Forever lacking limit
This void is all potential
The everlasting ultimate
It flows through all existence
And then returns to source
It's ever at your center
Your only true recourse
For here begins the universe
The earth and humankind
Following this greatest way
You can never be defined
26
The naked center doesn't change
Its quietude is absolute
Yet from it spring all things that move
This bare awareness is the root
Can you go about all day
And never leave your true abode
No matter how enticing are
The splendors of the road?
Don't think that you can run around
And act a perfect fool
Just see that you are at the eye
Of nature's whirlpool
27
Can you walk and leave no tracks?
Make no errors when you talk?
Count without a tally?
Secure a door without a lock?
You can abandon no one
There's nothing you can leave behind
In you there are no limits
You are forever unconfined
What happens is spontaneous
Good and bad are just the same
In origin identical
Beyond both praise and blame
28
Know the strong but keep the weak
The whole wide world is born in you
You'll see just what a child sees
A vast and comprehensive view
Know the light but keep the dark
And watch ten thousand things emerge
In you they have their residence
Where space and time converge
Know the high but keep the low
Humility will honor you
Attend to your vacuity
There's nothing else to do
Be like an uncarved block of wood
Don't squander your potential
Or overlook your vacant core
Nothing else is so essential
29
Do you want to change the world?
You cannot possibly succeed
The given cannot be improved
On this the seers are agreed
At times you find you're out in front
At other times you fall behind
Sometimes you're all commotion
But afterwards you must unwind
When all around is turmoil
Just stay with the serene
You are the quiet center
Of the ever changing scene
Can you see things as they are
And let them be all on their own?
Remain in pure awareness
You never need to stray from home
30
There is an ancient way to lead
That just allows and does not force
For what goes out will come around
And violence will lead to wars
The one who sees completes a task
And stops when it is done
Seeing all is on its own
And not controlled by anyone
The seer sees that all is well
And does not need to please
Just gives acceptance everywhere
Puts everyone at ease
31
Weapons lead to violence
Which everyone despises
Avoid them altogether
Allow no compromises
If use of weapons has to be
When enemies just leave no choice
Use them but reluctantly
In victory do not rejoice
Ascendancy brings sorrow
And triumph doesn't carry pleasure
It severs you from wholeness
And robs you of your real treasure
Victory is like a funeral
Where loss of life must make you sad
For putting other people down
Never ought to make you glad
32
Awareness is not limited
It's like an uncarved block of wood
With infinite potential
Beyond all usefulness for good
If leaders could stay centered
In awareness pure and plain
This world would be as nourishing
As nature's gentle rain
Everyone would be at peace
And always living in the whole
Opposition and division
Could never take their toll
33
It may be said that you are wise
To see yourself as others do
But you are wiser still to see
From your own central point of view
Then you see you have it all
The riches that are always here
Belong to you completely
Because your vision is so clear
34
The empty center's everywhere
It flows both left and right
It brings to pass ten thousand things
And yet it never leaves your sight
It welcomes everything around
On nothing does it make a claim
It's in the heart of each and all
This ultimate without a name
Some can see that it is great
And some will say that it's obscure
It is your real identity
Simplicity that will endure
35
Totality will be with you
If you can see the simple presence
Although there's danger all around
You give complete acceptance
Good music, food and company
Are welcome when you're traveling
The inner truth seems tasteless
Yet it produces everything
You look and you see nothing
You listen and hear silence
Its use is inexhaustible
It's ever worthy of reliance
36
You cannot be diminished
Unless you've been inflated
You cannot be defeated
Unless you've been elated
You cannot be belittled
Unless you've been esteemed
Unless you're wholly missing
You cannot be redeemed
The soft and slow can overcome
The rigid and the hard and fast
Just see your inner emptiness
For nothing else is made to last
37
Only see you're doing nothing
Yet not a thing is left undone
For all things happen on their own
In you who are the all in one
If leaders could be centered
All ten thousand things would thrive
By seeing what is natural
All creation comes alive
Everyone would be content
With living simply every day
Desires would be moderate
And peace would be the only way
38
You needn't search for power
You already have it all
To seek outside your empty core
Is looking for a fall
The seer doesn't do a thing
But sees that all is finished
Foolish people run about
And leave totality diminished
Goodness must be doing
And justice never is complete
Propriety can't satisfy
Obedience is forced defeat
When totality is lost
Goodness comes to take its place
Followed by propriety
Bewilderment and end of grace
The seer sees periphery
But also sees the open core
And thus the seer sees the whole
And dwells therein forevermore
39
If you stay with clear awareness
The sky is open, pure and spacious
The earth is firm and friendly too
Activity is efficacious
But depart from clarity
The purest sky is torn apart
The earth is so divided
Felicity must flee your heart
The seer knows humility
Doesn't argue or cajole
Doesn't discard anything
Or mutilate the whole
The seer doesn't show at all
Doesn't sparkle like a jewel
The seer's vast immensity
Is truly less than minuscule
40
All is born of emptiness
Manifests and has its day
Then yields and surrenders
Returns and dies away
Commentary
41
When seers see their nothingness
They never let it out of sight
But others see it now and then
And miss out on its true delight
Still others only laugh it off
And look at it with ridicule
It wouldn't be the real truth
If it weren't laughed at by the fool
The brightest way seems darkness
Just going on seems like retreat
The simple way seems difficult
Capacity seems like defeat
Clarity can seem obscure
And love seem not to care
Totality seems not enough
And truth can seem to err
Awareness doesn't have a name
To all appearances is null
Yet it produces everything
And so this empty place is full
42
Awareness comes from nothingness
So all can see it's plainly one
Contains all opposition
Ten thousand things are now begun
All these things embrace the void
And face the manifest
Achieving thus true harmony
They find existence truly blessed
No one wants to be considered
Empty and alone
Yet that's exactly what the seers
Say they have been shown
And violence is not the way
I give you this instruction
Those who live by violence
Will bring about their own destruction
43
Overcome by yielding
The weak can overcome the strong
For only absence can provide
The place where everything belongs
And thus it is that I can see
The worthiness of not contending
Yet few will ever comprehend
The potency of bending
44
Which of these means more to you
Integrity or reputation?
