SHIN JIN MEI | 信心銘- DAY SIXTEEN

"No offense offered, and no ten thousand things;
No disturbance going, and no mind set up to work:
The subject is quieted when the object ceases,
The object ceases when the subject is quieted."

As we discussed yesterday, when a mind is not disturbed, the ten thousand things (the myriad manifest forms of the material universe) offer no offense - as there is no gap in which to cast discriminating thoughts. This is the Big Mind revealed in equanimity - no disturbance. With the slightest hint of picking and choosing the discriminating mind establishes the small self and sets to the work of maintaining this delusion.

In this place, there is no subject or object - both cease when the other is quieted. This is the place where transcendent wisdom reigns and we experience directly.

"The wind was flapping a temple flag, and two monks were having an argument about it. One said, 'The flag is moving.' The other said, 'The wind is moving.' They argued back and forth but could not reach the truth. The sixth patriarch said, 'It is not the wind that moves. It is not the flag that moves. It is your mind that moves.' The two monks were struck with awe."*
-Mumonkan, Case 29