Qingjing Jing
Purity and Tranquillity Scripture
The qingjing jing is a very short (391 characters) but popular Taoist text of unknown authorship, dating from the fist half of the Tang dynasty (618 - 906 CE). It is included in the Taoist Canon (daozang) under the full title of Tai-shang Lao-chun shou chang ching-ching miao ching, also abbreviated as Ching-ching miao-ching. Several commentaries were written on it, the earliest by Tu Kung-ting; others by Pai Yu-chan of the Sung dynasty (960 - 1279 CE) and Li Tao-tsun of the Yuan period (1271 - 1368 CE).
Because the present text has a postface written by Ko Hsuan, he is sometimes considered to be the author. But because of the inner criticism (analysis of the contents) it is quite certain that the small scripture could not have been written before the Six Dynasties (420 - 589 CE). The main argument is heavy reliance on Buddhist ideas.
The main theme is how to gain "purity" (qing) and "tranquillity" (ching). If a person's mind is able to rid itself of all desires, the mind will become tranquil; if the mind can be settled, the spirit will spontaneously become clean. Then the six desires will not arise, and the three poisons will be destroyed. Through inner vision into one's mind, one realises the no-mind; through outer vision of the body, one realises the no-body; by looking at these things from a distance, one realizes the no-thing condition. If one understands these three, one only sees "emptiness" as the nature of reality; then all delusions and defilements disappear and one reaches the state of everlasting purity and tranquillity.
This short text, as popular among Taoists as the Heart Sutra among Buddhists, is often used in recitation, and is still often reprinted for free distribution, together with a short commentary. It is important in Taoist spirituality.
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Translation
The Great Tao has no form;
It brings forth and raises heaven and earth.
The Great Tao has no feelings;
It regulates the course of the sun and the moon.
The Great Tao has no name;
It raises and nourishes the myriad beings.
I do not know its name —
So I call it Tao.
The Tao can be pure or turbid, moving or tranquil.
Heaven is pure, earth is turbid;
Heaven is moving, earth is tranquil.
The male is moving, the female is tranquil.
Descending from the origin,
Flowing toward the end,
The myriad beings are being born.
Purity — the source of turbidity.
Movement — the root of tranquillity.
Always be pure and tranquil;
Heaven and earth
Return to the primordial.
The human spirit is fond of purity,
But the mind disturbs it.
The human mind is fond of tranquillity,
But desires meddle with it.
Get rid of desires for good,
And the mind will be calm.
Cleanse your mind,
And the spirit will be pure.
Naturally the six desires won't arise,
The three poisons are destroyed.
Whoever cannot do this
Has not yet cleansed his mind,
His desires are not yet driven out.
Those who have abandoned their desires:
Observe your mind by introspection —
And see there is no mind.
Then observe the body,
Look at yourself from without —
And see there is no body.
Then observe others by glancing out afar —
And see there are no beings.
Once you have realised these three,
You observe emptiness!
Use emptiness to observe emptiness,
And see there is no emptiness.
When even emptiness is no more,
There is no more nonbeing either.
Without even the existence of nonbeing
There is only serenity,
Profound and everlasting.
When serenity dissolves in nothingness —
How could there be desires?
When no desires arise
You have found true tranquillity.
In true tranquillity, go along with beings;
In true permanence, realize inner nature.
Forever going along, forever tranquil —
This is permanent purity, lasting tranquillity.
In purity and tranquillity,
Gradually enter the true Tao.
When the true Tao is entered,
It is realised.
Though we speak of "realized,"
Actually there is nothing to attain.
Rather, we speak of realization
When someone begins to transform the myriad beings.
Only who has properly understood this
Is worthy to transmit the sages' Tao.
The highest gentleman does not fight;
The lesser gentleman loves to fight.
Highest Virtue is free from Virtue;
Lesser Virtue clings to Virtue.
All clinging and attachments
Have nothing to do with the Tao or the Virtue.