Are gain and loss not equally
Responsible for limitation?
Everything that you possess
Is surely transitory
Just be pleased with emptiness
And witness inner bliss and glory
You know that your are always safe
If only you can be contented
With awareness as capacity
And with all that is presented
45
Wholeness seems like imperfection
Yet its usefulness is sure
Fullness seems quite empty
But it is certain to endure
True straightness can seem twisted
True wisdom does not seem to know
Great eloquence seems halting
Great darkness seems to be aglow
Can you see that emptiness
Contains all oppositions?
Like hot and cold and fast and slow?
All differences and all conditions?
46
When the absolute is cherished
Horses graze on the open green
When the absolute is lost
Only steeds of war are seen
No calamity exceeds desire
And always wanting more
Can you not see you have enough
And live in plenitude galore?
47
No need to go outside a door
To see totality
Or look out of a window
For seeing what will always be
Going out you go astray
At home and center all is one
The seer doesn't have to do
To see that everything is done
48
In going after learning
Something's added every day
For resting in the ultimate
Everything must drop away
Day by day do less and less
Until nothingness is seen
All occurs quite on its own
A doer need not intervene
Allow all things to run their course
If you want to be proficient
Make a fuss and bother
And existence will be insufficient
49
The seer doesn't own a thought
For thoughts do not reside within
Thoughts concern ten thousand things
And that's the way it's always been
The seer doesn't rush to judge
And treats all people well
Considers no one bad or good
Attracts but never does repel
The seer trusts things as they are
And takes all people at their word
Giving trust to everyone
Knows faithfulness will be returned
The seer turns your view around
So you can never be beguiled
And gives you back all that you lost
The vision of a little child
50
Between the time when they are born
And the time that they will die
Three in ten will follow life
Three others only will deny
Three others are so casual
They live as though they're passing through
But one remains who clearly sees
There's not a single thing to do
Can you be like the one who sees
The world emerging on its own?
What's needed for each moment
Arises from the great unknown
This one doesn't have a fear
Of weaponry or wild beast
These enemies can't harm the one
Whose separate self is long deceased
51
Everything arises
From this total emptiness
Is nourished and completed
And finds creation blessed
All things arise from nothingness
Are cared for by existence
Which freely gives what is required
For bountiful subsistence
Existence does not make a claim
On what it has created
It nourishes and serves and leads
Is honored and appreciated
52
All things emerge from nullity
The only derivation
Of everything that manifests
The source of all creation
Stay in touch with origin
There's nothing that you need deny
Seeing your totality
You will not fear to die
Do not be in haste to speak
And always guard the senses
You will find your heart at peace
And in the place where all commences
See the subtle and the clear
It is the empty source of light
There is no danger in this place
That is forever in plain sight
53
This way is wide and easy
Yet people love to stray
They love to take the sidetracks
And wander from the way
When the few are rich and wealthy
Living way above their needs
The granaries are empty
And the fields are full of weeds
When rulers spend on weapons
And implements of war
It's a never ending circle
Of ever wanting more
When the rich have all abundance
What remains must surely dwindle
Having more than you can use
Is thievery and fraud and swindle
54
Hold fast to this awareness
Seeing that it is your root
It will not ever slip away
This ever present absolute
It cannot be uprooted
It's always held in veneration
Discovered very close at hand
In every generation
Allow its presence in your life
Awareness real and profound
Allow it in the family
Its blessings will abound
And if you care to share it
With neighbor and with friend
Its potency will multiply
With benefits that never end
You ask me how I know it's true
It isn't something I mistook
Well nothing is more obvious
The only thing I do is look
55
One who sees full emptiness
Is like a child just born
With muscles weak and bones so soft
