remain preoccupied with this passing show? The salt is Already in the sea water. The core of what the individual is, Is in place before the individual arrives. That which is impersonal Appears as the personal. The central fixation Must be dropped: There is no individual. “I am” is a translation of  The sense of pure being. It is distorted when

One cannot stand solidly on One’s own feet until One’s crutches are discarded. How can the indescribable be described? Wu Hsin can only say that The Knower of Being comes first; All else follows from That. The disease is a simple one to diagnose; Its primary symptom is The continuous belief in the erroneous. It is only The sense of a separate me That is born. The dissolution of this sense is Its very death. One need not die To achieve this. Life pulsates. Everything is happening but There is no one to Whom it is happening. What-Is is. It has always been. It will always be. There is nothing that  Needs to be done. There is no place to go. There is nothing to get. Clarity is not about adding; It is about taking away. Rainwater flows through Old pathways in the soil. It is nature’s habit. Believing in a doer-entity is Merely another habit. Reading the calligraphy, One forgets the parchment On which it is written. The parchment is prior to the writing. A subtle shift in perception Brings the parchment to the foreground. Then, everything is clear. Seeking the extraordinary, It is easy to overlook  The ordinary.

The foundation and support of all things. The present instant,  Now, Resides outside of time. It is not quantifiable. It cannot be measured. It cannot be grasped. It is the meeting place of  All events. One who identifies With the body, Dies with the body. One who does not, is Immortal. For such a one, There is no rebirth because There has been no birth. The mirage of an egg cannot be Shattered by any mallet. Likewise, the mirage of a separate self  Cannot be shattered by any individual. The individual is, itself, The mirage. Peace and stillness are found at The center of the vortex. One receives the product of  Where one resides. Do not live in A noisy neighborhood if  Quiet is desired. Thoughts are merely stories, Stories about a “me” or about An “other-than-me”. They come, They go. They are unimportant. Seeing this, The focus on content can be dropped, Revealing the clear Being-Seeing-Knowing That has been there all along. Because its wants are fewer, A well cared for dog is always Happier than its master. Wu Hsin has no prescription to Make life filled with More pleasure and less pain. Life is the pulsating amalgam of both.

To resist this is To suffer needlessly. Although thoughts appear in the present, Their content is always about The past or the future. These are mere stories that Serve to distract from The knowing of What-Is. One’s image of oneself is Referred to as I or me. But that is all it is, An image. It cannot plow the fields. It cannot cook the rice. What plows the fields, What cooks the rice was Before all I’s and me’s. You are That. With the personal as The reference point, Life is viewed as if  Through a keyhole. With the personal Out of the way, The fullness is clearly discerned. Being is the great mystery. It cannot be found since It is no thing; yet, It can be felt since It is in every thing. Presence is acknowledging What is here, Right now. Being-Presence is directing the attention to This very instant and  Not becoming distracted by thought. Gaining mastery over thought Does not eliminate thought. It merely strips it of all of  Its hypnotic power. Then, every moment is fresh and new. On can never get enough of  What does not satisfy. There are no situations Separate from the Totality. All situations are Aspects of this Totality. The view from the Totality is

The situational view. Seekers of Oneness, Ignoring the obvious: Wu Hsin newly presents that which is Infinitely ancient. Be still and understand this. Complete Understanding is comprised of  Both Understanding and Living the Understanding. To trust in What one thinks one knows Leads one astray. To trust in The source of knowing is The course to be taken. True freedom is The absence of all agendas. There is only one error: Giving attention to the content and Ignoring the space that Supports the content. With a slight shift in viewpoint, All is aligned. Wu Hsin will not give you What you want. Wu Hsin only gives What you need. Then, the mysteriousness leads you to Where you must go. The mind is an excellent tool For identifying differences. It is a poor tool For identifying Oneness. Why use a mallet when The task requires an ax? So much more energy Would be available if  It weren’t squandered on Maintaining a self image. Over time, all these “myselfs” Change, then disappear. That which has never changed, That which will never change, is The fertile soil for exploration. All appearances are

The field of consciousness. What one is, is The knower of the field. Out of the fullness of emptiness, Everything arises. Everything returns. Wise men understand this as The play of life. There is no need to See, Get, Realize or  Find out any so-called truth. Must one see, Get, Realize or  Find out that one is? That one is, is The primal truth. There is nothing to practice. All practices are like Painting a rose so that It will smell better. Smoke may fill the sky, but The sky remains unaffected. Once it is recognized that One is the sky, Events in the sky Lose their hold. Wu Hsin is the wind that Blows away the smoke. Fighting with the mind Strengthens the mind. Seeing through the mind to What is prior to it, Takes all its power from it. Balance is always attained effortlessly. Effort impedes that attainment of balance. Wu Hsin advises: Don’t get in the way. One need not analyze darkness In order to dispel it. Light the lamp of clarity and All darkness is dispelled. If the question How arises, One has not understood.

A teacher and a student is that The student believes that There is a difference whereas The teacher knows there is none. Right here, Right now, is All that there is. Everything else is A creation of the mind. Time cannot be used to Find the timeless. The natural life is not A life without warts. Lao Wei came to Wu Hsin and said: “Master, I have become a cat”. Wu Hsin replied “No, Lao Wei, You are not a cat. You are a human being” Lao Wei then asked: “Then how did I become a cat?” There are always some Who refuse to see. Giving up a little, One gets a little. Giving up a lot, One gets a lot. Giving up everything, One gets everything. Those who possess true wisdom are transparent. With nothing to protect, With nothing to defend, It is easy to see through them. When life is lived Without distinctions,  Nothing can go wrong. Amidst the totality, There is infinite uniqueness. Yet, nothing is separate. Just as the finger is unique to the hand, The hand unique to the arm, The arm unique to the torso. The torso unique to the body and The body unique in the world, So, too, all beings are unique within One continuous wholeness. The only “have-to” is that

Once established in being, All else unfolds naturally and effortlessly.  Nothing is to be gained by The study of shadows. To discern the substance Underlying the shadow is wisdom. The world appears simultaneously with The one who sees it. The former cannot be, In the absence of the latter. Manifestation is named forms Floating in empty space, Observed through time. Yet, the observer, Residing on the outside, Remains wrapped in mystery. Ask yourself this: Over the course of your life, How many identities have You created for yourself? Where are they now? How long do you believe that Your present identity will last? Where does it go when it is finished? Where is the boundary between the silence and The peal of the temple gong ringing; or  Between the cresting wave and The vast ocean? All there is is Arising and falling within The Great Unity. The most efficient means to Destroy any problem is to Ignore the problem. In the absence of the energy Required to sustain it, It withers and dies. As one cannot be taught How to fall asleep, One cannot be taught How to awaken. Slumber happens, Awakening happens without Any one doing any thing. There is no chaos. It is only thought that So names it.

Prior to labeling, Where is the problem? Conception and gestation is progressive Whereas birth is sudden. Likewise is the birth of understanding. Within the world of things, One’s true nature is as The knower of all things, and  Not as a thing itself. When all thoughts, Emotions and Sensations are set aside, What remains is the Essence. The belief that Wu Hsin is special, Perpetuates the hope that One can also be special. This, too, must go. All things appear as They truly are to those Who are not blinded by self interest. How can one lose What is infinite? Where would it go? To know that The mind is empty is good. To know the knower of  The empty mind is better. Everyone is only a single thought Away from perfection. There is breathing. There is seeing. There is functioning. Where is the need For a “me” to allow all that? Whatever can be gained Can be lost. What cannot be gained is What is already present, Here and now. Realign with this and nothing else. Thinking imposes itself on silence as Unwelcome relatives impose themselves on family. The mind is the Great Divider,

The divided. The mind cannot contain the Undivided. The Undivided contains the mind. The world is the food that Satisfies the hunger of feeling separate. When the feeling is Seen to be erroneous, The hunger subsides and The world loses its power. Pure attention attends. It is the ability to perceive What arises in every moment Without reacting to it. Having no aspirations is The gateway to freedom. To relinquish control over  One’s experiences, To allow them to be Just as they are, is The invitation. Using concepts as One uses a net, To capture ideas, can never  Produce the ultimate understanding. To realize that which cannot be captured, That which cannot be contained, is itself  The ultimate understanding. Those who come to Wu Hsin with The desire to obtain something are Sure to be disappointed. What is permanent within The transient? Finding this, The seeking ends. The seeker ends. The unexpected is Bound to happen. That which is anticipated May never arrive. Who is to say? All is solely because One is. For those who have apperceived, All action is spontaneous, Action without reaction. Action without an actor.

The rain is falling. The grass is growing. The crows are calling. Where is the effort in this? The desire to arrive somewhere, Of a destination for a “me” Shackled to time, Impedes the realization that All there is is this singular moment. Right here, Right now. There is nothing to change. The mind and the body Continue to do What they do. The one who knows The mind and the body is unmoved. The sense of being this or that is The final outpost before Arriving at Being Itself. It is now time to Leave this outpost behind. Yes, This too. As a young boy, Wu Hsin would often travel in The back of the oxcart. In the heat of the afternoon, He would often see What appeared to be water on the roadway. As he drew closer to it, It vanished and He therefore understood it To be merely an illusion. To this day, when traveling, Wu Hsin still sees The water on the road. But knowing it to be an illusion, It has no power and Garners no attention. All attempts to change This moment into something else, Can only occur in the next moment. Full acceptance of what Appears in this moment is The style of sages. If It cannot be found Where one already is,

Go to secure it? To liberate oneself from false notions, False ideas and False concepts, Shatters the shackles that Keep one small. One is the space in which The world appears. There is nothing left to say. Wu Hsin is not dispensing recipes. There is no cook. There is only cooking. Breaking a habit begins by Acknowledging the habit. Until this occurs, There can be no change.  No matter how many things Seem to be wrong, There are many more that are right, Just the way they are. When nothing is ever wrong, One joins The company of the wise. Insights may arise. Yet, no one,  No thing, makes them arise. The arising is a spontaneous event. In a room filled with objects, There is more space, More emptiness, than There are objects. This space is the support of everything and To ignore it is To ignore It. One is that That, That It, in which Everything rises and sets. The knowing that There is an Unknown that Cannot be known, is The dawn of wisdom. To kiss this Unknown is To be truly in love. When seeing is divided into The seer and the seen,

Do not desire cloudless skies. Clouds appear, May stay for some time and Then the clouds evaporate. The sun holds no preferences. The body is The screen on which All images, All sensations, Appear and disappear. One is not the screen. One is the Knowing of the screen. To believe that Thoughts have power, To believe that Thoughts are true is the source of suffering. The only power in thought is The power one assigns to it. True knowledge is not Derived from thought. It is derived from The inner wellspring that one is. One is not a Part of the whole. One is The Source of the whole. Second hand knowledge Conveyed by a third person is Hearsay only. Throw away all the books, All the stories, and Return to the Essence That has never gone anywhere. There are no solutions Out there. The caged bird won’t fly away Even if the door is open. Wu Hsin can open The door to your cage, but There are no guarantees Pertaining to a desired outcome. As the sky is The unchanging context For the weather. Silent emptiness is the Foundation of all things.

To be perfect is To see the Perfection. It is this Perfection in which The body, the mind and the world Arise, linger and set. Once there is surrender to  Never finding out Who one is, Who one is becomes obvious. Man’s primary function is to Create unhappiness for others. This ceases when It is understood that There are no others. Everything happens at the same time. That time has a name: Suddenly. When the mind is not Preoccupied with thought, The transitory is no longer  The center of attention. Then, a deeper intelligence takes over, and Everything is exactly as it should be. Every thing is only energy, Sometimes seemingly harmonious, Sometimes seemingly disharmonious. Those that know the energy are not Concerned with harmony or disharmony or  Labels of any kind. As soon as an idea arises of  How it should be or  How it should have been or  How it will be, The center is lost. Can a man seek his own hands? You are your own mountaintop. All seeking is A movement away from there. In seeing, Both the seer and the seen are experienced. Identification with the seer is An error of the mind. What is clear and present cannot be Observed by the senses. It can only be pointed to.

