Partial views are irresolute and insecure,
Now at a gallop, now lagging in the rear.
Clinging to this or to that beyond measure
The heart trusts to bypaths that lead it astray.
Let things take their own course; know that the Essence will neither go nor stay;
Let your nature blend with the Way and wander in it free from care.
Thoughts that are fettered turn from Truth,
Sink into the unwise habit of "not liking."
"Not liking" brings weariness of spirit; estrangements serve no purpose.
If you want to follow the doctrine of the One, do not rage against the World of the Senses.
Only by accepting the World of the Senses can you share in the True Perception.
Those who know most, do least; folly ties its own bonds.
In the Dharma there are no separate dharmas, only the foolish cleave
To their own preferences and attachments.
To use Thought to devise thoughts, what more misguided than this?
Ignorance creates Rest and Unrest; Wisdom neither loves nor hates.
All that belongs to the Two Extremes is inference falsely drawn-
Comment: Holding to wrong views and following what the heart wants to do when it is not at rest, lead to side paths. The senses are not steadfast without stillness and emptiness. The verses also touch on how not to tire the spirit and on self cultivation. (Compare similarities with The Secret of the Golden Flower.)
A dream-phantom, a flower in the air. Why strive to grasp it in the hand?
"Is" and "Isn't," gain and loss banish once for all:
If the eyes do not close in sleep there can be no evil dreams;
If the mind makes no distinctions all Dharmas become one.
Let the One with its mystery blot out all memory of complications.
Let the thought of the Dharmas as All-One bring you to the So-in-itself.
Thus their origin is forgotten and nothing is left to make us pit one against the other.
Regard motion as though it were stationary, and what becomes of motion?
Treat the stationary as though it moved, and that disposes of the stationary.
Both these having thus been disposed of, what becomes of the One?
At the ultimate point, beyond which you can go no further,
You get to where there are no rules, no standards,
To where thought can accept Impartiality,
To where effect of action ceases,
Doubt is washed away, belief has no obstacle.
Nothing is left over, nothing remembered;
Space is bright, but self-illumined; no power of mind is exerted.
Nor indeed could mere thought bring us to such a place.
Nor could sense or feeling comprehend it.
It is the Truly-so, the Transcendent Sphere, where there is neither He nor I.
For swift converse with this sphere use the concept "Not Two;"
In the "Not Two" are no separate things, yet all things are included.
Comment: What to expect and seen during meditation.
The wise throughout the Ten Quarters have had access to this Primal Truth;
For it is not a thing with extension in Time or Space;
A moment and an aeon for it are one.
Whether we see it for fail to see it, it is manifest always and everywhere.
The very small is as the very large when boundaries are forgotten;
The very large is as the very small when its outlines are not seen.
Being is an aspect of Non-being; Non-being is an aspect of Being.
In climes of thought where it is not so the mind does ill to dwell.
The One is none other than the All, the All none other than the One.
Take your stand on this, and the rest will follow of its own accord;
To trust in the Heart is the Not Two, the Not Two is to trust in the Heart.
I have spoken, but in vain; for what can words tell
Of things that have no yesterday, tomorrow or today?
Comment: The wise throughout the world can access the Center where there is no time and space. Therefore trust in the Heart (Hsin) leads to the Center. (Also note the similarities with some chapters in the TTC.)
Seng-t'san is indeed wise.
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