Behind the Mind

by Wu Hsin

  Behind the Mind: The Short Discourses of Wu Hsin

  Translation by Roy Melvyn

  Behind the Mind: The Short Discourses of Wu Hsin

  Translation by Roy Melvyn

  Copyright 2012 Roy Melvyn

  Summa Iru Publishing

  Boulder. Colorado

  License Notes

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  Table of Contents

  Brief Background 5

  Translator’s Notes 7

  The Short Discourses, Part One 12

  Questions Answered 26

  The Short Discourses, Part Two 35

  More Questions Answered 213

  Brief Background

  It is widely believed that Wu Hsin was born during the Warring States Period (403-221 BCE), postdating the death of Confucius by more than one hundred years.

  This was a period during which the ruling house of Zhou had lost much of its authority and power, and there was increasing violence between states. This situation birthed “the hundred schools”, the flourishing of many schools of thought, each setting forth its own concepts of the prerequisites for a return to a state of harmony. The two most influential schools were that of Confucius and the followers of Mozi ("Master Mo"), the Mohists. The latter were critical of the elitist nature and extravagant behaviors of the traditional culture. The philosophical movement associated with the Daodejing also was emerging at this time. Wu Hsin's style of Daoist philosophy developed within the context defined by these three schools and appears to be most heavily influenced by that latter. In addition, it most clearly contains the seeds of what would become Ch’an Buddhism in China or Zen in Japan.

  Wu Hsin was born in a village called Meng, in the state of Song. The Pu River in which Wu Hsin was said to have fished was in the state of Chen which had become a territory of Chu. We might say that Wu Hsin was situated in the borderlands between Chu and the central plains—the plains centered around the Yellow River which were the home of the Shang and Zhou cultures. Certainly, as one learns more about the culture of Chu, one senses deep resonances with the aesthetic sensibility of the Daoists, and with Wu Hsin's style in particular.

  If the traditional dating is reliable, Wu Hsin would have been a contemporary of Mencius, but one is hard pressed to find any evidence that there was any communication between them. The philosopher Gao Ming, although not a Daoist, was a close friend and stories abound of their philosophical rivalries.

  Wu Hsin’s work was significant for Daoist religious practitioners who often took ideas and themes from it for their meditation practice, as an example, Sima Chengzhen's ‘Treatise on Sitting and Forgetting’ (ca. 660 C.E.).

  He offers a highly refined view of life and living. When he writes “Nothing appears as it seems”, he challenges the reader to question and verify every belief and every assumption.

  Brevity was the trademark of his writing style. Whereas his contemporaries were writing lengthy tomes, Wu Hsin’s style reflected his sense that words, too, were impediments to the attainment of Understanding; that they were only pointers and nothing more. He would use many of the same words over and over because he felt that people needed to hear words repeatedly, until the Understanding was louder than the words.

  His writings are filled with paradoxes, which cause the mind to slow down and, at times, to even stop. Reading Wu Hsin, one must ponder. However, it is not an active pondering, but a passive one, much in the same way as one puts something in the oven and lets it bake for a while.

  He repeatedly returns to three key points. First, on the phenomenal plane, when one ceases to resist What-Is and becomes more in harmony with It, one attains a state of Ming, or clear seeing. Having arrived at this point, all action becomes wei wu wei, or action without action (non-forcing) and there is a working in harmony with What-Is to accomplish what is required.

  Second, as the clear seeing deepens (what he refers to as the opening of the great gate), the understanding arises that there is no one doing anything and that there is only the One doing everything through the many and diverse objective phenomena which serve as Its instruments.

  From this flows the third and last: the seemingly separate me is a misapprehension, created by the mind which divides everything into pseudo-subject (me) and object (the world outside of this me). This seeming two-ness (dva in Sanskrit, duo in Latin, dual in English), this feeling of being separate and apart, is the root cause of unhappiness.

  The return to wholeness is nothing more than the end of this division. It is an apperception of the unity between the noumenal and the phenomenal in much the same way as there is a single unity between the sun and sunlight. Then, the pseudo-subject is finally seen as only another object while the true Subjectivity exists prior to the arising of both and is their source.

  Translator’s Notes

  As was customary of the time, a teacher’s discourses were usually transcribed by a disciple. The assignment of this task was rotated among disciples on a one-or-more lunar cycle basis without any consideration of the merit of the disciple. It may have been that the task was assigned to whomever Wu Hsin felt needed it the most. That is my speculation only.