The world is known Through the mind, but The support of the world cannot be Known through the mind because It is prior to the mind. One’s life is lived  Not by beliefs, but By inner convictions. This is the Knowing from which Wu Hsin speaks. All desires are lies in that They promise a lasting payoff. Desirelessness is the truth in that There is nothing to be gained and  Nothing to be lost. It is only by Removing all of the water-plants that The full scope and majesty of  The water can be discerned. The impediment is The preoccupation with the plants. Those who are clear accept both The diamonds in the necklace and The garbage on the street. All sentient beings must see Where the sentience has come from. The Being-Sentience must be, Before the appearance of sentient beings. This is the original state. The sunlight hits the crystal and Rainbows of color appear. Yet, what difference can be found between The sunlight and the rainbows? Is the latter not the former? When the desire to become This or that is set aside, Being flowers. In that, what is revealed is What one really is: The watching of  What one believes oneself to be. This is not an awakening for any me. This is an awakening from any me. The known arises, The unknown remains hidden, yet

Occurring in the Unknowable. This Unknowable can be given endless descriptions, But it can never be seen. Everything is merely Perceived. It is only later that The perceiver stakes his claim and Labels, categorizes, and judges. First there is existence and presence. It is only later that My existence and presence arrives. Since one cannot be What one perceives, What is one really? All needs are provided through The process of the natural functioning. All wants are for and from the individual. Wants are attended to by the functioning only Insofar as they align with the functioning. When clarity is present, There are never problems. When clarity is absent, There are always problems. There is a single Source of every thing. Happiness and sorrow do not Arise from different places. The location of this Source is The Great Mystery. It is only a madman who Searches for something that He hasn’t lost. Where does one have to go To find what is already here? Self consciousness creates the individual. This self consciousness or I-thought Births all separation. Prior to self consciousness, There is no individual. There is no central point of reference. There is only Being, Awareness, Presence. This is the natural state, One of integral perception. True understanding manifests with The cessation of the question What’s in it for me? Wu Hsin’s lodestone always

Here. The natural ones are momentary, transitory. What they were, They are not now. What they will be They are not now. Against this ever-changing background, They have no fixed center. With no fixed center,  Nothing is personal. When everything is allowed When everything is invited, Without judgment or discrimination, How can peace not prevail? When the smells from the kitchen Overtake the awareness, Reading the menu loses its appeal. Likewise, one cannot learn to swim While remaining dry. Taking the mind Upstream to its source, Resolves confusion and Clarifies what has been obscured. It is here that I am is Transformed into there is. The wise have abandoned all imaginings. Imaginations of the past are gone. Imaginations of the future are gone. They are thrust into The present moment where Everything that has happened Seeded what is happening. They are now living without A formula for living. That which registers all feelings, That which registers all sensations, That which registers all perceptions, That which registers the entire content of the mind, Wu Hsin names the Registrant, and This is the true core of what one is. It is no thing, and, as such It cannot be known. It can only be experienced by  No one in particular. If you must ask Wu Hsin “When will I know that I understand?” Wu Hsin can only reply: “Not yet”.

Belief is a poor substitute for understanding. To begin to question one’s beliefs is to Begin to understand. When both the acceptable and the unacceptable Become acceptable, Living is effortlessly easy. Seeing oneself to be The knowing of all things and The source of all things, Upon which all things depend, What is the further use of one’s gods? There is nothing to become. Scrutinizing the moon Reflected in the lake Limits the understanding of  The moon in the heavens. Over the course of time, The body changes. The identities change, The images of one’s self changes. Yet, something remains unchanged throughout it all. It is mistakenly referred to as me; Yet, it is not that. It is That through which All me’s are known. The end of the individual is not The end of greatness. It is the end of smallness. Wu Hsin calls this The Great Breaking. Thinking is the emphasis of  Content over process. Consciousness is the emphasis of  Process over content. Attention is the bridge between the two. Once the understanding is Complete and clear, There is nothing to do except To watch. Being is one. Ways of being are infinite. Only the wisest understand that The word me is a verb and  Not a noun.

Walk through life with Eyes half opened and Hearts half closed. Do not chase experiences; They come and they go, like Shadows cast on the wall. Instead, chase That which experiences. Catch It and One arrives at The home one never left. Regardless of the number of voices, They all emanate from One tongue. Do not become enamored with The words of Wu Hsin. The value in The words of Wu Hsin is that They reveal the Limitations of words. Wu Hsin does not recommend Doing anything at all. Wu Hsin does not recommend  Not doing anything at all. Both are a movement away from What-Is. The light that Looks through these eyes today Is the same light that Looked through them Sixty years ago. Understanding that one is that light is The apperception of infinity. The observer spends a lifetime In conflict with the observed. This is resolved when The observer is also the observed and The two dissolve into the observing. That which is ever-present must be Prior to all things that come and go. Rigorous scrutiny reveals that This is what one is. It is said that Those with integral vision are Filled with emptiness. Those with dust in their eyes Cannot see this.

Isn’t it humorous that People spend their entire lives Trying to become a better story? When the story is recognized to be Just a story, The energy directed toward Maintaining the story dissipates. Then, there is nothing that Can be pointed to and claimed: This is what I am. Eyes are not required for insight. All these dramas are like The blowing of the wind. In time, it ceases. Outside of time, it never was. Those who are shining Have no location in space. Rather, space is located in them. Weeds have their place too. Being is the seed from which All worlds, All gods and All forms sprout. It parents every thing. All problems are Born in the mind and Delegated to the body. To see through this is to, Realize one’s true luminosity. Those with integral vision have Cast off all definitions, All labels, of  Who they are. In truth, these only apply to The body and its actions. At the core, they are That which cannot be defined. The only difference between A silver coin and silver dust is in appearance. In essence, There is no difference. Fools dwell on appearances Whereas masters live in essence. The past is in memory. The future is in imagination.

Don’t lose it to inattention. Once it is gone, It is gone. Every action is a movement of energy. The wave on the ocean is not The movement of water. It is the movement of  Energy through water, The movement of  The Animator through the inanimate. To see this clearly is to Understand the workings of the universe. When there is understanding of  The workings of the universe, There can be no Resistance or opposition. When there is no Resistance or opposition. All that remains is peace. To have the courage to Question one’s certainties, is True courage. How can we speak of a center  When the center is everywhere? Do not add Wu Hsin’s words to The catalogue of concepts. Wu Hsin’s words don’t Point to adding; They point to taking away, And taking away, And taking away. All thoughts are like Smoke in the sky; Here one minute, Gone in the next. Why assign importance to them? Is the smoke important? The seeing happens before The I see can be said. The I see is merely A skewed translation of  There is seeing. All I’s and me’s are Translations of the mind which Skews the impersonal into Something personal. There is no owner;

My body or  My thoughts. There is no owner of consciousness. Consciousness owns everything. The unfoldment of the Infinite is From I to I am to I am this object in space and time. The perceiving assumes the roles of  The perceiver and the perceived.  Nothing is added,  Nothing is taken away. Only a wise one Recognizes everything as a lie, Including the recognizer. Just as the answer  Contains the question, The student contains the teacher. There is no way out. There is no way in.  No way is necessary. To discover that which is Outside of time, Requires nothing bound by time. Those that are truly religious are Untouched by the temples, the prayers, The rites and the dogma because They discern that what is truly religious is Prior to all these and This is where they come to rest. Chasing after transcendental experience is Merely another escape. When What-Is is fully embraced and accepted, What needs to be added? To empower the transitory is To become its slave. The seeing through the transitory is Its mastery. As long as the mind is, The body and the world are. The support of all these is Before all these. The natural ones call this Home. One cannot suggest that Sugar and sweetness are separate.  Nor can one suggest this regarding

Regardless of how it may seem. From unitary wholeness, What needs to be done, Comes up to be done. This is the natural functioning. To believe that There is some one Doing something, Obscures What-Is with What seems to be. True wisdom dawns with The rejection of conventional wisdom. The Ultimate Ground of Being is not Amenable to dissection. While one may seek to Explore the unknown, One cannot know The Unknowable. Where does Wu Hsin call Home? He resides in the space between The nothingness from which he emerged and The infinity that envelops him. The investigation of confusion is a key. By being clear about confusion, One becomes cleared of confusion. My child, you are only What you imagine yourself to be. What you truly are is unimaginable. The true mystic does not confuse What-Is with What appears to be. Knowing he knows nothing, He is the incarnation of non-interference. To run from what appears is To be fearful. To embrace whatever appears is To be wise. Those living at ease do not Attempt to manipulate the world. Ignorance always requires support. Pristine knowing, Clear sight, Stands free. Wu Hsin is the termite;

All that is needed is Someone to explain that  No one is needed. Once it is seen that One is not A fragment of the whole, but rather  Wholeness itself, The dramas that previously Held so much power  Can no longer be found. The One Substance is The mother of all things. She has many names,  None of which can touch her. What is sought is Directly in front of the eyes, and Directly behind the eyes. There is nowhere it is not. When the false boundaries called In front and behind are Seen as false, Life loses all difficulty. Movement cannot be known when There is no movement. Yet, movement can only be known From the background of no movement. The end of the path is The understanding that  No path is necessary. Then, one walks freely. Whereas the perceived is in constant flux, That which perceives is immobile. On which of the two the attention rests Determines the point of view. Thinking has value in the Organizing of the known, but It is not the tool with which To approach the Great Mystery. The Great Mystery can only be Approached from silence. It is, in fact, The silence itself. That which perceives The thinking and the feeling, is not Identical to them.

The problems that appear in the mind are problems Because they appear in the mind. Viewed from outside of the mind, They cannot be located. True knowledge requires no Confirmation, affirmation or verification From any outside source. True knowledge is the knowledge that There is no outside source. That which is ever-present and obvious is easily missed When the attention rests on the transitory. Returning is therefore a re-turning toward The base of all things. Certainty is finite; If everyone claims it,  No one can have it. When it is fully apprehended that Thinking is not the instrument that will Take one to Understanding, What is there to think about? The only difference between A wise man and others is that The wise man is no longer  Hoping for something to happen. It is a misunderstanding to believe that One is not already What one wants to become. To see this clearly, Brings becoming to an end. Those who chase two rabbits Catch neither. The direct perception into What-Is results in The loss of the desire to control time. The wanting to extend the duration of happiness ends. The wanting to shorten the duration of sorrow ends. The fixation on what comes and goes ends as does The preoccupation with longevity. This rejection of time heralds The onset of immortality. To see a beginning in every ending and An ending in every beginning is To see eternity. Every day, become, at the least

Water is not wetter in One location than another. There is no need to go there To obtain what is also here. One step closer to The attainment of peace is The cessation of asking Why? When the words are few, The silence is great and True listening begins. Clear sight is not an effect, A result or a consequence. There is therefore  Nothing to be done to cause it. Every effort adds another veil. When one is comfortable with not knowing, When one can live in seeming chaos, The perfect order of things reveals itself. What could be more simple than to Look in at what’s looking out? The mystery of the Great Mystery is not What it is, but That it is. Fullness is The purpose of emptiness. The great gift is to see that One is not a thing among things, but The space in which all things are contained and From where they emerge. One must say Yes Even to one’s Inability to say Yes. Allow everything to be as it is,  Not seeking to improve it or  Correct it or  Remove it. Then, what can be wrong with this moment? Do not confuse A man who is tired of sleeping with One who is awake.

It is an insight into the actual; It is a knowing that One knows nothing. The unmarked path Extends from then and there to Here and now. Wu Hsin’s potion is Comprised of equal parts of  Perceiving everything and Identifying with nothing.  Nothing can be added to A bowl that is already full. Emptied of everything, Fullness is welcomed. Only fools believe that their god Lives in their temple. Where the god is not, One is not. Because one is no thing in particular, One can never know what one is. One can only know What one is not. This is good enough. Investigating the validity of the assumptions is Easier than resolving the problems. When one is ready to have Everything one thinks one knows Turned upside down and, Inside out, Then, as if by magic, Wu Hsin appears.  Nothing brings satisfaction.  Nothing brings happiness.  Nothing brings contentment.  Nothing brings clarity. Do nothing. Change your mind, Change your world. Wu Hsin sees things as they are. He does not try to control them. They continue forward while Wu Hsin remains at the center. To dwell in what is personal

The universal. Understand that everything personal is merely A collection of events Happening to a centralized object, A point of reference. One is not the object. What one is, is The knowing of the object. The pure functions of seeing, Tasting, Smelling, Touching, Hearing and Thinking Are not owned by anyone. Yet, everyone claims them as their own. The primary desire is The desire to be. This births the world and its contents. That which remains unaffected by The dissolution of the universe and the heavens is The primary principle of being. It is from this that All arises and all returns. Foo was a wise man and Many came to sit with him from Different provinces and different lands. What was it that made Foo wise? Foo was able to see through the limited to The Unlimited. He never saw individuals; He only saw everything in everyone. The only thing One ever sees is One’s own world. What is not needed Drops off, If it is not clung to. To pursue depth is to Desire the infinite. To pursue width is to be Ensnared in the world. Many fear Wu Hsin. Although he is old, He can kill inside you that which You so dearly hold to.

It is the expression of it. When this is apperceived,  Nothing need be changed. Visions may come. Unique experiences may occur. When they are completed, Remember to clean the pig stall. One shackles oneself  To one’s beliefs. When the beliefs are removed, The shackles are removed. This is freedom. The natural state contains  Nothing that has been acquired. When all the acquisitions have been dropped, What is natural shines through. One’s thoughts organize the world so well that One is no longer able to see it. Clarity brings simplicity. What complicates is discarded. Those who sleep on the floor never  Fall from their bed. Wisdom blossoms in direct proportion to One’s awareness of  One’s own ignorance. Seeing that one is not As wise today as One thought one was yesterday, Makes one wiser today. Seeking relief is not the same as Seeking a cure. The former is transient whereas The latter is forever. Go and stand in the water. Immerse yourself in it, Feeling its coolness. Knowing its wetness. In this manner, One comes to understand its nature. One can never know it Seated in the oxcart. See that you are mistaken. You call it night merely because You have turned away from the sun.

