Inscription on Faith in Mind

至道無難唯嫌揀擇但莫憎愛

The Supreme Way is not difficult; it only fears your picking and choosing. As long as you give rise to no hatred or love,

洞然明白毫釐有差天地懸隔

it will naturally be perfectly clear. If there is a hair's breadth of difference, heaven and earth are set apart.

欲得現前莫存順逆違順相爭

If you want it to appear right now, do not hold to ideas of agreement or opposition. When opposition and agreement contend within the mind,

是為心病不識玄旨徒勞念靜

this is the sickness of the mind. Not recognizing the profound principle, and merely striving for quiet, is wasted effort.

圓同太虛無欠無餘良由取捨

The Way is complete like great emptiness, lacking nothing and exceeding nothing. It is precisely because you grasp and reject

所以不如莫逐有緣勿住空忍

that you are not in accord with it. Do not chase after conditions at hand, and do not rest in the realm of "emptiness" as if at ease.

一種平懷泯然自盡止動歸止

Hold to the oneness of equality, and distinctions will vanish of themselves. Trying to use stopping to halt movement,

止更彌動唯滯兩邊寧知一種

this "stopping" only adds more movement. As long as you linger on the two sides of movement and stillness, how can you understand the one taste of equality?

一種不通兩處失功遣有沒有

If you do not pass through the gate of equality, you waste your effort on both sides, movement and stillness. Wanting to expel "being" only plunges you into being;

從空背空多言多慮轉不相應

wanting to follow "emptiness" only turns you away from emptiness. The more you speak and the more you think, the less you are in accord.

絕言絕慮無處不通歸根得旨

Cut off speech and cut off thought, and there is no place that is not penetrated. Returning to the root, you gain the principle;

隨照失宗須臾返照勝卻前空

pursuing outward illumination, you lose the source. In a single moment of turning the light around, you surpass the emptiness you clung to before.

前空轉變皆由妄見不用求真

The changes of that former emptiness all come from deluded views. There is no need to seek the true;

唯須息見二見不住慎勿追尋

simply put an end to your views. Do not abide in either of two opposing views, and be sure not to go searching after them.

才有是非紛然失心二由一有

The moment right and wrong arise, the mind is thrown into confusion and loses its original nature. "Two" appears only because of "one,"

一亦莫守一心不生萬法無咎

so do not even hold on to this "one." When a single thought does not arise, the myriad things are naturally without fault.

無咎無法不生不心能隨境滅

Without fault there is no dharma to cling to; with no thought arising, there is no mind that clings. The knowing mind perishes along with the known object,

境逐能沈境由能境能由境能

and the known object sinks away along with the knowing mind. An object is an object because of the mind; a mind is a mind because of the object.

欲知兩段元是一空一空同兩

Know that these two halves, subject and object, are originally one emptiness. This one emptiness runs through both sides,

齊含萬像不見精麁寧有偏黨

and equally embraces all phenomena; if it makes no distinction between the fine and the coarse, how could there be any partiality?

大道體寬無易無難小見狐疑

The substance of the Great Way is vast; it cannot be called easy or difficult. Those of narrow views are full of doubt,

轉急轉遲執之失度心入邪路

and the more hurried they are, the slower they go. Clinging to it, you lose your measure, and the mind walks a crooked path.

放之自然體無去住任性合道

Let go and let it be natural; its substance has no coming, going or abiding. Follow your nature and you accord with the Way,

逍遙絕惱繫念乖真沈惛不好

free and at ease, cutting off affliction. Binding yourself to thoughts goes against reality, and sinking into drowsiness is no good either.

不好勞神何用疎親欲趣一乘

Since it is no good, why still toil in spirit to counteract it, and why distinguish distant from close? If you wish to head toward the One Vehicle,

勿惡六塵六塵不惡還同正覺

do not loathe the six sense objects: form, sound, smell, taste, touch and mental objects. If you do not loathe the six sense objects, they are no different from right awakening.

智者無為愚人自縛法無異法

The wise have nothing they contrive, while fools bind themselves. Between one dharma and another there is originally no difference;

妄自愛著將心用心豈非大錯

it is you who deludedly give rise to craving and attachment. To use one mind to counteract another mind, is that not a great mistake?

迷生寂亂悟無好惡一切二邊

Only when deluded do the distinctions of stillness and distraction arise; once awakened, there is no good or bad. All pairs of opposites

妄自斟酌夢幻空華何勞把捉

are measured out by yourself in random fashion. Since they are dreams, illusions, flowers in the sky, why strain to grasp them?

得失是非一時放卻眼若不眠

Gain and loss, right and wrong, let them all go together. If the eyes do not fall asleep,

諸夢自除心若不異萬法一如

all dreams naturally vanish. If the mind makes no distinctions, the myriad dharmas are all one Suchness.

一如體玄兀爾忘緣萬法齊觀

The substance of this one Suchness is profound; one abides in stillness, forgetting all clinging. Seeing the myriad dharmas as equal,

歸復自然泯其所以不可方比

you return to original naturalness. Even the principle of "why it is so" is erased together, and that state has nothing to compare with.

止動無動動止無止兩既不成

Using stopping to halt movement, in fact there is no movement to halt; using movement to break stopping, in fact there is no stopping to break. Since movement and stopping both fail to hold,

一何有爾究竟窮極不存軌則

how could that "one" still be spoken of? Pushed to the utmost, not even rules and standards remain.

啟心平等所作俱息狐疑盡淨

When the mind opens there is equality, and all contrivance comes to rest. Doubts are swept completely clean,

正信調直一切不留無可記憶

and right faith becomes harmonious and upright. Nothing is retained, so there is nothing to be concerned about.

虛明自然不勞心力非思量處

Open, clear and bright, natural and spontaneous, needing no effort of mind. It is not a place that thinking can reach,

識情難測真如法界無他無自

nor can it be measured by the discriminating mind and emotional views. In the true Dharma realm of Suchness, there is neither other nor self.

要急相應唯言不二不二皆同

If you want to be quickly in accord, you can only say "not two." Since it is not two, all things are the same,

無不包容十方智者皆入此宗

and there is nothing that is not included. The wise of the ten directions all enter into this principle.

宗非促延(一念萬年萬年一念)無在不在

This principle has neither brevity nor length. (The source text here carries an interlinear note, "one thought is ten thousand years, ten thousand years is one thought," a small-character note in the original book, recorded here along with the text.) It is not in any one place, and there is no place where it is not.

十方目前極小同大妄絕境界

The worlds of the ten directions are right before your eyes. The extremely small is the same as the extremely large, because once the deluded mind is cut off, the boundaries of realms no longer exist.

極大同小不見邊表有即是無

The extremely large is the same as the extremely small, and no edges or outward appearances are seen. Being is non-being,

無即是有若不如是必不須守

and non-being is being. If you cannot reach such a view, then there is no need to hold on stubbornly.

一即一切一切即一但能如是

One is everything, and everything is one. If you can only be like this,

何慮不畢信心不二不二信心

what is there to worry about, that things will not be finished? Faith in mind is itself non-duality, and non-duality is itself faith in mind.

言語道斷非去來今

Here the path of words is cut off; it does not belong to any time, whether past, future or present.