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Solving Yourself

Page 11

by Wu Hsin

26

  Manifestation arises out of Being, Source.

  What arises from Source cannot be anything separate from Source nor can it be other than Source.

  "Other" cannot exist until you exist.

  The world cannot exist unless you do.

  All thought finds its support in the I-thought. Subsequent thought ensues from it.

  This is the root of mind.

  27

  Teachings are many whereas true knowers of teachings are few.

  Laundering is the removal of dirt from cloth.

  Investigation is the removal of the false from What-Is.

  When every "this" has been removed, That is what remains.

  What could be more simple to understand?

  28

  The I-thought is the scent of the Conscious Life Energy.

  When the scent is followed back to its source, the self-consciousness returns to consciousness and the “me” returns to I.

  It is the end of fragmentation.

  It can be found in the space between two thoughts.

  When the thought flow is slowed, the space is more readily perceived.

  29

  Seeing through the mind is like trying to study the ocean.

  When it is turbulent and frothy, it is difficult to see clearly.

  But when it is calm, it reveals itself.

  Only when the mind is not turbulent, then understanding can ensue.

  30

  To renounce the world of wealth and position is a comparatively simple matter in relation to putting aside the craving to become.

  All effort to control is suppression.

  This, too, applies to your efforts to control the pace of your enlightenment. Your efforts to bring it about only delay it.

  You are sitting in the audience watching the play of life onstage.

  What effort do you need to make in order for the play to continue?

  31

  What is added to wood to make it a stick?

  Form is added to substance, to essence.

  In the same way, all forms are merely additions to Essence.

  What can be separate from it?

  November (Jiǔ Yuè)

  1

  It is not in the eating of the grass that the buffalo receives nourishment.

  It is in the digestion.

  Likewise with the words of Wu Hsin.

  Hearing is not enough.

  Digestion is required.

  2

  You can go north to obtain it.

  You can go south to obtain it.

  You can go east to obtain it.

  You can go west to obtain it.

  Or you can be still and let it come to you.

  3

  Mind is consciousness in movement and precedes all mental states.

  As the finger cannot touch itself, the mind cannot know the mind.

  When you set aside time to forget yourself, remembering happens.

  The planting of trees in mist ceases.

  4

  A lake filled with lilies makes it difficult to observe the fish.

  Likewise, when one is aswirl with thoughts, one cannot discern what underlies thought.

  Wu Hsin can place the rice in your mouth.

  But you have to eat it.

  5

  There is the human psychosomatic complex, comprised of a physical body with its five cognitive sense organs, as well as the mind, intellect, ego, and sense consciousness.

  It's all a temporal appearance.

  It is not the seer. It is the instrument of the Seeing.

  View every instant from what is the ever-constant, not from the temporary.

  The more frequently you do this, the easier and the more natural it becomes.

  Affirm that you are the cause of the perception of all that is, the Conscious Life Energy which experiences all experience.

  6

  A belief is an unverified idea.

  They are used to provide security in what is perceived as an unstable world.

  The absence of the requirement of verification provides belief with great latitude and our beliefs become like idols that we worship.

  However, in your coming together with Wu Hsin in this present moment, you have the option to choose either the real or idolatry.

  7

  As thread is the basis of all cloth, consciousness is the basis of all appearance.

  Like salt dissolves in water, appearances gross and subtle dissolve in consciousness.

  It is the cause of your feeling alive.

  It is formless; once form is assigned to it, it is limited.

  It is the father of the mind and its three phases waking, dreaming and sleep pass over it.

  8

  Wu Hsin is rarely consistent.

  People who start from different places need different instructions to get to the same destination.

  Even if it rains twenty-four hours a day, if the soil is sterile, nothing grows.

  Blame Wu Hsin if you choose, for what has not arisen in you. Wu Hsin is unmoved.

  Till the soil; prepare it well and see what happens.

  9

  Thoughts and words, create distinctions and, hence, duality.

  Even the simple act of naming something creates duality because it distinguishes the thing that is named from all other things that are left unnamed.

  All distinctions are imaginary; the Ultimate Reality is therefore non-dual. While this Ultimate Reality constitutes the true nature of everything, in Itself, It is no thing.

  Although it is not a thing, this emptiness or no-thingness is not a mere vacuum or void. It is radiant with the Light of Pure Consciousness.

  When distinctions such as subject and object, I and other, self and world are taken to be real, one loses sight of the Ultimate Reality and experience delusion which is the cause of all our seeming suffering.

  In the absence of separate selves, one’s True Nature is Consciousness Itself.

  Although the truth of one's unity with Ultimate Reality cannot be grasped by thought, all agree that it can be realized via an apperception which bypasses the thinking mind altogether. This, in turn, brings freedom from suffering and death.

  10

  Those who adhere to mind control have missed the mark.

  Like wind is the movement of energy through air, mind is another movement of energy.

  Spontaneous movements of energy may be controlled for periods of time.

  But ultimately, energy will not be restrained.

  11

  The authentic-I is the totality of What-Is.

  Psychological thought is its obscuration, its veil.

  The mind may have many problems.

  Yet, none of them are yours.

  12

  Wu Hsin will waste neither your time nor your energy.

  Therefore, there shall not be any examining of the things that are to be behind.

  Nor will there be preoccupation with attainment of what is already attained.

  Likewise, there will be no attention given to the destruction of the non-existent.

  Last, the system will not take preeminence over the goal.

  13

  The sense of "I" is natural and common to all, but few care to enquire into the actual nature of this "I".

  Instead, it is taken for granted and empirical phrases such as "I came", "I went", "I did" or "I was" are employed.

