On Believing in Mind
By Seng Ts’an
Translated by D. T. Suzuki
Narrated by Denis Daly.
This enigmatic poem is attributed to Seng-t’san, the third Chinese patriarch of Zen, who died in 606 CE.
The tone of the work is revealed in the opening stanza:
The Perfect Way knows no difficulties
Except that it refuses to make preferences;
Only when freed from hate and love,
It reveals itself fully and without disguise;
The patriarch recommends dynamic introspection as the ideal attitude in solving the apparent problems of life. He urges the seeker neither to become trapped in the “outer entanglements of life” nor to isolate himself in solitude, but to remain calm in the procession of personal vicissitudes, seeing the essential oneness of all things.