Tear down the wall is The one who erected it. Those who do not see clearly believe that The sun wipes out the stars. Those who know What-Is Do not mistake illusion for reality. Loneliness is the Byproduct of feeling separate. Those who see that They are not separate,  Never experience loneliness. When the noise ceases, Silence remains. When thoughts of the past or future stop, The present moment remains. When thinking stops, Clarity remains. It is the emptying that Allows the Silent-Clear-Presence to unfold. Once the pure taste of tea is known, The tea may also be Taken with milk or sugar. Once knowing is clear, Involvement in the world Presents no problems. The seeing continues while That which sees remains unseen. The solution to all problems is To see who it is Who has them. Were yellow to appear on A background of blue, It would appear to be green. Yellow can only be yellow when It appears on a colorless background. You are that background. You are That. Wu Hsin’s words are always brief. Talking about eating Doesn’t satisfy the hunger. These words merely point To the restaurant.

Afterward While reading the writings of Wu Hsin, there may arise the tendency to process them through one’s mind………………..thinking about them, so to speak. Wu Hsin makes it repeatedly clear that the mind is the wrong instrument to use for the discovery of What-Is.

Instead, treat this content as a singular, cohesive planting of the seeds, the shining of the sun and the falling of the rain. Simply leave it alone and allow the working to occur.  No study or discussion groups need to be formed. No opinions need to be exchanged. Within the backdrop of silence, there is nothing that needs to be done by any one.

Volume Four: Recognition of the Obvious

Forward 

Trying to grasp the teachings of Wu Hsin is like trying to grasp the wind in the palm of your hand. While they are as refreshing and fragrant as a fresh breeze, they can also be as devastating as a wildfire. Wu Hsin doesn’t provide answers to the questions of life because life is its own answer. It is what-is. It moves, it flows, it breathes itself into and through everything. Instead, the writings of Wu Hsin expose, without compromise, the fundamental misconception that there is something called an individual that needs to find something else outside of itself. Admittedly, the sense of being a separate individual feels very real and affects every part of that apparent experience. Wu Hsin makes it abundantly clear; however, that this is a state of contracted energy, a sense of having lost something unnamable. It would therefore seem that the source of all unhappiness is the individual not getting/finding what it wants. Yet, this is not the problem. Wu Hsin ponders:  All suffering is personal.  In the absence of the person, Where can suffering alight?  No amount of effort can ever bring anything other than moreme searching for that which the me doesn’t have, the end result only serving to reinforce the reference center: me. In Volume Four, Recognition of the Obvious, Wu Hsin illuminates that all hopes of attainment, all efforts at becoming, ultimately avoid that whichme most fears … its own absence. This message is so simple it totally confounds the mind. Almost instantaneously, the mind says “Yes, but…………what about this, what about that?” There is no 'yes, but'. You can't say 'yes' and continue with 'but'. If the 'yes' is a real 'yes', that releases the thing into nothingness and it is finished. If you say 'but', you are giving continuity to that dead structure of thought, past experience and future hope. Wu Hsin puts it this way: What is keeping one from being in one’s natural state? One is constantly moving way from oneself. One wants to be happy; One is dissatisfied with one’s experiences of life. One wants new ones. One wants to perfect oneself, To change oneself. Trying to be something other than what one is, is The going away from oneself.  It is the resistance to What-Is. The desire to alter this you, is The only energy that sustains it.  In the absence of this energy, You cannot continue; Then, the natural state shines effortlessly. Appearances notwithstanding, it is really as simple as that. What is unnatural may obscure what is natural. But it doesn’t negate it. When you look at an Escher picture, it may all of a sudden seem to turn inside out. Nothing has changed in the picture, but something has shifted in your perception of it. At this point you could say everything has changed, or nothing has changed. To see through these things, requires investigation. This is the real gift of Wu Hsin, the challenge to investigate the validity of all concepts and all beliefs. It is here that the seeing through takes place and the clarity occurs. Yet, this clarity also has its price: One can’t have a piece of It.  It is all or nothing. One must make room;  It requires a lot of space.  Everything must go.

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The first thought is I. It is the root-thought, The foundation upon which All else is built and from which All other thoughts have their origin. The arrival of the I-thought  and The arrival of the world Occur simultaneously.  Neither exists without the other. This is Wu Hsin’s open secret. Those that make it their own Move beyond struggle and strife, Pleasure and pain. To discard this is to Throw away the diamonds with the ice. Awareness is the primal constant. On it, worlds are built and Individuals are imagined. Clarity is the great neutralizer. Thinking is not the natural state. Perceiving thought is the natural state. The pure perceiving is prior to The imposition of a perceiver. There are some Who are afraid of  Stepping outside of their huts, Afraid of what they’ll find. More are there Who are afraid of  Stepping outside of their minds. Afraid that they’ll find nothing when They look back. One can feel miserable on A beautiful beach. One can feel ecstatic While in jail. The outer need not Dictate the inner. When the wall between the two dissolves, That which sources both is revealed. When man wants to Run away from the potential Contained within him, He creates his god to aspire to. Wu Hsin declares:

The personal world is A reflection of the person. What madness it is To fault the reflection! Can an image be changed without Changing the face? It is only ideas that Create the notion of separation. When it is seen that Everything rises and sets in you, What can you be separate from? The vision of unity is The end of all things personal. There is no event that Delivers this unity vision. Who could it occur to? With nobody here and  Nobody there, Everything is as it should be. All disappointment, All disillusionment is An invitation to investigate Who is disappointed; Who is disillusioned? The work of this moment is Watching the work of this moment. Focusing on the plot of the book  Does not bring one Closer to the author. Where the where is not, When the when is not, I am. In every experience, The expression is The objective part, which is changing. The background is The subjective part; The unchanging field. That which is by its nature restless Can never find peace. Peace of mind is The mind’s fantasy. When it is seen that An empty cup is receptive and

Those with wisdom choose emptiness. To be natural Requires no learning. Stop pretending that what isn’t is Superior to What-Is. It isn’t. Either one is Responsible for everything or  One is responsible for nothing. The end result is the same. Wang asked Wu Hsin: “When shall I achieve this clarity?” Wu Hsin replied, “When the when is dead”. Ignorance is the Ignoring of what is Clear, present, and obvious. If the cloth fits, wear it. As soon as your god is assigned attributes, It becomes merely another object in A world of objects. Only the non-objective god is The true subject. The desire for salvation is The elixir of fools. The only saving one needs is to be Saved from one’s imagination. The way the world appears is Dependent on which side of the window One is looking from. If the person is Merely an appearance, then Who cares? Until one becomes clear about The true source of happiness. All looking for it is folly. The past is only a memory. The future is only a hope. All that matters is the present: This-Here-Now. Whatever one perceives is not one’s own. It is merely an appearance in

Do not argue that Your god is indifferent to you. It is not indifference. It is merely non-compliance. The body changes but The I that claims its ownership does not. The mind changes but The I that claims its ownership does not. The personality changes but The I that claims its ownership does not. It is solely of this I  that Wu Hsin speaks. Eons could be spent Talking about the seeming differences. But they are not as they seem. Seeing this is the End of talking about it. All methods bind. Those who are free Hold to no system,  No regimen. The release of habitual activity, Habitual reactivity, Frees the individual From the self-referencing center, From the individual. There are no answers to be Found out there. Perceiving sees everything whereas Labeling only captures A limited canvas. The mind is the great labeler. Before the body, Before the mind, Are you not there? Fragments trying to understand That which has no fragmentation is A great comedy. The birth of me is The birth of other than me…….. And so the game begins. What makes the wise wise?  Nothing more than seeing The One appearing as the many.

Seeking ends when the fish Understand the folly of  Searching for the ocean. Embrace, my child, that which You seek to avoid; The fear of absence. Absence of concepts, Absence of ideas, Absence of anyone to have them. To be fully present therefore requires that One be fully absent. This is the Great Emptying. Wu Hsin gives you the key. Either you use it To open the door or  You put it in your pocket with All the other keys You have accumulated. Seeing through the haze of the personal, One’s actions are no longer reactions. To differentiate between The guests and the host is to Understand the distinction between What comes and goes and What is permanent. When one becomes water, One’s thirst is quenched. Wu Hsin did not come from somewhere. He is not going anywhere. He is timeless, prescient being itself. When circumstances require his appearance, Wu Hsin appears. Give up all ideas of  What you believe yourself to be, Then, you are he. One is not born with an identity. Identity is acquired. In the absence of all acquisitions, True being shines. There is great frustration in Trying to locate That which is non-local. Many refer to this as searching. Yet, one need not go anywhere To find the Great Immediate.

Mark your territory. Construct as many signs as you wish declaring This is Mine. They are nothing but mist, because The one who declares is also  Nothing but mist. Insight is the eradication of confusion.  No longer equating the way things seem with The way things are, Life is the ever-fresh awareness of being. In this, the shadow cannot be Mistaken for the substance. The sense of feeling separate  Need not be rejected. It, too, is part of the Oneness. The difficulty with trying to Remove false perceptions is that One is creating them in every moment. In openness, the drive to interpret is stilled and Clarity arises to the forefront. There can be knowledge of changes. But, there cannot be Knowledge of the Changeless. Knowing the Changeless is Being the Changeless. Looking in at What is looking out, Ends all seeking and The seeker. There are no conditions that Must be satisfied in order for  Insight to arise.  Nothing to do,  Nothing to become. Holiness is not wholeness. The events of the world Do not impact Wu Hsin. He is neither happy nor sad. His happiness has a different aroma; It is latent in his very being. Ultimately, one does not get  free. Instead, one realizes that One is freedom itself. All suffering is personal.

Where can suffering alight? The character in a book cannot Write the book in which he appears. Investigate whether you are The author or the character. As heat is inherent in fire, so too is Knowing inherent in being. This is the Knowing from where  I know erroneously arises. Wu Hsin tells you nothing that You don’t already know. He only reminds you of that which You have forgotten. You may experience Wu Hsin as Outside of yourself, yet truly This is not the case. In the absence of  The addiction to content, The mind is restored to Purity and clarity. Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, Touching, feeling and thinking Continue to operate without Anyone to initiate them.  Natural functioning occurs with ease. Life continues its flow. When matters are seen clearly, It is no longer important if  All the pieces fit. More. More peace, More beauty, More harmony, More pigs, More rice, More. More is not the answer.  Nowhere to go,  Nothing to do,  Nothing to get. What could be simpler? The whole house is on fire. You can only take What you can carry. The lighter you travel, The farther you go.

Clarity does not provide answers. It dissolves questions.  No new systems,  New methods need be created. Sweeping away the hindrances is enough. It is then that the awareness of being, Of being aware, Radiates and illuminates the landscape. This I  that one thinks one is, is Merely a survival mechanism for  The form it is associated with. The unstained apperception of this Facilitates the return to What is prior to all I’s. It is here that resting in being occurs. Try as one may, One can’t squeeze A restless mind into A peaceful space. Recognize mind for what it is and For what it is not, and  Neutrality is effortlessly established. Understanding has been Clouded by misunderstanding. The sun remains present in both The absence and the presence of the clouds. To see through the clouds is To see the sun. To be present and aware is not a state. It is the ground from where All states arise. You are That. Beliefs can be as formative as A fortress wall. Unless the wall is torn down or surmounted, One can’t reach the other side. Trust neither scripture nor the sage To provide the truth. All truth must be self-investigated and is Therefore, self-generated. If you must search, Search for what  Needs to be given up. In open vibrancy, The sight of a flower is as marvelous as

Mu Ding held no ideas about What perfection was; for him, Every moment was therefore perfect.  No beginning.  No ending.  No birth.  No death.  No time.  No space.  Nowhere to leave.  Nowhere to arrive. Home. The fundamental nature of things is Unitary wholeness, Oneness. Separateness is a seeming, An appearance,  Nothing more. Peace is present in every moment. Remove the shroud of thought. Where can peace not be found? To attempt to retain what was or  To attempt to attain what might be is The source of all suffering. To find your self, Explore your self. Religions arise to address The sense of being separate and apart. Once this sense is seen to be erroneous, Where is the need for religion? With lucidity, Both the chaos and the randomness Become quite orderly. Every moment spent in The absence of presence is A moment irretrievably lost. Know what you are not and Be what you are. All pursuits, All searches, Takes one away from the natural state, That state in which one always is.

