Mud and Water

Text

If you cling to emptiness and deny the reality of things, you are like someone who drowns in water to avoid being burned by fire. If you cling to form and deny emptiness, you are like someone who walks into fire to escape drowning. Neither emptiness nor form can be grasped. When you stop trying to grasp them, the truth reveals itself of its own accord. Do not attach to the idea that mind is void, and do not attach to the idea that mind is something. The one who does not attach to either side—that one walks freely between heaven and earth.

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Bassui Tokusho

Lineage: Rinzai

By Bassui Tokusho

• Look Directlyproverb
• Who Is Hearing?proverb
• Who Is the Master?saying
• Who Is the One Who Hears?proverb
• Mind Without Formproverb

Sources

• contentWikisource — English-language free library

  Mud and Water (Wadeigassui), sermon on emptiness and form

  Mud and Water (Wadeigassui): Mud and Water