The Mind of Absolute Trust

The Great Way isn’t difficult for those who are unattached to their preferences.
Let go of longing and aversion, and everything will be perfectly clear.
When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart.
If you want to realize the truth, don’t be for or against.
The struggle between good and evil is the primal disease of the mind.
Not grasping the deeper meaning, you just trouble your mind’s serenity.
As vast as infinite space, it is perfect and lacks nothing.
But because you select and reject, you can’t perceive its true nature.
Don’t get entangled in the world; don’t lose yourself in emptiness.
Be at peace in the oneness of thing, and all errors will disappear by themselves.

Translation: Stephen Mitchell

Seng-Ts’an (?- 606) is known as the Third Chinese Patriarch of Chan (Zen). He was reputed to be a devotee and specialist in the study of the Lankavatara Sutra which taught the primacy of consciousness and the teaching of consciousness as the only reality. In the sutra the Buddha asserts that all objects of the world, and the names and forms of experience, are merely manifestations of the mind. Because the world is seen as “mind-only” all phenomena are void and illusory.

My daily affairs are quite ordinary;
But I’m in total harmony with them.
I don’t hold on to anything, don’t reject anything;
Nowhere an obstacle or conflict.
Who cares about wealth and honor?
Even the poorest thing shines.
My miraculous power and spiritual activity:
Drawing water and carrying wood.

Translation: Stephen Mitchell

Layman Pang (740-808) was a celebrated lay Buddhist in the Chan tradition and is considered a model of a non-monastic follower of the Buddhist life. In 808, after many years of travel in southern China, Pang became ill in Xiangzhou. His last words were spoken to the governor of Xiangzhou, who had come to inquire about his health: “I ask that you regard everything that is as empty, nor give substance to that which has none. Farewell. The world is like reflections and echoes.”

Our two poets are approximately 200 years apart yet are stating the same teaching – that what we consider to be ‘reality’ is a projection of our own consciousness. Any thoughts that arise in judging this reality are also insubstantial. If all is illusion, then any preferences or judgments we may have regarding ‘what is’ are not only unnecessary but foolish, leading to disquiet and suffering. If this life is but a dream why be attached to the outcome?

Seng-Ts’an advises us not to “get entangled in the world; don’t lose yourself in emptiness.” These are the two extremes – living for materialism and living for spirituality – both ultimately also aspects of illusion. Pang suggests the best way to live under these circumstances is “Drawing water and carrying wood”; in other words, to be very ‘ordinary,’ very simple, to surrender to the Mind of Absolute Trust and “all errors will disappear by themselves.”