You ask Wu Hsin How to get here. Why, then, are you Disappointed by his silence? What is keeping one from being in one’s natural state? One is constantly moving way from oneself. One wants to be happy; One is dissatisfied with one’s experiences of life. One wants new ones. One wants to perfect oneself, To change oneself. Trying to be something other than what one is, is The going away from oneself. It is the resistance to What-Is. The desire to alter this you, is The only energy that sustains it. In the absence of this energy, You cannot continue; Then, the natural state shines effortlessly. Why does one communicate with oneself? Why is there thought? If one does not communicate with oneself, One is not there, absent. One’s absence is the primal fear. One is either the personal or  The awareness of the personal.  No act of volition can take one from The former to the latter. The need for time is The need for practice. The time bound can never  Yield the timeless. Those who let the intelligent energy Express itself in its own way are Those who Wu Hsin calls clear. There is nothing they need do. There is nothing they need not do. Those who ask Wu Hsin The meaning of life  Need to first become alive. There, the question and the questioner  Dissolve in the aliveness. The purpose of the flower is to flower. The purpose of man is to flower.  No difference. Whatever one does To free oneself from oneself is merely

Stop talking and thinking. Therein, nothing can remain unknown. To pursue appearances is to Ignore the source of appearances. The entryway to the Unknown is narrow. One must set aside all acquired knowledge so that One may gain access. It is only when one is awake that One can know one was asleep. To obtain this Understanding to which Wu Hsin refers, One must discard everything One finds along the way. Choosing that which is safe, That which is predictable, is The surest way to go nowhere. Let us be clear: One doesn't know what is good; One knows only what is good for oneself. What is bad for the field mouse is Good for the satiated owl. It is preferable to Investigate one’s assumptions than it is to Attempt to solve one’s problems. One thinks oneself to be the dancer. In fact, one is the dancing. Wu Hsin can no more help one Find one’s god than he can Help the bird find the sky. Take hold of any sentence Wu Hsin speaks. Shake it well until All the words drop off. Drink deeply from that which remains. Silence is not the absence of sound. Silence is the absence of you. Can throwing white paint at the sky Make the sky white? Those who are vibrant and clear are Unaffected by appearances in the world. Change your clothes.

What you are is untouched. The journey of self-discovery ends with The discovery that there is no self. True courage brushes aside Everything experienced, Everything felt, and Everything known. The soil is then ready for  The arrival of the unknown.  No labels are applicable.  No categories can be referenced. The words of Wu Hsin cannot be Contained within any container. If one constructs a box to put them in, There has been a misunderstanding. One wants to be different, Sometime in the future, from What one is today. Full acceptance of What-Is is The end of the future. You have arrived. Soon, you will leave because What you chase after  Cannot be found here. It is not an object. How then, can it be found, Here or anywhere? The tricks played by That which demands continuity can be very subtle. When continuity loses its importance, That which demanded it exists no longer. Understanding is the end of questions. If one understands, One is quiet. One can’t have a piece of It. It is all or nothing. Make room; It requires a lot of space. Everything must go. Who cares about death Once there is recognition of the Falseness of the individual? Seeing the falseness is the death. The words of Wu Hsin will

One becomes fully attentive to His silence. Everything is falling. To attach oneself to anything neither  Halts nor slows one’s descent. What one needs comes when One doesn’t ask for  What one doesn’t need. To be certain of the immediate Precludes the attainment of the Ultimate. Why are so many So willing to exchange Peace for thoughts? The final step is The giving up of  All steps.  Nothing new need be Added or found. Dig away the earth and The pit is no longer hidden. To live in authentic wakefulness is to Do one thing at a time and To do it totally. One can’t search for  Something to acquire while Dropping all acquisitions. When it is seen that The searching does not bear fruit, The dropping can begin. Wrong ideas obscure What-Is. Loosen their hold and Living becomes natural and easy. Make room for understanding. But remember that Making room isn’t Bringing something in from elsewhere. One is not in the world; The world is in oneself. The parchment is not the writing. Yet, without it, There is no message. The world is because One is.

The floodgates of insight Open of their own accord.  No one to do it;  Nothing to be done. The sword can never understand dueling;  Nor can the fire-pit understand cooking. An elegant structure has been built. Until it is torn down,  Nothing changes………………… And never confuse being An instrument of change with being An agent of change. What effort can succeed in Stopping the shaking of the reflection of  The tree on the lake? Harmonious and disharmonious are Merely points of view whereas Friction is a natural occurrence. Being neither good nor bad, It transcends opinion. What happens isn’t the problem Analyzing what happens is the problem. Individuality implies ownership: My thoughts, My fear, My body. Seen clearly, there are thoughts. There are fears, There is a body but There is no one they happen to. Chin Ho was called a simpleton. He did not see right and wrong. He could not judge good from bad. He smiled too much. The simple life is not The life of a simpleton. Yet, this simplicity is too complex for  Comprehension by many. Pursuing anything that Comes and goes cannot Yield integral perception. It is the seeing through what Comes and goes that Yields integral perception. The apperception of What-Is can Only be achieved by

The obstacles to What-Is. Wu Hsin cannot describe What-is. He can only describe what is not. The elimination of what is not is The Great Unlearning. The source of all unhappiness is fragmentation. Breaking the whole into parts, Pitting one against the other, Feeling apart and alone.  No restoration is required. When it becomes obvious that The fragmentation is erroneous, It loses its power. There is no middle ground. Reject everything or  Accept everything. The result is the same. There exists an inherent tension between That which is personal and That which is impersonal. The desire to transcend the personal Arises from the impersonal. Since that which is personal would  Never agree to its own demise, Who will bring about the transcendence? Whereas me is always changing,  I never changes. Whereas me is always feeling threatened,  I is never threatened. When one becomes unselfconscious, There is no one Other than I. When the world is viewed from neutrality, Without fragmentation and In the absence of a self centered perspective, There arises an appreciation of  The beauty and perfection of What-Is. True peace is without cause. Likewise, true happiness is without cause. Conditioning these on any thing is A movement away from them. There is a single requirement: Don’t run away. Freedom from all content is The precursor to The knowledge of content.

Do not add even a single concept. One must be emptied. Only when one is empty of  The emptiness too, Can the fullness manifest. Monolithic structures are built to Provide a ground beneath one’s feet, to Provide safety and solidity. These structures are not real. Seeing this, how real are safety and solidity? Unity is the release of  The superstition of plural spirits. Seeing the finite is not enough. Seeing the infinite in the finite is Seeing without a seer. Here, the seeing is being. Those who refuse to be what they are will Remain what they are not. Hell is living on the periphery. It is where fixation on stories is The preferred substitute to living. Most have difficulty seeing clearly because Their heads are in the way. For all, life has a beginning, A middle and an end. However, it need not necessarily Occur in that order. Causes produce effects which are In themselves, new causes. What one comes to Wu Hsin to get, One does not get. Wu Hsin only gives What one already is. When true emptiness is met, Face to face, Everything is lost. What remains is what one is. Flow around obstacles. Don’t confront them, unless The obstacle is oneself. Before desiring to become something else,

What is seen is that There is nowhere to come from and  Nowhere to go to. The immediacy is that there is presence-awareness. All else that ensues is a story. When one is enamored with the means, One becomes forgetful of the ends. Once the cart has arrived, One doesn’t continue to sit in it. Call it emptiness or  Call it fullness. It doesn’t matter. Its achievement rests on Giving up one’s relationship With one’s erroneous viewpoints. Don’t look at Wu Hsin’s finger. Look at where it points to. Right here, Right now, is All that there is. Immersed in thought, One misses it. When one changes, Everyone changes and The world changes. One must not confuse What is innate from What is acquired. Divide the two, Reject the latter and Be. The personalization of the functioning is the error. There is thinking with no thinker. There is doing with no doer. Words. At the spoken level, They are sounds. At the subtle level, They are thoughts. At the silent level, They are gone. It is in this silence, From this silence, that All arises.

Awareness increases. To be dissatisfied, One must think about it. To be unhappy, One must think about it. To find out what one truly is, One must inquire prior to thought. See things as Wu Hsin sees them and Your hands will be in the earth while Your head is in the sky. The body is insentient. It cannot speak. It cannot see. It cannot think. That which energizes the body, That which initiates all action, You are That. Wu Hsin is little more than An open window through which A cool breeze blows.  Nothing more. Once the true center is perceived, There is no longer a need for enemies. The lack of concern for progress is The only sign of progress. All unhappiness is Sourced from unexamined beliefs. The landscape toward clear neutrality is Littered with identities and labels. This heavy garment, This personal identity, Seems to protect. It is merely a second skin, One step removed from the infinite. Take it off and Move beyond all need for protection. In the transpersonal life, The middleman is removed. Life is lived directly. Cling to no method,  No path and,  No teacher. The rope that rescues one from the raging river 

As the voice requires its distinctive tone, Being requires a distinctive way of being. Wu Hsin calls this you. There is no need to Go beyond the mind. Seeing through it will suffice. Wu Hsin does not speak about religion. What is religion but The transformation of  The song of liberation into The dogmas of limitation? The Great Mystery cannot be understood. It is the answer to the question: What color is the wind? Emptiness, Silence, Stillness. This is not a void to be feared but A sanctuary to be sought. The cage door is open right now. Wu Hsin cannot walk through it for you. First, you will strive to get it. Then, you will strive to keep it. Once lost, you will strive to reclaim it. This is the wheel of striving. Its grip is tight, but It is you that must let go.  No action is self-generated. The source of the action remains unseen, Cloaked in its mysteriousness. Observation of it is enough. Many days of silence are required to Recover from the futility of words. When the unacceptable is  No longer accepted, Wu Hsin is sought out. Spontaneous living is Devoid of musts. The two sides of the stick are Awareness on the one side and The habitual and mechanical on the other.

Happiness or unhappiness, Joy or sorrow, Comfort or discomfort, Let it be. It arrived without permission and It will go in like fashion. That which perceives the world cannot be Found in the world because It is the world. Death for the caterpillar is Birth for the butterfly. Form yields to form. And so it goes. Deep wisdom is not derived from experience. It is derived from seeing clearly The limitations of experience. The pure I  becomes the thought  I am, which expands to Become I am this. This is the Great Unfolding. Deep looking produces Deep seeing. Then, one moves from competing to Cooperating with everything. To be free, One must untie oneself from The seeming independent entity calledme. Throwing away reactions, One lives responsively, Doing what is needed When it is needed. There is nothing to manage,  No persons,  No situations,  No things and  No one to manage them. The common man is blind. He cannot see The nothingness that birthed him.  Nor can he see The infinity that envelops him. Being requires no declaration,  Neither affirmation nor validation. Who is it who declares

Mu Lai’s house was ransacked by burglars. A beautiful rug was stolen. It took Mu Lai many days before He could see the floor. Before that, all he could see was The absence of the rug. How can one experience life when One is so busy becoming? Acceptance of What-Is cannot be Created by the will. The recognition of this is The acceptance itself. Those who don’t know, Believe. One need not use The candle of another. One’s own light is sufficient. That which gives rise to all forms is Formlessness itself. To create a picture of it in the mind is Like catching a moth; The body is held but The beauty of the flight is eluded. Until one is willing to question that which One is afraid to question, There can be no movement. The word fire cannot burn.  Nor can the word water be consumed. When one’s vision is unobstructed, There is no confusing The description and the described. Being and becoming cannot walk together. Seeing things as they are, In the absence of interpretation, is The end of the trance.  Nothing to accumulate.  Nothing to acquire.  Nothing to gain. Remove the non-essential; then The essential essence itself shines. Heaven and hell are only Lodgings for individuals.

Heaven and hell lose all meaning.  Nothing to do,  Nowhere to go;  Now or later. Once the silence is established, True listening can begin. The natural state is not an effect. It has no cause. It shines through All causes and effects and Precedes them. Transcendence is not The disappearance of the transcended. It is the natural refusal to Attend to the transcended. In the Great Awakening, There is perfect Adaptation and response to whatever comes. The life, as such, is lived. Timeless, spaceless, imperceptible being is What one is. Temporal, finite, Sensorially perceptible phenomena are What one appears to be. This is the entire matter. Yet, do not seek to grasp it or  It will be lost. The Ultimate Subject is revealed in The cessation of objectification and identification. The mind thinks. But it does not know. Before the thinking mind, Perceiving senses, Doing body, Happy or unhappy person, The knowing stands. In seeing things as they are, Where is the need for managing, Controlling or manipulating? To live naturally is to Live without an agenda. Hell is life on the periphery. Fresh understandings are obtained by Questioning one’s unassailable beliefs.

One is clarity itself. One can’t learn to swim from The luxury of one’s armchair. The recognition of what is Fundamental in oneself  Saps the power from the notion of  Being an individual. Management and control of externals ceases. Living continues. All that one has is this moment and It is quite enough. In the absence of right and wrong, What can be the problem? The effort to be made is The same effort one made to Grow from a fetus into What one appears to be. To lose the personal is to Gain the totality of the universe. This is living in ease, Absent any need for improvement in character. The Knowing of which Wu Hsin speaks is not an activity. It ever was and is and has never changed as The support of all activity. Wholeness has never been broken; It only seems that way. The mind cannot do anything except Extend the frontiers of its own ignorance. One cannot use the mind to Transcend the mind. The I  that claims ownership of  The body, mind, and senses is The true Subjective. It points back to one’s true nature. Deep peace resides at the center. Excursions away from the center are Excursions away from peace. One need not wait to be What one already is. Keeping the attention fixed on What is permanent, One can never stray.