  What is this "I"?

  It is not difficult to see that the body is not "I". It did not exist before birth and will not survive death; in deep sleep, there is no bodily consciousness.

  Even while waking there is awareness that one has a body and therefore one cannot be the body.

  What is more difficult is to see that the mind or ego is not "I", but a superimposition on it.

  14

  Only that which has been created needs to be maintained in order to avoid destruction.

  Ego is such a maintenance-driven creation. Therefore, all efforts to be rid
of ego merely reinforce the sense of identification with it, thus maintaining it.

  Just stop. You can always re-start.

  Stop what you are doing and stop what you are not doing.

  Now see what remains.

  15

  Wu Hsin demands only correct interpretation of subject and object, substance and function, host and guest, emperor and minister, with their integration into the Undivided Whole, which is inclusive of both and from which both spring.

  This is not a process.

  Becoming is a process.

  Being is not.

  16

  Authentic understanding needs no preparation; preparation implies time, and time is not the means of understanding.

  Insofar as one remains in the mindset of "becoming", one can never realize what one already is.

  Even in seeing the false as false, that which sees the false remains true.

  What one is is without continuity, not progressing, not growing, not becoming.

  One can step from the river of becoming onto the shore of being at any point.

  The only requirement is silence, total silence.

  17

  All identification is the subtle attempt to fill the sense of nothingness with something.

  Wu Hsin says that you are confused because you have taken yourself to be the roles that you play.

  The sum of the roles is the so-called "me.

  However, because one can experience "me", one cannot be "me". One must be prior to "me".

  This "me" is a structure, a construction of psychological memory in the attempt to create a sense of continuity to what is, in fact, discontinuous.

  18

  To be an authority one must be free of authority.

  Authority depends on a direct seeing, experience or insight and not on the philosophies or experiences of others.

  Wu Hsin is one such authority.

  Therefore, to become an authority, one must free oneself from Wu Hsin.

  19

  The state of dream seems real.

  The state of wakefulness seems real.

  Each negates the reality of the other.

  Therefore, one cannot discern the reality of a state from inside that state.

  Any further talk is therefore mere philosophy.

  20

  All seeking is a movement away from What-Is.

  That thing which is timeless cannot be experienced.

  There is only that which is not nameable, unspeakable.

  Words, the voice of the mind, cannot touch it.

  The relative cannot result in the Absolute.

  However, it can veil it.

  21

  Like a flame has the two properties of light and heat, this Energy has the two properties of Being and Consciousness.

  The liquid in a peacock egg is colorless, but the colors of the peacock plumage are many. It contains in it the potential for variety.

  This Conscious Life Energy is all that is plus Being, in the same way as "me" means the individual plus Being, and the world means variety plus Being.

  The Conscious Life Energy is already attained, it can be recognized in an instant.

  It is not something that you have to seek, reach or discover.

  22

  If all that is done is to add Wu Hsin's words to your collection of concepts, your time has been wasted.

  It is his contention that the easiest way is to totally accept these words and then live accordingly.

  Yet, there are few willing to do this; they instead want proofs.

  However, they remain unclear as to what proofs will satisfy.

  When will it end?

  23

  The Source of all things is inside all things, contains them all as the One in all and the all in the One, but remains unaffected by them.

  Understand that the field of matter is an appearance in the field of mind and the field of mind is an appearance in Consciousness.

  It is an illusion if you believe that it is in some way separate from consciousness.

  24

  On whatever plane the mind happens to act, it creates a body for itself.

  In the physical world, a physical body appears.

  In the dream world, a dream body arises.

  When these bodies are gone, the consciousness continues.

  Regardless of how long a body lasts, it is nothing more than the clothing of the Conscious Life Energy.

  25

  You presume that there is a distinct "I", and then ask what it is.

  You ask "Who am I?", but is there one?

  It all begins with Is-ness.

  There is just being, Is-ness, not as I, he, it or anything.

  You then differentiate it by the use of pronouns: I, he, you, it, and by "this" and "that". That's where all the difficulty comes in.

  Confront the questioner.

  Where did the questioner arise from? Clearly, it is not constant.

  26

  Wu Hsin is the immobile center of a circumference on whose contours all things roll.

  He is a singular infinity, neither this nor that, neither yes nor no.

  He has passed beyond all the distinctions inherent in the outward point of view and stands unchallenged.

  In as much as his nature is whole, neither any being nor any world can harm him.

  What he has, he wants for you.

  What must become clear, then, is that I, you, he, she, it, we and they are all That.

  27

  What is thinking other than silent talking?

  Tens of thousands of thoughts appear every day.

  Is the one who is talking different from the one who is hearing?

  28

  Can you discern that nothing will make you more of what you already are? Is there any need to make water wetter?

  Is there really a person, who from an inside experiences something outside itself, or is there only experiencing wherein the person is the experience?

  Even the most cursory inquiry reveals the obvious: the presence of the Conscious Life Energy.

  Let your attention rest there.

  29

  Perfection is discerned in the instant that one releases all notions of what it's supposed to look like.

  There is never a problem in the outside world. All problems are in the mind.

  The mind is like the moon, it only shines by reflected light.

  When the attention remains fixed on Him, the light source, the mind and its machinations becomes immaterial.

  30

  Immortality is not dependent on the ability to extend the personal illusion indefinitely, but on our ability to transcend the illusion.

  All there is is essence and substance, that-ness and what-ness.

  It could be said that substance is objectified essence.

  Every thing that you are conscious of is of Consciousness.

  31

  The reality of life is that the weed that does not fight for sunlight dies.

 

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