Hsin Shin Ming: “12. As long as you remain in one extreme or the other, you will never know Oneness.”

Hsin Shin Ming: “12. As long as you remain in one extreme or the other, you will never know Oneness.”

What is to remain in one extreme? It is to follow illusions, or discriminate. If you happen to think there is even a single thing that is not empty, that is no other than remaining in one extreme, which automatically makes another extreme at the same time. If you believe, for example, that a tree is not empty, the tree is one extreme because it divides Oneness into two extremes; a tree and what is not a tree. The strongest extreme is your body that divides Oneness into you and what is not you. Once you realise that everything is empty, however, you can’t escape from Oneness whichever extreme you may choose, because not only the extreme you choose but you are also Oneness as emptiness.

Student: “What is one extreme?”
Master: “Every single thing is one extreme.”
Student: “How can I avoid remaining in one extreme?”
Master: “Realise that everything is empty.”

©Boo Ahm
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