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The Mysterious

By Seng Ts'an - The 3rd Patriarch

One Reality only -
How deep and far-reaching!
The ten thousand things -
How confusingly multifarious!

The true and the conventional are indeed intermingling,
But essentially of the same substance they are.

The wise and the unenlightened are indeed distinguishable,
But in the Way they are united as one.

Desirest thou to find its limits?
How broadly expanding! It is limitless!
How vaguely it vanishes away! Its ends are never reached!
It originates in beginningless time, it terminates in endless time.

 

Translated by D.T. Suzuki (Manual of Zen Buddhism)