  When I compare the content of the transcriptions to Wu Hsin’s concepts presented in The Lost Writings, they appear to be quite consistent.

  Material of this nature is not served well by language. It may seem that there are anomalies and contradictions. So, it is important to state that the translation of Wu Hsin’s words herein is not purely literal. Instead, it contains an interpretation of what was clearly implied, and this is where the limitation of words is quite evident.

  Compounding this problem, I have chosen to incorporate certain words into the translation which may appear to be incongruent relative to the time of Wu Hsin’s writing.

  The clearest example of this would be my use of the word ego which wasn’t to come into being for many of hundreds of years after Wu Hsin’s death.

  I have done this to best capture the real essence of the intention behind the word. The original Chinese word个人 (ge ren) means the individual. However, using the individual doesn’t capture the sense of separateness that is better conveyed by ego.

  The Sanskrit language also provides us with some marvelous insight. In it, the word for mind is manas, which translated literally means that which measures and compares. That says it pretty well. The Sanskrit word for ego is ahamkara; its translation is I am the doer. Within the context of Wu Hsin’s message, the conveyance of the idea of I am the doer is vitally important. As such, this and other small liberties that I have taken with the translation feel more than reasonable.

  These pages should not be read with haste; a page or two at a time is sufficient to allow for the content to sink in, as a thrown stone falls to the bottom of the lake.

  RM

  “Don't ask Wu Hsin to enter into your imagination.”

  “The world is not in need of improvement.

  Stated another way, the world is not the problem. All that's needed is to correct the perspective; not to manipulate, nor to prevent perceptions, thoughts or feelings, nor to avoid what is perceived or thought or felt in the world.

  When we stand detached from thinking mind, perceiving senses, doing body, happy/unhappy person, we gain right view.

  In that, all is well.”

  “You have been trained since infancy to direct your attention to what is temporary. Had anyone before revealed the Permanent to you, there would be no need to sit with Wu Hsin.

  Most people don't sit because they are afraid of what is revealed. The individuals fear that
they will lose their individuality, their identity. One could say that the love of Being is not yet greater than the love of being somebody............... or it could be said that the fear of the not yet known is far greater than the distaste for the known.

  Either way, "I'll pay any price" is suddenly shown to be a hollow offer.”

  “When you become clear that you are not this body, but that it is your instrument, then worries about death dissolve.

  In essence, death dies.”

  The Short Discourses, Part One

  The Master entered the Great Hall and began the season’s discourses with these words:

  Wu Hsin has not visited the abode of truth. Its address is unknown even to him.

  Therefore, the focus here is neither on seeking nor finding the truth. Rather, it is weeding out the lies. The discovery of truth is in the discernment of the false.

  Wu Hsin is helpless before you in that he cannot transform you into what you already are. In this sense, Wu Hsin bestows the greatest gift to you by informing you that you are not what you seem to be.

  This is nothing new; instead, it is the most ancient, transmitted through the silence. Silence is the most powerful instruction. It is the global solvent in which all doubts and questions dissolve. It is the silence that is eloquent.

  Wu Hsin's speaking is an interruption to the silence. The silence speaks far louder than any of his words

  As such, most of our time together is spent in this silence. For those not yet able to discern from the silence, Wu Hsin will offer a few words daily.

  However, be forewarned. Words consistently fail to express the ineffable. Every word approaches it and is then repelled back. More words fail further. Words produce concepts; many words produce many concepts.

  In that regard, Wu Hsin speaks minimally, making a point and leaving it up to the listener to allow the words to bask in silence and, in so doing, discern the deeper meaning.

  Don't attempt to understand. Don't deal with my words with the intellect; do not commit them to memory. Let the words pass through you, piercing through the mind and through the intellect and returning to their true source.

  Wu Hsin is not speaking person to person. Personage is not welcome in this hall. There is no transmission, there is no transmitter, and there is no receiver. You came here as an individual. If you leave as an individual, then you have gotten nothing.

  There is some thing which truly is no thing from which every thing is its expression.

  I am I, formless, yet appearing as me, with form.

  The body, its sensing systems, and the mind are all referenced via "I", that is, I act, I see, I think. These are Its agent, Its instrument.

  It is That which exists in and of itself, dependent on nothing, requiring nothing.

  It manifests as polarity.