The setting of a goal is The death of spontaneity. Being aware of being aware is enough. Don’t believe in Anything you are asked to believe in. Question everything until All that remains is to Question the questioner. All experience occurs in the field of time. As such, the timeless can never be experienced. All searching for experiences can now end. Taking the actions of Totality to be one’s own is The error in viewpoint. As long as one is mesmerized by the tree, The root cannot be understood. Live in accordance with One’s inherent nature. What more can one do, When, in truth, there is no doer? It is only resistance that impedes acceptance. As the dam impedes the river’s flow, Resistance impedes the flow of What-Is. To drop all resistance is To embrace What-Is, Just as it is, Without it having to be Other than it is. All of life is then welcomed. What one thinks one is, is The result of inattention. With attention, one attains Clarity of thought, Charity of feeling, Purity of action and The understanding of  The true nature of things. Questioning how to live Misses the mark. It is better to inquire What is it that is living? Let us be clear; The mind is merely The name of a function: Thinking. In the absence of thought, There is no mind.

One perceives objects through the senses. One perceives the senses through the mind. One perceives the mind by oneself. It is only this oneself  that is to be sought. It is not hard to find. Its fragrance is everywhere and Pervades every thing. The unsatisfactory nature of the world Must be acknowledged. The futile attempts to Make the unsatisfactory satisfactory Must be acknowledged. Only then, can alternatives be considered. Of these, the best alternative is The acceptance of What-Is. In such acceptance, All notions of satisfaction and dissatisfaction vanish What remains is peace. Here and now is All that there is. It is What-Is. The rest is imagination. The way outward into the world is with The emphasis of objects. The return inward from the world is with The emphasis on the Subject. Since one can perceive One’s body, senses and mind, One stands separate from them as Perceiving itself. To attempt to capture The true essence of Wu Hsin is to Try to observe the unobservable. It is here that words fail. The senses fail. The Knowing of it is all. All notions of individuality are  Notions of ownership: My body, My thoughts, My feelings. Even when the error is apperceived, It is apperceived by no one. The first step is to Tear up the map. This is the departure from The known to the unknown.

All there is is  Never not here,  Never not now. One gets further lost in All destinations other than  Here. One is either cramped or  One is open. Whereas there may be degrees of cramped, There are no degrees of open. To free oneself  From oneself requires The investigation into The reality of this self. From here arises freedom. Freedom from this and that, Freedom from yes and no. Freedom to be What one has always been, Before one was someone. The notion that Something needs to be added is A subtle form of postponement. It feeds the idea of becoming In the space where no becoming is required. There must be no waiting for  Something to happen. This something  is happening in every moment. To wait for it is to miss it. From the personal point of view, The world is external to the personal. When this dissolves like ice in water, It is seen that nothing is external. Everything is contained within the unified whole. There is no separate person. One is because the world is. The world is because one is. Arising and setting together, Where is the boundary between them? Use the mind to attain the Point of understanding that The answer is not in the mind. Therein, the searching ends. The sum of all thoughts form another thought, me. From there springs A series of thoughts, Reactions to thoughts,

Preferences, rejections, wishes and longings. The cycle of this complex is endless. Its transcendence resides in Returning to the condition Prior to the first thought. This is the clear space that the wise know. Even assigning It a name is too much. It is said that Wu Hsin is greedy. He gives nothing and Takes everything. Where is the location that Inside becomes outside? Where does here become there? What distinguishes you from Other than you? Show Wu Hsin the markers, The signposts and the boundaries. Being is being as one is, Being as one was and Being as one will be.  No difference. Life cannot be understood unless One takes the time to observe it. This observation must Begin with and from the reference point: Me. So much is found after  The cessation of seeking. The essence of Wu Hsin’s words cannot be Captured by the mind. This is like trying to Capture sunshine in a box. One is not any thing in particular. All one really is is The denial of everything that One is not; The Eternal Constant. Failing to see the essence, The pot but not the clay, The bangle but not the silver, The writing but not the parchment, One remains ensnared in appearances, Taking the way things seem for  The way things are.

Union is only necessary When separation is imagined. When separation is seen to be imaginary, The need for union drops off. Let there be no confusion between Being an instrument of action and The author of action. In so doing, The natural state remains unobscured. Others see differences between Themselves and Wu Hsin whereas Wu Hsin sees none. Others believe that Wu Hsin has what they lack. Wu Hsin laughs at this. One may read scripture until The day one dies, yet One can never drink water from The map of a lake. Many there are who Believe in making sacrifices to their gods. To these, Wu Hsin notes that The highest sacrifice is The sacrifice of one’s absolute certainties. The need to see magic births, The appearance of magicians. When even the miraculous is Understood to be normal and ordinary, What-Is is clearly discerned. Wu Hsin offers no hope,  No payoff,  No methodology and  No escape route. Only the bravest are willing to Confront their own absence. Those looking for answers must Look where the answer resides. You are That. Let us not confuse beliefs with facts. Your god is a belief. You are is a fact. Hold to the facts. Don’t deny existence to What can’t be imagined. Don’t assert existence for 

This is the creation of spaciousness wherein True seeing occurs. One knows that one is. One knows not what one is. When it is seen that What one is is no thing, The seeking and the sought are no more. The wise have investigated the remainders: The clarity that remains When the mental chatter ceases. The silence that remains when The external noises ebb. The presence that remains when The past and the future are forsaken. It may be said that They recede into the background. In truth, they comprise the Background. One stands at the threshold, A single thought away from perfection. Outside of the cage, One is not someone who is free. Rather, one is freedom itself. Whatever appears before you Cannot be you. The vista, the viewpoint expands. Suddenly, there is no elsewhere, There is no there. There is only Here onto which Things come and go. The Here remains. Occurring right now, It is a singular, undivided tapestry. Words are the great trap. If the mind becomes ensnared there, One can never get free. Insight arrives unbidden. It is sired by neither prayer nor ritual. In silent spaciousness, It shouts its message. One is never apart from one’s destination. When the questioning of the dream begins, Awakening is not far away. The mind, the body, and the world are Objects appearing in awareness.

Everything that need be known is known. One is not found anywhere. Yet, one is still there. This is the Pure Subjectivity of which Wu Hsin speaks. One need not think  To know that one is.  No effort is required To be. It is only within The realm of the personal that Doership is required.  None need abide inwhat seems to be. Disregard the words of Wu Hsin; Investigate. What does the tongue taste without It? What can the ears hear without It? The foundation of everything is A precondition for everything. To rest in the foundation of everything is To become everything. The movement of the flag Reveals the action of the wind. As it always is, The Unseen supports the seen. That which is very near is Missed by preoccupations with Things that are farther away. The world is not external. The body is mere clothing on the Clothed. Seeing this is seeing all. When the poisonous tooth is Removed from the serpent’s mouth, The serpent can be played with like a child’s toy. When the world is seen through, then The world can be as it is seen yet  No problems arise. The position of those living naturally is The refusal to allocate any energy toward Making things right or wrong. Everything is important for only as long as One is important. How happy was Wu Hsin to realize that

Found in the world. Wu Hsin can neither teach one How to fall asleep nor  How to wake up. What happens after one’s death is not different from What was happening before one’s birth. The lotus flower is produced in water. It lives in water, yet It is untouched by the water. The same is said for the wise, Living in the world. The book says This is salt. Wu Hsin says This is salt. Yet, one still does not know it Until one tastes it. To reach the end of one’s journey is To reach the end of oneself. This ending is not different from The instant prior to the beginning. All habitual assumptions must be examined. Peck, peck, peck. The chick breaks free of its shell. Clear the dust from the eyes. Then it can be seen that The entire world is merely The Totality appearing as the particular. The mind is the tool of choice to Change What-Is into What one thinks it should be. Things act on other things. Conditions yield to other conditions. Wu Hsin takes his stand outside it all. Completeness cannot be Improved by adding or  Diminished by removing. Completeness remains. Listening to the songs of the mind Distracts one from What-Is, Life. Those with clear sight know this. The mind may continue on, but It has lost its hold on them.

There is no location for everywhere. You are That. Personal understanding is a distortion. It takes What-Is and Filters it through The sum of personal experiences. This is no different from The refraction of light. There is an appearance of light, but It is not the true light. Wu Hsin is aware of thoughts. Wu Hsin is aware of sensations. Wu Hsin is aware of the objects. Wu Hsin is aware of the world. Wu Hsin is aware. There is awareness, prior to Wu Hsin. Going out precedes returning. In due course, all return. First out, then in, then  Neither in nor out. Understanding the Mystery is The acknowledgement that The Mystery will always be a mystery. The origin of all troubles, The repository of all troubles, is One’s own imagination. In stillness, there are  No troubles to be found. The only sin is not to know and  Not to know that one doesn’t know. To relegate oneself to being Merely an individual human is to Confine oneself to a prison cell. The entire universe calls out to Those with ears that can hear it. However one believes things are, They are different from that. Many lamps. One light. Deeply enmeshed in the concept of one’s self, One can never know one’s self. One can only know what One takes one’s self to be. To truly know one’s self,

Tsu Ma was free. Attached to nothing, He roamed, He explored.  Never becoming, Only being. He was like the wind, Ungraspable, uncontainable. As the tree is latent in the seed, As the fire is latent in the wood, All things contain their future.  Nothing need be done.  Nothing need be undone. One remains as one is. Wu Hsin calls this the natural state. It is the end of  Millions of beginnings and of  Millions of becomings. The fish in the ocean Imagines itself to be The fish on the dinner plate. A change in the viewpoint brings about A change in the experience. One’s taste of tea is one’s own only. Likewise, one’s world is one’s own only. Beyond this, Outside of one’s this and one’s that, There is the invitation of Oneness. One can speak about Silent mind or chattering mind. But who speaks about the source of mind, What resides behind the mind? Silent mind or chattering mind are conditions. Wu Hsin speaks only of the Unconditioned. The actuality is always now. Individuality dies with The death of the body. Yet, individuality can die before The death of the body. Wu Hsin calls the latter freedom. One cannot choose to wake up from Either one’s dreams or  One’s imaginings. Before pain arrives,

When pain arrives, That which knows the pain is present. After pain has gone, That which knows the pain is present. The pain is transient; That which knows the pain, The Knowing, is not. Pi Dan was an expert on All things inconsequential. He was knowledgeable of the world, but Of his true nature, Of what resided at his core, He knew nothing. One’s mind is both friend and foe. It creates the distortions yet has The potential to see through them. However, it is limited. Mind cannot take one Beyond mind. People need words until Direct experience speaks louder. Then, silence prevails. It is for this reason that Wu Hsin writes. To say I live is a distortion. There is life. Activities may change in every moment, but That which supports the activities Remains changeless. Clarity cannot be quickened. It is already there. It is only the veils, The mists of thought that Tend to obscure it. Empty of everything, How easy it is to be filled. At the moment of one’s birth, Death begins its pursuit. Those who perceive themselves as not born, As that which is eternal, are  Never caught up in Death’s net. Reject thinking. Reject not thinking. This is naturalness wherein The particular becomes the universal.

In true wakefulness, There is no fear. The prerequisite of fear is an other; In wakefulness, this is absent. Don’t take life personally. The sun has no care for  What passes through the sky. The I in I saw,  I remembered,  I felt, is not the person. It is the voice of  That which moves the person and Sustains the person. It is That. You are That. In That, One’s marriage to the me is finished. The me may remain but Its falseness is now seen through. When the false loses its hold, It becomes like The ash of a burnt rope; It is there, but It has no substance. A shadow is insubstantial to The one who casts it. When it becomes clear that Any one is merely a shadow, The attention returns to The Source and rests there. Lacking labels, Lacking definition, One is boundless. To reduce oneself to The span of a lifetime and The volume of a body is The summit of ignorance. Understanding is not necessary. The end to misunderstanding is sufficient. This ever-present intelligent energy is not an experience. It is not bound by time. It is the underlying support from which All experience emerges and dissolves. To realize this as one’s very nature is to Move beyond the world. True happiness does not come and go. True peace does not come and go.