People fail to realize the Tao
Because they have deviant minds.
Deviance in the mind
Means the spirit is alarmed.
Spirit alarmed,
There is clinging to things.
Clinging to things,
There is searching and coveting.
Searching and coveting,
There are passions and afflictions.
Passions, afflictions, deviance, and imaginings
Trouble and pester mind and body.
Then one falls into turbidity and shame,
Ups and downs, life and death.
Forever immersed in the sea of misery,
One is in eternity lost to the true Tao.
The Tao of true permanence
Will naturally come to those who understand.
Those who understand the realization of the Tao
Will rest forever in the pure and tranquil.
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Introduction
The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu is among the most widely translated and cherished books in the world. Singular in its lucidity, revered across cultural boundaries for its timeless wisdom, it is believed among Westerners to be Lao Tzu's only book. Few are aware that a collection of his oral teachings on the subject of attaining enlightenment and mastery were also recorded in a book called the Hua Hu Ching (pronounced "wha hoo jing").
The teachings of the Hua Hu Ching are of enormous power and consequence, a literal road map to the divine realm for ordinary human beings. Perhaps predictably, the book was banned during a period of political discord in China, and all copies were ordered to be burned. Were it not for the Taoist tradition of oral transmission of sacred scriptures from master to student, they would have been lost forever. I am permanently indebted to Taoist Master Ni Hua-Ching for sharing his version of these teachings with the Western world after his emigration from China in 1976. My work here is largely based upon his teaching.
I bow also to Stephen Mitchell, whose recent translation of the Tao Te Ching moved, shaped, and informed me. I encourage readers of this volume to also study Stephen's book; his elucidation of the Tao and how it manifests in the world is exquisite. It would be a profound pleasure to me if my work one day met the high standard he has set with his own.
— BRIAN WALKER
BOULDER, COLORADO
1 OCTOBER 1993
Chapter Two
Men and women who wish to be aware of the whole truth should adopt the practices of the Integral Way.
These time-honored disciplines calm the mind and bring one into harmony with all things.
The first practice is the practice of undiscriminating virtue: take care of those who are deserving; also, and equally, take care of those who are not.
When you extend your virtue in all directions without discriminating, your feet are firmly planted on the path that returns to the Tao.
Chapter Four
Every departure from the Tao contaminates one's spirit.
Anger is a departure, resistance a departure, self-absorption a departure.
Over many lifetimes the burden of contaminations can become great.
There is only one way to cleanse oneself of these contaminations, and that is to practice virtue.
What is meant by this? To practice virtue is to selflessly offer assistance to others, giving without limitation one's time, abilities, and possessions in service, whenever and wherever needed, without prejudice concerning the identity of those in need.
If your willingness to give blessings is limited, so also is your ability to receive them.
This is the subtle operation of the Tao.
Chapter Five
Do you imagine the universe is agitated?
Go into the desert at night and took out at the stars.
This practice should answer the question.
The superior person settles her mind as the universe settles the stars in the sky.
By connecting her mind with the subtle origin, she calms it.
Once calmed, it naturally expands, and ultimately her mind becomes as vast and immeasurable as the night sky.
Chapter Six
The Tao gives rise to all forms, yet it has no form of its own.
If you attempt to fix a picture of it in your mind, you will lose it.
This is like pinning a butterfly: the husk is captured, but the flying is lost.
Why not be content with simply experiencing it?
Chapter Nine
He who desires the admiration of the world will do well to amass a great fortune and then give it away.
The world will respond with admiration in proportion to the size of his treasure.
Of course, this is meaningless.
Stop striving after admiration.
Place your esteem on the Tao.
Live in accord with it,
share with others the teachings that lead to it
and you will be immersed in the blessings that flow from it.
Chapter Ten
The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle:
Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses, it swings from one desire to the next, one conflict to the next, one self-centered idea to the next.
If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life.
Let this monkey go.
Let the senses go.
Let desires go.
Let conflicts go.
