THE THOUGHTS OF SENG TSAN
1. Choose at random, shake the dice; when any old road is as good as another
2. Never state a preference. The only way to paradise is not to desire it.
3. When you prefer one thing to another you are declaring War.
4. The whole world belongs to you until you start to discriminate.
5. You can be busy or you can be still; These are not opposite states but different expressions of the Unity.
6. The meaning is in the root not in leaf or flower. Understand the inner self and you understand the world.
7. History is an illusion. The quest for truth is futile. Merely stop having opinions.
8. Forget about right and wrong; these terms are simply confusing.
9. Right and wrong both proceed from the Unity- and both betray it. Be clear about this and the complexity of the world will no longer puzzle you.
10. When right and wrong no longer puzzle you, they disappear. When the mind is in repose, it ceases to be. To quieten the mind let go of its object, let go of the object and quieten the mind.
11. The one who thinks and the one who is thought about both proceed from the Unity.
12. You and I are one in the Unity and each contains everything that exists. When everything that exists is one and the same how can prejudice arise? Walk the road in calm acceptance. Nothing is easy; nothing is hard. Opinions create difficulties. More haste, less speed.
13. Desire is never moderate. Desire is always mistaken. Let it go and things become clear. Nothing you do can alter their essence.
14. Take things as they come, and the journey will be smooth; you will suffer no annoyance. Desire fogs the vision and makes our thinking sluggish and faulty.
15. Prejudiced thinking disturbs the soul, so what is the point of it? If you wish to make the most of your life you must love the world as it is.
16. When we love the world as it is we show we understand it. The wise let things be but the ignorant are restless. In truth all things are worthy of love, but the ignorant pick and choose. They create illusions and fall madly in love with them:
17. The ignorant are torn by desire but the wise have no likes and dislikes. Good and evil, right and wrong, the lovely and unlovely- all are illusions, conjuring tricks, insubstantial pageants. Reach for them and your hand goes through them.
18. Without sleeping there is no dreaming. The unified mind loves the world without desiring it. When we see all things as manifestations of the Unity we are back in paradise.
19. When you cease to ask, “why?” you have attained eternity. Where is the motion when the wheel stops? Where is its repose when it moves again? Stop thinking in abstracts and even Unity becomes a meaningless term.
20. In the end there are no rules. The philosopher finds the roots of all actions in himself.
21. Retain nothing, remember nothing. All is empty; all is light, pure, tranquil, full of repose. Neither thought nor imagination will bring you to this.
22. In eternity there is no me, there is no you. When asked who you are, reply, “undivided”.
23. All is equal to the undivided mind. It contains all that is. The wise of every nation share this knowledge.
24. This knowledge exists beyond time and space. It experiences eternity in an hour.
25. The grain of sand is no smaller than the universe.
26. The real and the unreal: what is the difference? Shun the place where they think they know the answer.
27. The One in All, the All in One- understand this and you can forget about your spirituality.
28. Where there is wisdom there is no conflict. Where there is no conflict there is wisdom. My words exist in time, but time does not exist.