But if you take the moving as the true-Self, all the grasses and trees can move and so they should be referred to as the true-Self. Therefore, what moves is wind; what does not move is earth; and neither what moves nor what does not move has its own nature. If you try to grasp it in the moving, it is in the motionless. And if you try to grasp it in the motionless, it will be in the moving. It is just the same as a fish making waves in a pool. So, venerable ones, the moving and the motionless are two types of circumstance. But the man of the Way who does not depend on anything makes use of both the moving and the motionless.
Commentary:
We should not think that the true-Self is not in any specific realm such as what moves or what doesn’t move. Regardless of whether something is moving or still, there is nothing that is not the true-Self and nowhere without the true-Self. The reason why we don’t recognise the true-Self, although we are not only surrounded by it but are also the true-Self itself and cannot escape from it even for a moment, is that we are deluded by illusions.
Movement and stillness are also illusions. Movement is to stillness as right is to left. The conception of movement is impossible without that of stillness and the other way around. This is why it is said that movement contains stillness and stillness contains movement. Trying to see the true-Self while chasing illusions such as movement, stillness, purity, holiness and so on is as fruitless as trying in vain to catch a nimble fish in a pool with bare hands.
‘The man of the Way who does not depend on anything’ implies an enlightened man who is aware that there is nothing to depend on because everything is empty. Such a person can make use of both the moving and unmoving as he pleases instead of being deluded by them since he knows that they are illusions.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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