Let ideas go.
Let the fiction of life and death go.
Just remain in the center, watching.
And then forget that you are there.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The highest truth cannot be put into words.
Therefore the greatest teacher has nothing to say.
He simply gives himself in service, and never worries.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Subtle awareness of the truth of the universe should not be regarded as an achievement.
To think in terms of achieving it is to place it outside your own nature.
This is erroneous and misleading.
Your nature and the integral nature of the universe are one and the same: indescribable, but eternally present.
Simply open yourself to this.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It is tempting to view the vast and luminous heavens as the body of the Tao.
That would be a mistake, however.
If you identify the Tao with a particular shape, you won't ever see it.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The ego says that the world is vast, and that the particles which form it are tiny.
When tiny particles join, it says, the vast world appears.
When the vast world disperses, it says, tiny particles appear.
The ego is entranced by all these names and ideas, but the subtle truth is that world and particle are the same; neither one vast, neither one tiny.
Every thing is equal to every other thing.
Names and concepts only block your perception of this Great Oneness.
Therefore it is wise to ignore them. Those who live inside their egos are continually bewildered: they struggle frantically to know whether things are large or small, whether or not there is a purpose to joining or dispersing, whether the universe is blind and mechanical or the divine creation of a conscious being.
In reality there are no grounds for having beliefs or making comments about such things.
Look behind them instead, and you will discern the deep, silent, complete truth of the Tao.
Embrace it, and your bewilderment vanishes
Chapter Fifty-Two
Do you think you can clear your mind by sitting constantly in silent meditation?
This makes your mind narrow, not clear.
Integral awareness is fluid and adaptable, present in all places and at all times.
That is true meditation.
Who can attain clarity and simplicity by avoiding the world?
The Tao is clear and simple, and it doesn't avoid the world.
Why not simply honor your parents, love your children, help your brothers and sisters, be faithful to your friends, care for your mate with devotion, complete your work cooperatively and joyfully, assume responsibility for problems, practice virtue without first demanding it of others, understand the highest truths yet retain an ordinary manner?
That would be true clarity, true simplicity, true mastery.
Chapter Eighty-One
With all this talking, what has been said?
The subtle truth can he pointed at with words, but it can't be contained by them.
Take time to listen to what is said without words, to obey the law too subtle to be written, to worship the unnameable and to embrace the unformed.
Love your life.
Trust the Tao.
Make love with the invisible subtle origin of the universe, and you will give yourself everything you need.
You won't have to hide away forever in spiritual retreats.
You can be a gentle, contemplative hermit right here in the middle of everything, utterly unaffected, thoroughly sustained and rewarded by your integral practices.
Encouraging others, giving freely to all, awakening and purifying the world with each movement and action, you'll ascend to the divine realm in broad daylight.
The breath of the Tao speaks, and those who are in harmony with it hear quite clearly.
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Taken from Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu by Brian Walker
Faith in Mind
Authorship
Seng Tsan, the Third Patriarch, who died in 606 CE, has historically been accepted as the author of Faith in Mind. Contemporary scholars, however, doubt whether he was in fact the author.
Niu Tou Fa Jung, a disciple of Tao Hsin, The Fourth Patriarch, wrote a poem called Song of Mind. The similarity between the poems has caused scholars to speculate that Faith in Mind was actually written after the time of the Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng, as an improved, condensed version of Song of Mind.
The matter of authorship is irrelevant to the tremendous influence this poem has had on Chinese and Japanese thinking in Chan and Zen.
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Translation
The Supreme Way is not difficult
If only you do not pick and choose.
Neither love nor hate,
And you will clearly understand.
Be off by a hair,
And you are as far apart as heaven from earth.
If you want the way to appear,
Be neither for nor against.
For and against opposing each other —
This is the mind's disease.
Without realising the mysterious principle
It is useless to practise quietude.
The Way is perfect like a great space,
Without lack, without excess.
Because of grasping and rejecting,
You cannot attain it.
