Expansion On “Verses On The Faith Mind”
Recently when I shared Seng Tsan's “Verses On A Faith Mind” on my Sunday Wisdom newsletter, people responded very well. Since then I have had a few questions about portions of the text, what they mean, and how they can apply to everyday life. I'll do my best to answer these questions, while expanding on some of the lines where it might be helpful.
Today we will look at the opening verse:
“The Great Way is not difficult
for those who are unattached to preferences.
When love and hate are both absent,
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.”
It's important to remember that this is a translated text. There are plenty of other translations that often differ in some way, so we don’t have to take every word as if it is the absolute truth.
Is It Wrong To Have Preferences?
“The Great Way is not difficult
for those who are unattached to preferences.”
I was asked recently during a one-to-one session about whether it’s still beneficial to have preferences. Someone might read this opening verse and feel a certain release of tension when they relax the idea of preferences in their mind. There can be a softening of resistance as someone eases their intention to hold things in a certain way. Most of this tension, however, comes from pushing against what you don’t want. There is usually very little discomfort when you are no longer pushing against anything, but instead leaning towards your natural preference
Let's take meditation as an example. It can be great to have no preferences during a meditation, at least to start - no preferences over how you feel, what thoughts you should be having, no preference to how noisy or quiet your mind is. This helps to ease resistance. However, there is always a natural preference that we have towards pleasure. Even if you give an enlightened being a choice between a comfortable bed and a pile of manure to sleep on, they will probably go for the cleaner, more comfortable and more pleasant option. Having a general preference for well-being is natural, and when our positive, natural preference is allowed and not suppressed by fighting against its opposite, then there is a sense of satisfaction, or creation that can begin to emerge.
To be more specific, I was talking with someone about a general intention to feel connected to the whole universe, rather than just feeling as if they were an isolated energy stuck in the head. She replied, “But isn’t that a preference? Is it right to have preferences?”
If you sit down with a preference, and even a soft intention to feel fully connected to the whole universe, then allowing that preference, or desire, in its purity, will take you close to what you are wanting. There is no resistance. But if the preference for connection is there, and it is mixed with the resistance against distracting thoughts, then there is conflict, tension, mess and no sense of progress or satisfaction.
Note that the second line says "unattached" to preferences, rather than "absence" of preferences. This could just be in this one translation, but it is useful for what is being discussed here. You might have a preference for something - anything in your life. When you feel unattached to that preference, then there is no resistance against its opposite, the preference is allowed to be experienced within you more fully, and it actually begins to have a more powerful creative effect in your life.
What Does The Text Mean By “Love”?
“When love and hate are both absent,
everything becomes clear and undisguised.”
Someone asked me if this "love" was real love, or if it more of the opposite of hating something. I think the meaning of the words means liking one set of conditions and disliking another set of conditions - liking when things are pleasant and disliking when things are not as you want them to be. I think it means a conditional sense of happiness where one thing can make you happy, and then if it changes it can make you unhappy. I feel the meaning of it is to conditionally love, or to feel good within yourself only when things around you meet a certain criteria. This is normal, but it isn’t effective for any sustainable sense of well-being.
Of course if only hate was absent, and only love was there - would there be any suffering? I think in this context the "love and hate" refers to the constant pushing and struggling we often experience, trying to cling to the good stuff by pushing against the "bad stuff". But usually what we push against within our own minds, even if we are pushing against our own thoughts, tends to stick right back onto us.
I feel that when our minds are no longer dependently stuck to conditions to make us feel at ease, then there is a real love beneath, that has no opposite within the mind’s polarity.
“When love and hate are both absent,
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.”
This is all about seeing things as they are. When your mind is not looking at the world, constantly resisting things through a filter of opinions and preferences, then it’s easier to see the "isness" of things - the world around us without an extra personal commentary that tries to understand and describe everything. We often take the mind’s commentary to be the truth of the world, but a finger that points to the moon, is not the moon.
It’s easier to see the neutrality of things when there is less attention given to the resistive mind and its habit of wanting to continuously think, and often create and focus on problems. These verses from Seng Ts’an are all about taking attention away from the small mind patterns that tend to take up so much of our attention, so that our attention can once again begin to merge with who we truly are.
I hope this has been helpful. If so, there will be more next week.
All the very best,
Adam
Inner Peace Now > Inner Peace Blog > Finding Inner Peace > Commentaries on Seng Ts’an’s “Verses On A Faith Mind”