Obscures true happiness and true peace. Whereas the world is observable, Whereas the person is observable, That which observes cannot be found. Those who have found That which cannot be found have Transcended both the world and the person. Within the natural order, There are opposites but  No opposition. All opposition is sourced from What is not natural. A thought arises and it is perceived. What makes it my thought ? The bird sings and it is perceived. Does one make it my song? Entranced by the beautiful flowers, One misses the root which is Clear and evident. With the trance broken, The fullness reveals itself. Doubt everything, even Wu Hsin. Investigate; Discard all that is acquired and false. What remains is illumination itself. Wu Hsin’s recipe: Add no thing. Take away every thing. Bake until done. Identity is an acquired idea. One is what one was Prior to the acquisition. Beyond the mind, All distinctions cease. Lucidity is the full knowing of  Both what one appears to be and What one truly is.  Not unlike the sun, One is that which illuminates all.  Not unlike the mirror, One is that which reflects all. With the onset of imagination, Space is filled with objects and

The absence of imagination Empties space and time so that True peace may be perceived. Awareness itself is vastly More important than its content. As such, turning away from the content, From the objective, Turning toward the subjectivity, is The posture of the wise. It is only the fool who seeks The source of things in things. What effort is required? The same effort that The already wealthy man uses To become wealthy. What can be gained can be lost. What cannot be gained, Because it already is, Can never be lost and Requires no effort. Eternity is available in a single instant. Turn away from one’s preoccupations. Eternity presents itself. Having rejected acceptance and Having rejected rejection, A clarity manifests which Allows the world to be as it is. There are some who would Call this peace. When the preoccupation with identification falls away, What is seen is that Life is not a search for wholeness; Rather, it is the expression of wholeness. The easiest of all things is to be What one already is. In that, there is nothing to attain  Nothing to gain and  No effort required. When the seeing is unimpeded, The totality of perfection is recognized to Include the totality of seeming imperfections. What is false need not be remedied. It merely needs to be seen as false. When all the stories have been discarded, What becomes evident is that

In the infinite expanse of the Absolute. The world and The awareness of the world is like Clothing and nakedness: The nakedness is always present; The clothing simply obscures it. A deepening of understanding requires A shallowness of understanding. There is no deepening to deep understanding. What one is is this pristine awareness. All that appears on it, in it, is Merely passing through. Why give it importance? The cage of being fractional Can be replaced in an instant by Seeing the expanse that one truly is. All one need do is stop and look. Inadvertence imprisons. Attention liberates. As the statue is already present in the granite, So too, what is sought is already present. As the carver cuts the stone, Carve away the obstructions and The sought appears. There is no goal. If there is no goal to be attained, What need one do? Prior to all form, Prior to all names, There is some thing, Which is no thing that Perceives all names and all forms. You are That. In the same tree, Leaves, flowers, berries and branches, All different from one another, are seen. Are they not one Because their root is the same? Are they not all tree? Sam Fu used to think that he thought. Upon investigation, he discovered that Thoughts arise in the expanse of awareness and that There is no thinker thinking. Sam Fu now watches the show as

He may laugh. He may cry. He carries on his normal activities. Yet never forgets That which facilitates and is The support of these activities. Some ask that It be explained. What can be said about It other than It is neither this nor that. It is That from which This and that emerge. What Wu Hsin knows is valueless. All that is valuable is One’s own knowing. Although Wu Hsin may take one to the river, He cannot make one swim. There is no conflict when There is no division between What-Is and What one believes ought to be. What is this journey if not A return to that place before The creation and the creator? One is and One knows that one is, without The need for mentation. It is from this ocean of awareness that All else emerges. The totality of space has no center,  No circumference. It is here that one finds Home. It is here that all desires for heaven fade. It is here and It is now. As all property belongs to the emperor, All names and forms belong to That which perceives them. They may be called knower and known. Deeper still, they are the twin aspects of Knowing. All attainments are deceptions. What will come will go. What can be gained can be lost. What has never left,  Never leaves. Turn to this and Be free. A crow sat on a coconut tree.

Mind creates a relationship between The coconut and the crow; There is none. To see through the mind is To see through distortion to The pristine clarity that is always there. The Eternal Constant requires no saga. From It, all sagas are birthed. Confusing this Eternal Constant with any saga is The fountain of all unhappiness. What is this That of which Wu Hsin speaks? It is That from which Every thing arises, on to which Every thing appears and to which Every thing returns. It is That, and Between this That and one’s self, There is no difference. Dying daily removes fragmentation. An integrated life then ensues. Only the wisest of men says  I don’t know. When everything is unlearned and All habits are rejected, What one always was shines forth. True observation can only Occur from outside of the observed. All else is partial. Standing apart from oneself, One discerns oneself. So many ask Wu Hsin for  A way to gain clarity. If one stays where one is, If one does not move, What way is necessary to Remain as one is? One cannot see one’s face in muddy water. When the mud is removed, The face is clearly seen. This mud is identification: Identifying with a name, Identifying with a story, Identifying with a form. When these are the preoccupation, The essence is obscured.

 No one is happy. How can anyone be happy when They source their happiness outside themselves? Whatever arises, One’s essence is already present to greet it. Its beginning has never been observed. When the attention shifts From what arises to its greeter, The world view shifts and problems cease. Cast away all anchors and all tethers. Allow drifting to take hold. One will go to where One needs to go. Those who trust in this Live in fullness. The Great Teaching has no words. The silence that was before the Great Teaching and The silence that comes after the Great Teaching is one. The silence itself is the Great Teaching. What is available in this moment Requires no tool or method to reveal it.  No lit candle is needed to find the sun. When it is explained that The price for the infinite is the finite, Most buyers balk and run away. There is no one who is more silent. There is no one who is more peaceful. There is no one who is more awakened. There is no one. Begin from Being. Begin from Consciousness. Begin from Being-Consciousness. Don’t move from Being-Consciousness. This is the most observable fact. All else is overlay on to it. Seeing the overlay as overlay, One remains undisturbed. Xin Do lost his pouch in the town of Ba. He went to search for it in the town of Dinquo. When asked why he would search in Dinquo for  That which he lost in Ba, he replied:  Ba has no streetlamps;  Dinquo is better lit. Why search in the mind for  What is not contained in the mind?

It must have a specific location. That which is everywhere Can never be found. In pure being, one is nobody. It is only in tainted being that Somebody appears. What distinguishes the natural man from the rest is that He has touched the Immovable in that which is moving, The Unseen in all that is seen and The Timeless within time. He rests in its bosom and is A stranger to worry. The favorite pastime is watching the world. Only a rare one will choose to Watch the watcher. They alone reflect true knowledge. That which is ever present is also That which is ever prior. It is the foundation and support of all things. The habit of going outward for  Sensation and stimulation Obscures the pure essence of  What one is. At its source, The spring brings forth this purity. One need only stop to drink it. All fixations are blockages of natural energy. Thoughts come; they go. Fixations impede the flow and Peace is lost. To speak of solutions presupposes The existence of problems. If one claims that there are problems, Wu Hsin replies that the primary problem is The addiction to distraction and The primary distraction is I. The only appropriate time To question every assumption is  Now. Peace is here. Fullness is here. Knowing is here. To find problems, One must leave here and Go there which is

A distinction must be made between Searching and exploring. One searches for what is not present. One explores through what is present. One’s essential nature never goes anywhere. It is ever present. It can never be searched for. It can only be explored. Lucid harmony cannot co-exist with the personal. While the person may continue, The personal must go.  Nothing is wrong with the world other than The notion of you. Stepping out of this, The world is then viewed as perfection itself.  Nothing has happened. Yet, the seeming happenings continue on in An endless stream until it is seen That the appearance is merely an appearance. Wu Hsin must be left behind. He cannot be dragged along or  Carried on one’s back. His work is done and It will bear fruit. The mind does not see.  Nor does it hear, taste, or smell. It labels and interprets. It discriminates, Setting this against that. What sees, hears, tastes, and smells? All words are inadequate. This quietness has no relationship with activities or  The absence of activities. This quietness is the cornerstone from which both The presence of activities and The absence of activities appears. In being this quietness, one may be active or inactive. It is of no consequence; The quietness remains unmoving. Hold on to This that has no shape,  No form. It is so close that it is missed. Only objects are subject to time and space. When the viewpoint is clarified that One is no thing,

One discerns that  Nothing binds or limits one’s true nature. The notions I am this body and  I am this mind  are mere shadows. When the light that creates them is seen, All their power is drained. What is born and dies is the me, only. That which perceives both events was  Never born and never dies. It has neither beginning nor end. As such, it has no past and no future. You are That. If the writing slate is Already filled up,  Nothing new can be written upon it. Wipe it clean and Let us begin.

Volume Five: No Great Future Attainment

Forward 

There really isn’t anything to add to what I have written in the previous Forwards. In this final volume, Wu Hsin continues his onslaught on the seemingly known while providing new insights into the mystery called Awareness. One aspect that does not receive a lot of attention is that the reader should approach Wu Hsin with unwavering trust. Set aside all notions of what is already known and evaluate this message on the merits of its resonance with the reader. The math teacher is not questioned that 2+2 =4; it is taken as a priori. The same attitude is required here. Otherwise: Wu Hsin may talk for years on end.  However, he can never convince a blind man of  The beauty of a rainbow.

Text 

Ignorance disguised in new vocabulary does not Make for understanding. This life that is taken so seriously, What is it really? Is it anything more than that small dash between The date of birth and The date of death? What constitutes the sense of I am this is Constantly changing while What constitutes the sense of I am is unmoving. The shift in the attention from The former to the latter is The perfume of lucid sight. When objectification ceases, Time ceases, Space ceases, The need for these media ceases. Is life better understood by Looking at it more closely, or by Stepping back further from it? Standing back from the seeming seer is The distance needed to bring perspective. A wise man never overcomes adversity. He circumvents it. Wu Hsin and you were both present at The birth of the sky. He remembers, You do not. Anything in time cannot be eternal. That which stands outside of time is Eternity itself. Hearing its call is The end of time. A thought appears. Is there someone thinking or is it Only the echo of a knock on the door  Reverberating through an empty house? Despite how it seems. A rooster’s crowing does not cause The sun to rise. Lucidity discriminates between The apparent and the real.

Bridging the gap between Your god’s will and your own is The revelation of What-Is. Security is the freedom from The need for security. Clouds appear and disappear, The sky remains unfazed. Individual effort to affect circumstances Obscures life’s magic. The one one knows, One is not. When the one not-yet-known is known,  No further knowing is required. The propriety of any action Exists only in The mind of the actor. It may be deemed appropriate by some and Inappropriate by others. It may be deemed appropriate today and Inappropriate tomorrow. Wu Hsin does not squander his time judging. There is no going within to A within that cannot be located. Imaginations cannot be ended with More imaginations. A flawed perspective breeds A flawed view. One never sees things as they are. One sees things as one is. All beliefs are woven; True knowledge is bedrock. Small doubt precedes small clarity. Great doubt precedes great clarity. All objects, whether  Physical or mental are Pointers to that which perceives them. To see this is to be this. If one is not Trying to get to some place, One cannot become lost. There is a beginning and an end to All things objective.

 Nor any end. Being birthless, It is deathless. The arrival of clarity is The losing of  What was never one’s own. The body is insentient.  No different than a stone. That which perceives via the body is not The body. It is that which enlivens the body. It is both the witness and The substance of all experience. It is That. Thoughts are not the problem. Ownership of thoughts is the problem. The individual and the world are Co-created moment by moment in imagination. Appearing together and Disappearing together in That which never appears or disappears. Wu Hsin has no teaching. Wu Hsin points to what Wu Hsin is, What one is, and The absence of difference in the two. In this, all teachings are contained. The ones who have been Seeking for the longest time are The ones who refuse to Let go of the seeking. The power of the ocean is The support of every wave. Can there be any wave in The absence of the ocean? The vision of the mind is The vision of the world. What distinguishes A wise man from the common man is that The wise man does not need tomorrow. He doesn’t even want it;  Now is enough. The world appears in your light. With the light in abeyance,  Nothing is.

The character in the play is over  Once the play is over. The spectator in the audience continues Once the play is over. The latter taking itself to be the former is Part of the play itself. All that has been learned until now, Read until now, Heard until now, Seen until now and Thought until now, Has not produced the desired results. Reject it all and Investigate what remains.  No experience can provide the elixir. That which occurs in time cannot Take one to the timeless. Smaller than the smallest, Larger than the largest, One is. Onto this, All appears, lingers and departs. The wise treat the personality like a shadow; It follows them along Yet, it is no bother. Wu Hsin does not provide answers. Wu Hsin removes questions. When the attention shifts from That which is not permanent to That which is permanent, Disturbance can find no entrance. One is the stonemason that Constructs one’s own prison. One can tear it down. This is initiated by Dismantling one’s most basic certainties. When the energy that fed it is  No longer provided, Falsehood dies of neglect. Understanding is not birthed by A mental process any more than Blue sky is created by A clearing in the clouds. The world comes in to being with

Returning to that point prior to the division is The restoration of unity. Separate is not something one is. Separate is something one does. With its cessation, Lucidity is unveiled. There exists a core concept upon which Everything else is constructed. This core concept is me or I, The notion of a distinct entity that Stands apart from the world. It is only when this is seen as false that What is true, What-Is, may shine. The most subtle, The most obvious is The easiest to overlook. The paper is forgotten when The parchment is read. The pristine awareness is forgotten when The face of the god is seen. Without this pristine awareness, What faces are seeable? Cleaning the dust from the mirror requires time. Throwing away the mirror requires no time. Supremely ordinary and obvious, Clear as the space immediately in front. With no process at all and with  No imaginary division, It remains open as it always is, What-Is. Who dares divide the indivisible? That which is not permanent is not Worthy of pursuit. To dispel the beliefs in what one is not is More than enough. There is some pleasure to be had by Scratching an itch. But it is far more pleasurable To have no itches at all. Wu Hsin destroys everything; All ideations, all notions, All beliefs and all concepts. From the charred ruins of this edifice, One’s true nature beckons. Pursue with the fullest energy

There is nothing to become. What is freedom other than Freedom from one’s own preoccupations? It is the freedom from that which One has tethered oneself to: Me. There may be many messengers but The message is one: Refuse to be what you are not; Be as you are. Wu Hsin’s words are not A conversion from one set of ideas and beliefs to Another set of ideas and beliefs. They point to the liberation from all ideas and beliefs. Within this emptiness, The fullness of life calls. It is so near. It is so obvious. As to see the sun Requires no candle, So it is to see this nearness. One need not know What it is to know That it is. By that which one knows one is; One is That. The center of observation is Open and unbiased. It is all pervading intelligent energy. All movement away from the center is Movement toward contraction and limitation. To tell one’s story requires time. To perpetuate one’s story requires time. To obliterate one’s story requires no time. Direct cognition is available here and now. All that is required is The release of the stranglehold on One’s erroneous beliefs. The parents, The teachers and the society have Induced this trance called me. To be clear of it, Challenge and inquire into its reality. What time brings about, Time takes away.

