Hsin Shin Ming: “4. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no option for or against.”
‘See the truth’ here means to see the true-Self or attain enlightenment. This phrase is very prone to be misunderstood as conditional: If we can hold no option for or against anything, then we can see the truth.
In fact, it is impossible to hold no option until we realise that everything is empty. To realise that everything is empty is to see the truth because the true-Self means emptiness. In other words, only when we see the truth do we automatically come to have no option. Holding no option is to seeing the truth as breathing is to being alive. You might say, “If you wish to be alive, you should breathe.” However, how could we breathe if we are not alive? Holding no option is the evidence of seeing the truth just as breathing is the evidence of being alive.
Another thing we ought not to misunderstand is that this scripture doesn’t mean that we should have no option for or against in our reality, but means that we may have clear options for or against. However, we should not be swayed or deluded by them, knowing that they are empty. Therefore, you should try to see things as they are prior to trying not to hold no option for or against.
Student: “How can I see the truth?”
Master: “How couldn’t you see it? I don’t know how not to see it.”
Student: “How can I have no option for or against?”
Master: “Don’t try to avoid it. It is the action of the truth you are looking for.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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