Living in unity

There was a student who after many years of meditation, rituals and temple visits asked the master, “Master, I have been following your lessons for years, practice consistently and stick to all the rules of life you have imposed. Maybe something has changed in me, but it didn’t bring me enlightenment. Are all the things you prescribe really necessary to attain enlightenment?”

The master replied, “Most among us find something in it to hold on to and that is good, but if you put it like that, really necessary for enlightenment, no they are not.”

“But then, what is it, master, please tell me,” the student asked.
“One day of not judging should be enough to be taken up into unity completely,” the master replied.

Only one day! That doesn’t seem too difficult. One day making no distinction at all between what is and that which I want. Not in words, not in thought and not in emotion. Just try.

There is a famous but forgotten poem from ancient China.
It is attributed to Sengtsan and it is called: Hsin hsin ming. Meaning more or less: “Presence of mind”

The first stanzas go as follows :

The perfect path is not hard
For those who don’t know preferences.
Everything is completely and plainly revealed
To those who are free from love and hatred.

Don’t get entangled in the multitude of things
No more turn Emptiness into a place of security.
Find peace in the unity of existence
And every distinction disappears automatically.

Whoever tries to find peace
By stopping movement
Will unabatedly remain a source of restlessness.
As long as you choose one part of the opposites the experience of the whole will never fall to you.

Whoever is awake does not become prey to dreams
when the awareness doesn’t cause a difference, the thousand and one things appear as they are:
one and single essence.Whoever knows the mystery of this unique identity,
Is freed from all confusion.

Whoever witnesses unity in its diversity with equanimity,
And the diversity in its unity,
Returns to the original place
Where he or she lives from time immemorial.

In this “not two” all comes together.
All that is is welcome and embraced.
So the wise see the world
Wherever they live.

The Hsin hsin ming was probably written in the early 7th century of our era. 1400 years ago – but how relevant to our time!