That which does not require time Culminates in the realization of the timeless. Words can only bring one up to The limit of words. To go beyond, All words must be left at the shore.  Neither peace of mind nor  A piece of your god are Attainable in anything external. What one truly is contains everything. What is said to be external is not What it seems. The dog stops chasing its tail When it tires of it. To find what has never been lost, One must tire of searching for it. While one has aged, What is it that hasn’t aged? You are That. Either be attached to everything or  Be attached to nothing. There can be no middle ground. Leave the world for a while. It can always be returned to. Explore that which can’t be returned to, From which there was no departure. Hunting for the thorn while Ignoring the rose has been tried. The result is failure. Turn the attention to the essential.  Not moving, The rose recognizes itself. Whatever appears neither defines nor alters What is already there. Why treat it like a precious gemstone or  A temple statue to be fixated upon? The content of the foreground Obscures the pristine nature of the background. It is the fixation on the former that must go. However solid ice may be, It never loses its true nature, that being water. The Source is always Present in the appearances.

The scent of its master in order to Track him down. Follow the notion of I  back to its source. There flowers the understanding that One's true identity is The substratum out of which the world and All its names and forms Appear and disappear. All experiences, or their lack, are Mediated through the notion of individuality. This is the obstruction to the clear seeing of Presence. It rises from the Presence and One either feels the Presence through it, or  One is aware of its absence. Regardless, the Presence is there all the time. It never comes, never goes, never moves. The notion of seeking arises because The recognition of What-Is is absent. It is the What-Is that is What is sought. A peaceful mind Brings heaven to earth. Everything comes and goes Except that onto which Everything comes and goes. This That is what One truly is. All attempts to succeed are The evidence of failure. In the absence of the need to succeed, One cannot fail. One must leave a room before entering another room. Each has assumed that They are located in a body. Until the location changes,  Nothing of substance changes. The fruit ripens quickly When fertilized with  No thing in particular. The undefined cannot be restricted. That without limits can never be defined. At the first moment of clarity, The desire to improve the mirage ceases. Looking deeply into the nature of things,

Phenomena appear, linger and go. There is no permanency. There exists a Great Equanimity that Regulates and balances all things. The recognition of this lessens The work of each individual until finally, There is no work and There is no individual. Clear sight requires the dropping of  All points of view. Absent a center of reference, Things are seen as they are. The world takes care of itself. The work gets done. The whole world may perish. That which one is, endures. The man who is wise Knows himself in all things and All things in himself. He apperceives no essential difference between The arising of the perceived and its perception. As the sun is not soiled by The smoke in the sky, The lucid ones experience everything Yet remain unmoved. Embracing nothing. Rejecting nothing. One stands outside the totality. Watching, watching. Wu Hsin declares: What belongs to me, I am not. Appearances offer strong distractions. One must swim against the current to Return to the Source. The kingdom continues After the king is gone. Onto fertile land, Many things may sprout, flower, and then wither. The land remains unfazed. The person is the seemingly ongoing  Narration of separateness and is The very movement away from The oneness it declares it desires.

The road ends where it began. Seeing that there is nowhere to get to, One does not move. That which does not move is The ground of all movement. Let the focus remain on What is here and now. The rest is not worthy of consideration. One is in Whatever one sees; The very fabric of the universe. Wu Hsin does not doubt That if one meditates Long and Hard and Correctly, There will be results Of one sort or  Another. But until meditation Eliminates the meditator  The goal has not been achieved. The source Of every thing Cannot be Any thing. Why, then, search For what cannot Be found?  No actor  Can change his role On the stage According to his preferences. Wu Hsin laughs When you speak about Your plans. My child, Your very effort Is the hole you are trying To climb out of. Your desire to be free of  All your perceived limitations is What threw you into it In the first place. One of man’s strongest desires Is to change the quality Of What-Is.

That What-is is The present expression of  What-Is-To-Be And that This picture has already been painted. Seekers want Wu Hsin to give them signposts, Markers that will tell them they are Making progress. Some are little more than Collectors of signposts. To all, Wu Hsin says that The clearest evidence of progress is The total disinterest in Progress. Anything that can be gained Can likewise be lost. Only the eternal is For always. A thought arises….. I know not where it came from I only know what it came through. There is a response to this thought Because I am What I am And then an action occurs. At what point in this process Was the notion of my action born? In every moment Wu Hsin is doing Exactly what he is supposed to be Doing. He knows this because He knows that He is not Doing anything. Despite what you believe Life is not The opposite of death Birth is The opposite of death The two form One whole. Life is what is Prior to birth and death, As one totality. Prior to this totality Is the potential for this totality As is inherent In its nature.

One lives in the house but Is not the house. To mistake the house for oneself  Is the only impediment to Understanding. Man creates his god To reconcile his powerlessness. This god is prayed to and beseeched To grant man’s wishes. If the prayers are successful, It is the god’s grace; if not It is the god’s fault. Liang Po asked Wu Hsin: “Who created the man who Created the god?” See the world as a process with Enormous activity and  No independent actors. It is a story unfolding, yet A story already written. Poison cannot poison Itself. Who is there to Seek to know The Unknowable? The distinction between There is and  I am Is the distinction between The Subject and Its object. When the mirror’s image is Understood to be nothing Other than the face, All fears and doubts Are vanquished. Right and wrong Happiness and sorrow Love and hate are all only Interpretations, Subject to reversal In any moment. Why embrace the changeful At the expense of  The Changeless? Wu Hsin wrote before that The sky is never  Affected by smoke. Why do you concern yourself with

Saying? They are only drawing Images of fish On the surface of the water. To expound on the state of  What-Is is like speaking about The taste of the tongue.  Neither action nor inaction Can result in tranquility. Only the deep understanding of  Tranquility Can result in Tranquility. Everything occurs Exactly as it is intended. As such, There are no mistakes. Why are you seeking Forgiveness? The highest motivation that Wu Hsin can provide is To tell you that You are not what You seem To be. Two men from Guo come to Listen to Wu Hsin speak  About spontaneity and How it is The natural way. They tell Wu Hsin that They understand and that It is their intention To be spontaneous. Intending to be Spontaneous, They haven’t heard A single word I say. Tell me please Who is it Who places All the burdens Of the Supreme Onto their own shoulders? Who is it Who so distrusts the Supreme As to believe that They can handle matters better?

This joke to Wu Hsin. Prior to here and there Prior to now and then Prior to me and not-me Prior to this and that is My abode. True knowledge is not The knowledge of things Instead, it is The knowledge of What-is. It is knowledge In the absence Of a knower  Knowing anything. Moving beyond the notion Of myself  And not myself  One arrives at the home Of unanswerable questions: Who is it that sees? Who hears? And finally Who is it who wants to know? Can you define The limitations of  Your heart? Can you place the totality of  The world Inside it? Can you accept All things As they are and Allow whatever movement Is required To occur? Can you be peaceful? Can you be The embodiment of  Peace itself? Up cannot exist In the absence of down. Backward cannot exist Without forward,  Nor beauty without ugliness. Accepting this as an aspect of  The nature of the world Allows one’s preferences to soften And for peace to flourish.

Seeking instruction On how to return Home. What directions can I offer you To the place you have never left? The moment before movement is Filled with emptiness. It is the beginning of  The beginning. Containing the potential for  Everything, It is limitless. If given the choice Between one thousand gold coins And Total Understanding Wu Hsin tells you To take the coins and Enjoy them. There is no one To enjoy Total Understanding. Life is an impersonal process. The rivers flow The grasses grow and The sun shines. Every being is A component in the process But not its director. The greatest gem you own is Your attention. Wu Hsin says Don’t throw it away on The past or  The future At the expense of the present. Doctrines, dogmas, Processes and methods that seek  My ultimate understanding Only worsen matters As they imply that You can find What you have lost. If you are diligent and Are willing to sacrifice, Then you are worthy Of its return. Wu Hsin tells you to Cancel the effort and Call off the search. You cannot recover  What you have never lost.

Except the understanding that There is nothing to attain. Upon the release Of the need To be either this Or that Comes an opening To the splendor of  What-Is, the Real. All storylines dissolve. The dramas end and The wind of peace Blows across the countryside. Death surrounds you. It walks beside you In every moment. Death is the end, The end of this and The end of that. Every moment dies. Everything that has a beginning Ends in death. Running from death, Denying that everything must Come and go, Is the prerequisite For unhappiness. The world of Wu Hsin is A world without distance. We measure distance between Two separate points: Here and there You and I. Remove the sense Of separateness and Distance loses all meaning. This moment is unique. It has never happened before  Nor shall it Ever happen again. Remove your attention from it and It is gone Forever. Can fire burn itself? Can water know thirst? Your search for the Final Answers asks Questions like these. Until the realization dawns that

Our time together is The chatter of women. Every being is born twice: First, there is The emergence from the womb, Second, with the emergence of the  Notion of me. Then, the trouble begins. Anxiety is a contraction in The fabric of being. If all is one and There are no others, What could there be To be anxious about? Let us build a huge fire and Fuel it with all concepts, Judgments and ideas. Once the fire is burned out, The world will be seen as A perfect place. The shape of change is A circle while The initiator of change is Shapeless. Resting in the circle is Acceptance. The masters know this while The people do not. This world offers So many distractions That it is difficult To perceive The magnificence of  What is ordinary. The simpler things get The more beautiful This life becomes. Wu Hsin says that The most effective way To avoid deep understanding Is to seek it. The very busyness that You enfold yourself in is the impediment To your heart’s Deepest desire. The Master to seek is One who

Who likewise Gives you nothing to do, Who promises neither  Special experiences nor  To take you Anywhere in particular, and Who is disinterested in Your adoration. Are you brave enough For this one? The past is An impression, A footprint, A belief, A memory. The future is A projection, A presumption, A conjecture.  Neither can be truly Accessed or known With certainty. Between the two Lies the splendor of  The present, Available to all Who are willing to release Their preoccupation with The past and the future. All there is Is Everything Of which man is A tiny cog. That this cog Wishes to understand everything Provides Wu Hsin with Endless entertainment. Arrogance, Pride, Greed, Envy, Avarice, Jealousy. You bring them To Wu Hsin and ask that They be taken away. I cannot. The only one who Can take them away Is the One Who put them there.

The essential confusion is between happening and doing. In time, everything is happening. Yet, there is no individual doer  Doing anything. It is all Being done. It is all happening. Clear seeing of this is All that is required. Just as every drop of the ocean Contains the taste of  The ocean, So, too, Every being Contains the taste of  Pure being, Before being anything in particular. You say you are Afraid of dying May I suggest that You are Afraid of living, Afraid of life? If this were not the case, Why do you spend So much time Regretting the past and Worrying about the future? The past is dead The future is Yet to be born and You cannot control it. If you drop these imaginations, then This moment takes on a Whole new brilliance. The underlying essence is Obscured by  Names and forms. The roots are forgotten Amidst the beauty of the garden. The wave and The ocean May appear separate. The subsidence of the former reveals That all there ever was Was the latter. You are Immanence Itself. Others have given you Methods and ways

Stop for one moment and Think, my son: How can the Formless be found? Others have given you Methods and ways To achieve Oneness. Stop for one moment and Think, my son: Is not the achievement of Oneness Preconditioned on the assumption of  Two-ness, of  Duality, of  You and not-you? How can you merge with What you already are? Balance is achieved using Equal parts of  Positive and negative…………… Or in the absence Of both. Oneness with Everything Requires surrender to every thing and Trusting in everything. For this moment to be Exactly as it is Requires the cooperation Of every aspect of  The cosmos. Change any and This moment is transformed into Some other moment. When the cosmos cannot Be stuffed into a box or  Understood, Man calls it chaos. During times of adversity, Man will initiate  Negotiations with his god, Asking that What-Is be made subservient to His personal will. By altering even one, The many are recast. This is not seen by the supplicant Who instead chooses to believe His prayers have been answered When, in fact, they have merely been In alignment with What was intended. In truth, All prayers are answered;

There are many signposts Along the way and Even more Worshippers of  The signposts. Sacredness is not reserved Only for the things Deemed acceptable. Sacredness imparts its stamp on Everything and everyone: The saint and the sinner  The profane and the profound. The one without expectations is not Disappointed. The one who doesn’t plan Cannot attain a goal. Acceptance of what comes is The prescription for steadiness. An increased sense of peace and balance is The byproduct of   No longer believing The thoughts that appear. They are like smoke. Wait a moment; They’ll be gone. Desire is a gift. It causes a noticing of  What is perceived to be lacking.  Noticing is the key to be Free from desire. A life lived in can’t know,  Don’t know,  No need to know, is A weightless life, A life of light-heartedness and Effortlessness. Wanting any condition to last, Attaching contentment to it, is The basis for unhappiness. Happy in its presence, Unhappy in its absence. Accept that everything Comes and goes. It is the nature of  The world. Transcend the attachment, Transcend the world.