Do not pursue conditioned existence;
Do not abide in acceptance of emptiness.
In oneness and equality,
Confusion vanishes of itself.
Stop activity and return to stillness,
And that stillness will even be more active.
Only stagnating in duality,
How can you recognize oneness?
If you fail to penetrate oneness,
Both places lose their function.
Banish existence and you fall into existence;
Follow emptiness and you turn your back on it.
Excessive talking and thinking
Turn you from harmony with the Way.
Cut off talking and thinking,
And there is nowhere you cannot penetrate.
Return to the root and attain the principle;
Pursue illumination and you lose it.
One moment of reversing the light
Is greater than the previous emptiness.
The previous emptiness is transformed;
It was all a product of deluded views.
No need to seek the real;
Just extinguish your views.
Do not abide in dualistic views;
Take care not to seek after them.
As soon as there is right and wrong
The mind is scattered and lost.
Two comes from one,
Yet do not even keep the one.
When one mind does not arise,
Myriad dharmas are without defect.
Without defect, without dharmas,
No arising, no mind.
Not seeing fine or coarse,
How can there be any bias?
The Great Way is broad,
Neither easy nor difficult.
With narrow views or doubts,
Haste will slow you down.
Attach to it and you will lose the measure;
The mind will enter a deviant path.
Let it go and be spontaneous,
Experience no going or staying.
Accord with your nature, unite with the Way,
Wander at ease, without vexation.
Bound by thoughts, you depart from the real;
And sinking into a stupor is as bad.
It is not good to weary the spirit.
Why alternate between aversion and affection?
If you wish to enter the one vehicle,
Do not be repelled by the sense realm.
With no aversion to the sense realm,
You become one with true enlightenment.
The wise have no motives;
Fools put themselves in bondage.
One dharma is not different from another.
The deluded mind clings to whatever it desires.
Using mind to cultivate mind —
Is this not a great mistake?
The erring mind begets tranquility and confusion;
In enlightenment there are no likes and dislikes.
The duality of all things
Issues from false discriminations.
A dream, an illusion, a flower in the sky —
How could they be worth grasping?
Gain and loss, right and wrong —
Discard them all at once.
If the eyes do not close in sleep,
All dreams will cease of themselves.
If the mind does not discriminate,
All dharmas are of one suchness.
The essence of one suchness is profound;
Unmoving, conditioned things are forgotten.
Contemplate all dharmas as equal,
And you return to things as they are.
When the subject disappears,
There can be no measuring or comparing.
Stop activity and there is no activity;
When activity stops, there is no rest.
Since two cannot be established,
How can there be one?
In the very ultimate,
Rules and standards do not exist.
Develop a mind of equanimity,
And all deeds are put to rest.
Anxious doubts are completely cleared.
Right faith is made upright.
Nothing lingers behind,
Nothing can be remembered.
Bright and empty, functioning naturally,
The mind does not exert itself.
It is not a place of thinking,
Difficult for reason and emotion to fathom.
In the Dharma Realm of true suchness,
There is no other, no self.
To accord with it is vitally important;
Only refer to "not-two."
In not-two, all things are in unity;
Nothing is not included.
The wise throughout the ten directions
All enter this principle.
This principle is neither hurried nor slow —
One thought for ten thousand years.
Abiding nowhere yet everywhere,
The ten directions are right before you.
The smallest is the same as the largest
In the realm where delusion is cut off.
The largest is the same as the smallest;
No boundaries are visible.
Existence is precisely emptiness;
Emptiness is precisely existence.
If it is not like this,
Then it is not worth preserving.
One is everything;
Everything is one.
If you can be like this,
Why worry about not finishing?
Faith and mind are not two;
Non-duality is faith in mind.
The path of words is cut off;
There is no past, no future, no present.
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The "authorship" introduction is taken from Jos Slabbert's website, Pointing the Way; the translation of Faith in Mind used is that of Master Sheng-Yen.