  It is Noumenon and phenomena, the One and the Many, the eternal, unchanging, unconditioned juxtaposed with the time bound, changeful, conditioned.

  This is the framework which we will develop beginning tomorrow.

  With that, he rose and left the Hall.

  Today, the Master began:

  Most peoples' troubles are symptomatic of a deficiency disease, in this case, the lack of attention. Begin to pay attention and the troubles will go.

  The malady is the wrong identification with body, senses and mind, by which we appear bound and therefore unhappy. The remedy is to take your stand prior to the body, senses and mind, to pay attention to the knowing of them. This Knowing is Being and it is present. You are this Knowing Presence.

  The mind distorts the gross and overlooks the subtle. It creates a prism of desire and fear through which you create a picture. Can't you see that the representations it creates must be incomplete and incorrect?

  Yet, this is what you accept for truth. You believe you were born into a world. It is not so. Each of us creates a world for himself. You live in it, and complain about it.

  Your world is comprised of desires and the fulfillment of desires, of fears and the strategies of avoidance. Can't you see that it's your private world? It is little more than an artifact of mind.

  Once you see this madness, you are on the way out of it.

  See that you create the space in which the world moves, the time in which it lasts. Come to realize that the world is only sand. You may play with it, you may walk on it, but don't build your house there.

  There is no journey, as such. It may not seem so, but we are always back where we started. What we were in essence, and what we will be in essence, is what we are in essence.

  Ponder this; more tomorrow.

  The Master began:

  The world springs into view simultaneously with the seer of the world.

  There is no process of creation whereas there may be hypotheses of process.

  Dreams appear and disappear in like fashion.

  The only distinction between the two is duration.

  Recognizing the mind means that there is something apart from the mind that has cognized it before, and now has re-cognized it.

  The same applies to the body.

  All phenomena are recognized by that priormost principle which cannot be seen.

  That is all for today.

  The Master began:

  As one considers all the animals on this earth, one discerns that none are unhappy or dissatisfied other than humans.

  This is so because the human intellect purports to know how things "ought to be".

  Many pride themselves on their intellect not realizing that it is this very same intellect that makes it almost impossible to apperceive the true state of things.

  This explains why so many who claim to have an "intellectual understanding" of this subject matter remain ensnared by their illusions and delusions.

  Intellectual understanding is simply not enough. The flaw of intellect is operating within the distorted view of the world. As such, its output must likewise be distorted.

  Intuition, on the other hand, is innate Knowing and is therefore far superior to intellect.

  The lesson is that using the intellect to reach Understanding is like hiring a blind housepainter.

  Ponder this; more tomorrow.

  The Master began:

  When the viewpoint shifts from being an object to being the very Subject, how can anything take on importance?

  That which is truly spiritual is neither physical nor mental. It is that which cannot be confined to any particularized state, any location or any time.

  We come to see that there is only one illusion from which all the other illusions come.

  It is this: what we appear to be is a phenomenon.......... bound by time, finite and perceivable; whereas what we have been, are, and shall always be, is the noumenon — timeless, spaceless, nameless, formless.

  Noumenon manifests itself through endless numbers of forms which are created and destroyed every moment, and in this spontaneous functioning there is no place at all for the notion of any entity.

  In this regard, the world is not populated with countless entities.

  The world is One Entity; Its name is I.

  Ponder this; more tomorrow.

  Master said:

  All thinking is imaginary because the person talking to you is imaginary.

  There is no self talking to yourself; in fact, there also is no "yourself".

  Stay a time in silence.

  Do not accept these words; look for yourself for “yourself”.

  He then rose and left the Hall.

  The Master began:

  Arranging thoughts in a hierarchy of value, the ‘I’ thought is the first and all important thought.

  Within this structure, every subsequent thought becomes "mine".

  Following the "I" thought is the not-I thought, that is, thoughts of others and the world.

  As such, not-I or the world, is not independent. It requires "I"; therefore, when "I" is not, the world likewise is not.

  When the world, the not-I, is ignored, the m
ind by its very restlessness is obliged to look elsewhere.

  This elsewhere is inward, toward one's essence, "I".

  The end of the game lies here: he who eliminates everything that is not-I cannot eliminate the "I" as this "I" must be there to declare it. This "I" stands at the terminus of all paths.

  It is inviolate.

  To one whose eyes are clouded, "I" is limited to the body and the mind.

  To the clear, "I" is all.