A lifetime can be exhausted Enumerating all the variables Outside of one’s control. So what? Power is not acquired By grabbing it. It is acquired Through releasing. This is not the power of gaining; It is the power of alignment. The best meditators are Always successful because They aren’t seeking anything. Man is the embodiment of action; Doing not doing is  Not an option. Upon the arising of clear sight, All ensuing actions are correct. Discarding concepts is The direct path to the attainment of  Clarity. When all concepts are gone, What remains is boundless vision. Those with true knowledge Understand that space is not empty But rather the container and Support of everything. It’s not outside. The arrival at that place Where nothing is excluded Marks the end of  The journey. Where is the puzzle, Where is the confusion, Where is the conflict, Outside of what’s inside One’s head? The workings of Nature are  Not complicated. Explaining the workings of Nature Births the complication. One does what One does and One gets what

Only the musings of  The mind Create a relationship Between the two. Yet everything that came before was A precondition of  What is now. Involvement with minutiae is Devoid of riches. Stand back and Perceive the larger picture. Stand farther back and The sweetness deepens. There is no end to this. Just as the heart Continues to beat, The mind Continues to think. Can one stop the heart While life continues? If the cessation of thought is temporary, Its efficacy is minimal. The world is a unified whole. The personal world is Only a point of view. While the eradication of termites Might be good for the home dweller, It is less favorable For the termites. There are no other  Places to go to. The only place is Here. Attempting to go There Because Here is undesirable is Like trying To bite one’s teeth. The cessation of involvement is The opening of  The great gate. Upon doing so, All is perceived without judgment, Perceived to be as it is. A deep dissatisfaction With things external is The impetus for the turning away, The turning within. Until then, The mesmerization with the circus goes on.

The audience fails to understand that It, too, is part of the circus. Some are emperors, Some are clowns, and Some are beggars. In the end, The role is relinquished and Each returns to where All is one and where All of this is A part of That. The sage doesn’t have All the answers. The sage doesn’t have Any more questions. A drunkard’s sudden ability to Give up drinking is The result of confluence: The drunkard was willing To give up the drinking and The drinking was willing to Give up the drunkard. To worship Wu Hsin is Merely the exchange of one idol For another. A transference from Yourself to myself.  Nothing is accomplished except The creation of  The illusion that Something is accomplished. We must draw the distinction Between pulling weeds and Tearing roots. Weeds grow back like The arms of a starfish. When the root is torn, The plant is finished. To uproot identification is The finest gardening. One cannot look at the mystery. One can only look from the mystery Because one is the mystery. Strip away everything that is  Not necessary. Stabilize there, then Strip away everything that is

When the need to Control life is relinquished Forcing ceases and The natural flow returns, Like melting snow from A mountaintop. A breeze comes and The trees sway. Prior to the breeze, All is stillness. The mind is a breeze; Follow it back to its source and Become still. Empty the sack and The burden is lightened. So many concepts….. To what end? Because of the sun, the light is. Can the light and the sun Be separate? Because one is, The world is. Can the world and oneself  Be separate? There is a small bird Living behind the skin. Upon hearing its song, Worries and the world Lose their importance. It’s been here from the beginning, Kept hidden by a diaphanous veil. Removal of the veil Allows everything to be seen Clearly. When Wu Hsin’s words succeed, Headaches dissolve. He speaks of a silence without edges. He speaks of a silence that is not manufactured. It is a silence that Contains everything, The sky and The busy market. The potential becomes the actual in time. A daughter lies waiting in A pregnant mother’s womb while Motherhood lies waiting

Everything happens. There is no problem with that. Problems arise when what happens Happens to a you. The understanding that  Nothing happens to you Releases the habitual creation of  The story to which Man is enslaved. Wu Hsin may talk for years on end. However, he can never convince a blind man of  The beauty of a rainbow. To surrender all that One is not, One must first know all that One is not. Until then, do not Speak to Wu Hsin of surrender. Most get entangled in the branches and the leaves Instead of seeking out the root. The root points back to the seed and The seed is the source of all. As the eye cannot see itself, One cannot witness what one is. One can only be witness to what one isn’t. With the assignment of form, Limitation is birthed. Prior to form is The abode of the Limitless. Its doorway is the cessation of imagination. The inability to see The fragrance of a flower does not  Negate its existence. Much of the richness of life Resides in the Unseen. All that appears is An expression of  Unitary, ever-present, being awareness. There is nothing beyond Oneness. Most coming to Wu Hsin are disappointed. They come seeking a ladle and He gives them a needle. Wu Hsin does not confirm concepts. They are shattered here.

The key to Oneness, Receive mixed news from Wu Hsin. First, there is no key to Oneness. Last, the door has been left unlocked. When one doesn’t know, One believes. One’s primary belief is Believing that one knows. In the absence of any Great attainment in the future, The saga of seeking must draw to a close. Who has experiences other than That which awaits the experiences? Before all experience, there resides A vast ocean of knowingness. You are That. That which is when There is something to perceive and That which is when There is nothing to perceive. Likewise, you are That. Paths and practices are necessary for  The mind that requires busyness.  Neither is necessary to see What is clear, obvious, and ever present. The rejection of separation Furthers separation. Everything is included in wholeness, including separation. All beliefs, That of past and future, That of me and other, Pull one away from What-Is. The investigation of all beliefs Pushes one back. Fulfillment is the result of emptying. How dare you claim to be writing the book  When, in fact, You are a character in the book? When the thought of a thinker is absent, Thought is seen as The mere appearance that it is. With its power diminished, It cannot linger. For a single instant,

The idea of an individual you. Within that single instant, then Where do you have to go? What do you have to attain? When Wu Hsin has been understood, All holy books become like a child’s toys. What is Wu Hsin? I am that which remains when All of what was claimed as mine is removed. When the seeker is seen as A construction of the mind, Seeking ceases because The story of the seeking ceases. What one believes oneself to be, A person in a body, Was born and will die. This is the image that Appears and will disappear. What one really is was there before the birth, is Equally available during the lifespan, and Will continue there after the death. It is that in which all the images appear. What is real and true Lies beyond names and forms, Words and thoughts, Divisions and boundaries. Wu Hsin can take you to the entryway; Only you can enter. The greatest illusions are The methods one employs to Dispel illusion. All there is, is This, and This is everything. Take whatever you like. The only thing that stops you is The idea that something stops you. Moving away from the notion that You are having experiences, What is then seen is that You is just another experience. So much of  What seems to be so is only so because It has not been thoroughly investigated.

To hear the mouth of the Void. Those who pay attention will understand. They will see that eternity is not everlasting time. It is the timelessness in which Everything bound to time appears. It is strikingly odd, is it not, that All come to Wu Hsin, Immersed to their necks in water and Wanting to learn How to get wet? This body is insentient. As such, it cannot know anything. It is the sentience that Arrives, stays a while and departs that knows. You are That. Tethered to what is personal, One cannot approach the infinite. That which is whole never dies. Parts die, leaving Wholeness untouched. To live without a past, To live without a future, is To live in this present instant. This living is being. Wu Hsin cannot guarantee that Meditating will bring peace. However, Wu Hsin can guarantee that Doing nothing will bring you Life. Lucidity is not something you possess. Lucidity is what possesses you. It is not the fulfillment of expectations; It is the freedom from expectations. Finding does not come from seeking. Finding comes from relinquishing the search. Relax and soften. It will shine when it shines. With his eyes fixated on the horizon, Chao missed the beauty of the rose on the table. Returning to the Source from where one emanates,  No death can be found. This, as it is, does not  Need anyone’s help to improve it. Clarity arises effortlessly when

 I want clarity. Acceptance does not lead to lucidity. Acceptance is lucidity. Pain may arise; Don’t worsen it with resistance. Pleasure may arise; Don’t diminish it by grasping. Allow all to be as it is. I am that which remains after  The body goes. I am freedom, Free from the need to be free. The hardest work  One can do is The separating of oneself from everything. Life continues exquisitely on while You remain preoccupied with you. In this, so much of life is missed. Trusting that whatever brought you here will Take you there is The end of all effort. All there is is this appearance and That to which it appears; They are not two. Everything else is conceptual. There is no new knowledge to be acquired, But old assumptions will fall away. Have the confidence to doubt yourself. What is it that knows when There is a cessation of thought. When the unstruck gong is heard, All is complete. The source of everything is Located everywhere. Every thing, then Points back to It. All words, Even Wu Hsin’s words, Can be faulted. Silence is faultless. Everything is moving on

Does one hold convictions or  Do the convictions exert the hold? That which is never ceases. That which is not never is. The goal of seeking is never attained. Instead, the seeker dissolves. Happiness is lost Once man succumbs to ideas. Where does one have to go to Observe what comes and goes? One is that to which Everything comes to present itself. When you were in the womb,  Nature took care of you and You did nothing. Why do you assume that it is any different today? Prior to the thought of separateness There is no separateness. The illusion, what isn’t, is Part of What-Is. Controlling events is not possible. As such, the best strategy is To allow life to reveal itself  At its own pace. This is the Strategy of No Strategy. Yesterday’s sun has set; Today, there is another. Why chase after yesterday’s sun When the warmth on one’s face is now? True knowledge can be attained only When the absolute authority Granted to the mind has been rescinded. When it is clearly seen that Happiness is the absence of desire, then It is understood that The desire for happiness is The impediment to happiness. Man believes that He has separated himself from The rest of manifestation and can Exercise domination over it.

The fulfillment of desires never  Fulfills the promise of desires. Whereas it is important to Question the validity of  What is seen, It is even more important to Question the authenticity of the seer. There is nothing to get. When one becomes sufficiently Exhausted from looking for it, One gets it. There is nothing to give up. What requires giving up will be Taken in due course. To be conscious of change Proves the changelessness of consciousness. It is the beingness that Observes all of manifestation. Only the wise observe beingness. To remain fascinated with the stalk, Keeps the root hidden. One finds Reality when One returns to What is real in oneself, The light that illumines all perceptions. Lucid living is A life in equilibrium. When the portals of perception are clean, Infinity is revealed. One walks upon a very fine edge; The power to discern Contains within itself  The power to delude. The mind is confusion; It is distortion. It cannot reflect What-Is. It can only taint it. It is a mirage, An illusory bridge between Awareness and its instrument. Everything rises and falls away. The source and the terminus are a single point. The wise call it Home.

Why, then, return to it for satisfaction? What needs to be known is not What the mind thinks. What needs to be known is That by which the mind thinks. Mind as mind knows no peace. Mind at peace is no mind at all. All experience is objective. That which experiences is the subject. You are That. The observation of the mind is The beginning of  The end of the mind. Until one becomes self-reflective, False appearances always hold the upper hand. Whereas Wu Hsin does not teach, Those that listen to Wu Hsin learn. Immortality is not dependent upon one’s ability to Extend one’s personal illusion indefinitely. It is dependent solely on one’s ability to transcend it. Being is Reality. Being this or that  is not. One’s view of the world is the same as a dream. It continues to seem real only as long as One remains asleep. The mind moves. Only the Unmovable can understand it In the same way that Only the Unchangeable can Understand change. Any path will seem difficult to One who holds expectations. In the absence of expectations, Where is the difficulty? Wu Hsin closes In summary: There is a single source, The Source or  Another name of your choosing. This world is a mere Emanation from the Source, The potential manifesting from The pure Potentiality,

Comprising tens of thousands of things. Beings are but one of the Tens of thousands of things. Sentient and discriminating Through whom The Source functions. This functioning, Beings have named Life. Each being, According to its nature Performs its allotted tasks During its time. One’s nature is not chosen, controlled  Nor decided upon. It is as it is intended to be. One goes through One’s life Choosing between the dualities; Good and bad Happy and sad Loving, hating Interacting with a seeming other. This is Life, Alternating between two banks of  A flowing river. Believing in their individuality, Beings suffer as they strive to Protect themselves from A world that is in flux every moment. How can they resist the changes of  The ever-changing? It is a journey Doomed to fail. Embracing change is Embracing What-is In every moment. It is saying “yes” To Life,  Not Life as one would have it But life as it is. It is understanding that There is no one Doing anything Other than The Doer  And that each is an actor  On the stage. The script is written The sets arranged. Watch the play, Enjoy it. Laugh, cry, But never make the story