Third Patriarch of Zen
2/20

If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for, or against, anything.

To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood, the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
3/20

The Way is perfect, like vast space where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things.

Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in inner feelings of emptiness.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
4/20

Be serene in the oneness of things, and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity, your very effort fills you with activity.

As long as you remain in one extreme or the other, you will never know Oneness.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
5/20

Those who do not live in the single Way fail in both activity and passivity, assertion and denial.

To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality; to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality.

The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you wander from the truth.

Stop talking and thinking, and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
6/20

To return to the root is to find the meaning, but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.

At the moment of inner enlightenment, there is going beyond appearance and emptiness.

The changes that appear to occur in the empty world we call real only because of our ignorance.

Do not search for the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
7/20

Do not remain in the dualistic state; avoid such pursuits carefully.

If there is even a trace of this and that, of right and wrong, the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.

Although all dualities come from the One, do not be attached even to this One.

When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, nothing in the world can offend, and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
8/20

When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist.

When thought-objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes, as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.

Things are objects because of the subject (mind); the mind (subject) is such because of things (objects).

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Third Patriarch of Zen
9/20

Understand the relativity of these two and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.

In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable and each contains, in itself, the whole world.

If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine, you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
10/20

To live in the great Way is neither easy nor difficult, but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute; the faster they hurry, the slower they go.

And clinging (attachment) cannot be limited.

Even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.

Just let things be in their own way, and there will be neither coming nor going.

Obey the nature of things your own nature and you will walk freely and undisturbed.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
11/20

When thought is in bondage, the truth is hidden, for everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness.

What benefit can be derived from distinctions and separation?

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Third Patriarch of Zen
12/20

If you wish to move in the one Way, do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.

Indeed, to accept them fully is identical with true enlightenment.

The wise man strives to no goals, but the foolish man fetters himself.

There is one Dharma, not many; distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.

To seek Mind with the (discriminating) mind is the greatest of all mistakes.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
13/20

Rest and unrest derive from illusion; with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.

All dualities come from ignorant inference.

They are like dreams or flowers in air; foolish to try to grasp them.

Gain and loss, right and wrong; such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
14/20

If the eye never sleeps, all dreams will naturally cease.

If the mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence.

To understand the mystery of this One-essence is to be released from all entanglements.

When all things are seen equally, the timeless Self-essence is reached.

No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relationless state.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
15/20

Consider movement stationary, and the stationary in motion; both movement and rest disappear.

When such dualities cease to exist, Oneness itself cannot exist.

To this ultimate finality no law or description applies.

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Third Patriarch of Zen
16/20

For the unified mind in accord with the Way, all self-centered striving ceases.

Doubts and irresolutions vanish, and life in true faith is possible.

With a single stroke we are freed from bondage; nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.

All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind's power.

Here thought, feeling, knowledge and imagination are of no value.

In this world of Suchness, there is neither self nor other-than-self.