The Book of Nothing

1.
The Great Way As long as you remain in one extreme or the other,
you will never know Oneness.
The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences. Those who do not live in the single Way
fail in both activity and passivity,
When love and hate are both absent assertion and denial.
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
3. Truth cannot be sought / Reality of things
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality;
to assert the emptiness of things
If you wish to see the truth is to miss their reality.
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
The more you talk and think about it,
To set up what you like against what you dislike the further astray you wander from the truth.
is the disease of the mind.
Stop talking and thinking
When the deep meaning of things is not understood and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
4. Return to the root / Ceases to hold openions
2. The way is perfect
To return to the root is to find the meaning,
The Way is perfect like vast space but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.
At the moment of inner enlightenment,
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
that we do not see the true nature of things.
The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
Be serene in the oneness of things we call real only because of our ignorance.
and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.
Do not search for the truth;
When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity only cease to cherish opinions.
your very effort fills you with activity.
Do not remain in the dualistic state;
avoid such pursuits carefully. 6. Strive to no goals / To live in great way
If there is even a trace To live in the Great Way

of this and that, of right and wrong, is neither easy nor difficult.
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.
But those with limited views
Although all dualities come from the One, are fearful and irresolute;
do not be attached even to this One.
the faster they hurry, the slower they go.
When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, Clinging cannot be limited;
nothing in the world can offend,
and when a thing can no longer offend, even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment
it ceases to exist in the old way. is to go astray.
When no discriminating thoughts arise, Just let things be in their own way
the old mind ceases to exist. and there will be neither coming nor going.
5. The unity of emptiness Obey the nature of things

and you will walk freely and undisturbed.
When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes, When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden,
and when the mind vanishes, objects vanish. for everything is murky and unclear.
Things are objects because there is a subject or mind; The burdensome practice of judging
and the mind is a subject because there are objects. brings annoyance and weariness.
Understand the relativity of these two What benefit can be derived

and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness. from distinctions and separations?
In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable If you wish to move in the One Way
and each contains in itself the whole world. do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine Indeed, to accept them fully
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion. is identical with true Enlightenment.
When all things are seen equally
The wise man strives to no goals the timeless Self-essence is reached.
but the foolish man fetters himself.
No comparisons or analogies are possible
There is one Dharma, not many; in this causeless, relationless state.
distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
8. Life in true faith / To this ultimate finality
To seek Mind with discriminating mind
is the greatest of all mistakes. Life in true faithConsider motion in stillness
and stillness in motion;
7. All dreams must cease / When all things are seen equally both movement and stillness disappear.
Rest and unrest derive from illusion; When such dualities cease to exist
with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking. Oneness itself cannot exist.
All dualities come from ignorant inference. To this ultimate finality

no law or description applies.
They are like dreams of flowers in air:
foolish to try to grasp them. For the unified mind in accord with the Way
all self-centered striving ceases.
Gain and loss, right and wrong;
such thoughts must finally be abolished at once. Doubts and irresolutions vanish
and life in true faith is possible.
If the eye never sleeps,
all dreams will naturally cease. With a single stroke we are freed from bondage;
nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.
If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things All is empty, clear, self-illuminating,
are as they are, of single essence. with no exertion of the mind's power.
To understand the mystery of this One-essence Here thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination are of no value.
is to be released from all entanglements.
9. Neither this nor that / In this world ot suchness
In this world of Suchness To live in this faith is the road to nonduality,
there is neither self nor other-than-self. because the nondual is one with the trusting mind.
To come directly into harmony with this reality Words!

just simply say when doubt arises, "Not two." The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is
In this "not two" nothing is separate, no yesterday
nothing is excluded. no tomorrow
no today.
No matter when or where,
enlightenment means entering this truth.
And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space;

in it a single thought is ten thousand years.
10. The way is beyond language
Emptiness here, Emptiness there,

but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.
Infinitely large and infinitely small;

no difference, for definitions have vanished
and no boundaries are seen.
So too with Being and non-Being.

Waste no time in doubts and arguments
that have nothing to do with this.
One thing, all things;

move among and intermingle,
without distinction.
To live in this realization

is to be without anxiety about nonperfection.

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1.

If there is even a trace To live in the Great Way

5. The unity of emptiness Obey the nature of things

Understand the relativity of these two What benefit can be derived

All dualities come from ignorant inference. To this ultimate finality

To come directly into harmony with this reality Words!

And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space;

10. The way is beyond language

Emptiness here, Emptiness there,

Infinitely large and infinitely small;

So too with Being and non-Being.

One thing, all things;

To live in this realization

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