Hsin Shin Ming: “42. Quietude and noisiness come from ignorance; Enlightenment has no likes or dislikes for them.”

Hsin Shin Ming: “42. Quietude and noisiness come from ignorance; Enlightenment has no likes or dislikes for them.”

‘Quietude’ and ‘noisiness’ mean being peaceful and being troubled in our life. ‘Ignorance’ here means being deluded by illusions without knowing that everything is empty. To rephrase the scripture, we are peaceful when we get what we like and are removed from what we dislike, and troubled when we fail to obtain what we like and are forced to accept what we dislike, because we are ignorant that everything is empty. However, when we have realised that what we like and what we dislike are all empty and that they are just illusions created by us, we can be free from being deluded by them and enjoy them as if we enjoy a movie.

So, once you realise that all things are empty, they become condiments that enrich your life, whereas they become poison leading you to the suffering from quietude and noisiness when you don’t know that they are empty.

Student: “How can I cease to like quietude and dislike noisiness?”
Master: “You should not mistake quietude for noisiness.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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