Keeping an Ordinary Mind in an Impermanent World

Knowing all appearances are not appearances, yet wishing to be passionless while still feeling.

— Li Shenzhi

Nothing but heart-rending pain can crush the four maras; nothing but gut-breaking sorrow can extinguish the five poisons. The eight sufferings of life—birth, old age, illness, death, parting from those we love, meeting the hateful, not getting what we seek, and the burning of the five skandhas—only after each has been fully tasted can the afflictions of the world be gathered up and annihilated. But if even one suffering has not been fully tasted, there remains one more attachment.

He who can finish off the affliction-thieves in a single campaign must long have been tempered by hardship. Suppressing the bandits in the hills is easy; suppressing the bandits in the heart is hard. For the bandits in the hills are outsiders, while the bandits in the heart are oneself.

Drive a broken horse into a narrow gorge and force it to break out, and it may become a fine steed. Place a dull, slow person in a desperate situation, and his mind may suddenly open. Therefore affliction itself is bodhi, and hardship is provisioning; the towering trees of joy mostly grow in the soil of pain.

An impermanent world, sentient beings with feeling. Living in the world, one cannot be without feeling. Toward feeling: when you take it up, be able to take it up; when you put it down, be able to put it down. When you can hold it, hold it and do not let go; when you cannot hold it, let it go and do not grasp. Only thus will you not be trapped by feeling.

Fame, rank, and salary—those that come by following nature: when they arrive, do not refuse; when gained, do not cling; when lost, do not grieve. Those seized by force mostly go against one's nature and bring endless future trouble; hard to hold even when gained, it is better not to seek them at all.

Life and death are one. To be free of birth and death, one must regard death as one regards birth. While living, rejoice in living; while dying, rejoice in dying. While living, do not seek death; while dying, do not long for life. In the vast universe and the boundless earth, which place is not my home? The myriad things neither come nor go; coming and going lie only within the mind.

When in the human world there is no longer a "me," where then is my suffering? All appearances are not appearances; there is neither truth nor illusion, floating without a single thing, changing in an instant. Even if one wished to attach, what is there to grasp?

In an impermanent world—infatuated mind, deluded mind, greedy mind, angry mind, fearful mind, comparing mind, vain mind, world-weary mind... of all these minds, none compares with an ordinary mind.

Eating, drinking, defecating, urinating, sleeping—do what is to be done when it is to be done; firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea—buy whatever is lacking. Life after awakening is no more than this: not one thing added, not one thing taken away, only that not the least affliction remains in the heart.

When conditions come, cherish them; when blessing comes, cherish it. Do not waste, do not trample, do not destroy, do not cling, do not force.

In all matters, do your best on the cause, and leave the fruit to conditions. Do not demand that everything go as you wish; only seek that your heart be without blame. A straight heart is the bodhimanda; honest speech is the Dharma. If the spirit mountain is within the heart, why seek it without?

Loving-kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity; accord with all beings. Neither enter the dusty world nor leave it. Share joy with the ordinary; blend light with the dust. Transcendent beyond things, yet dwelling only within the heart.

Look lightly on birth, old age, illness, and death; lay down love, hate, passion, and enmity. Do not covet glory and wealth; do not depart from the masses of ordinary people.

Compassion can relieve the suffering of the people; wondrous wisdom well unravels all doubt; a broad belly can contain the affairs of the world; the supreme vow at last becomes the bodhi heart.

Thinking in this way, one gradually attains liberation.