Quotes from Hsin Hsin Ming

If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.

In the landscape of spring, there is neither better nor worse. The flowering branches grow naturally, some long, some short.

Knock on the sky and listen to the sound.

The ten thousand questions are one question. If you cut through the one question, then the ten thousand questions disappear.

The ways to the One are as many as the lives of men.

Though the bamboo forest is dense, water flows through it freely.

To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person.

To follow the path, look to the master, follow the master, walk with the master, see through the master, become the master.

When the pupil is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.

At first, I saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers. Then, I saw mountains were not mountains and rivers were not rivers. Finally, I see mountains again as mountains, and rivers again as rivers.

If the problem has a solution, worrying is pointless, in the end the problem will be solved. If the problem has no solution, there is no reason to worry, because it can’t be solved.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.

Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.

The ten cannots

1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
3. You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
9. You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
10. And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

-William J. H. Boetcker