Selected Teachings and Divine Wisdom from The Chinese Sage Wu Hsin

“Look deeply inside yourself and try to find yourself. The ensuing failure is the true finding.”

Wu Hsin, which literally translates to No-Mind, was a Chinese sage living around 403 BCE. As his name suggests, he is known for guiding seekers towards the ultimate, non-dual state of No-Mind. A prominent pillar amongst many Eastern schools of thought such as Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and Advaita Vedanta.

Enjoy these teachings from Wu Hsin, found in his book “The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin: Pointers to Non-Duality in Five Volumes”.

Thereafter, forget everything you’ve read.

SELECTED TEACHINGS

• You come to this life with your own unique nature. It was combined with the experiences you had to forge who you are. You had no say in the matter. You are a one-of-a-kind instrument performing the work that only you can, in the service of That which sent you.
• My father is This-Now-Here; My mother is This-Now-Here; My neighbor is This-Now-Here; All related. When each is gone, what endures? This-Now-Here. Thoughts are only puffs of smoke rising from the chimney of the mind. Attaching attention to them is The Heart of Suffering.
• What one really is, is what one is in the absence of the who that one thinks one is.
• Man is ensnared in the continuum called past-future. His attention remains fixated there uninterrupted. To free oneself from the trap, even for a single instant, return to the point of presence, of being. Of being no- thing in particular. In this moment. Then, miraculously, the snare dissolves.
• All doing is contained in being. When the attention is shifted from doing to being, the doing takes care of itself without any intended doing and in the absence of a doer.
• I tell you: You must open the doors. You must pull back the shutters. How else can the light enter into a darkened house?
• You are not the main character in the play. You are one of many characters. Each has a role to play. This realization is the first step toward the unity that is, always was and always will be.
• So many things you could give up and still not achieve clarity. Instead, simply give up your notions of I, me, and mine and allow stillness to carry you forward.
• Do you have awareness or does awareness have you?
• Desire is presupposed on the belief that the desired will convey some lasting benefit to the one who desires. When this is apperceived to be false, the running after persons or things ends and impartiality to all that comes and goes takes root.
• Clear seeing is elusive like trying to capture water with a net. The particular net employed is the belief in the power of the thinking mind. For as long as this mind is worshipped, clear sight is not to be obtained. It is little wonder that the dog chasing its tail becomes dizzy.
• Releasing all attachment to the impermanent brings with it the revelation of the face of the permanent and is the harbinger of peace.
• Thinking is so tiresome, requiring so much energy solely for the purpose of reinforcing the notion of a thinker. What a waste! Stop thinking and merely watch everything being done without your interference.
• What is natural requires no study or practice for mastery. Does one study how to sleep? To reach what is natural merely remove what is not natural.
• Why do you offer such resistance to life? Has not Wu Hsin told you that resistance only extends and intensifies your pain and discomfort. There is a secret word which, when used with sincerity, aligns you with all of life. That word is Yes.
• Look deeply inside yourself and try to find yourself. The ensuing failure is the true finding.
• The antagonism toward the world, toward people, places, and things, is the impediment to the realization of the peace that underlies it all. Every NO keeps peace an arm’s length away.
• How many of your questions have been answered, but still you don’t have the answer? Is it possible that the answer isn’t found in more questions? Is it possible that the answer isn’t found in more concepts, more thoughts? Is it possible that the answer is revealed in their very absence?
• How glorious is the purposeless life. Events occur in their natural course, and one need not do anything or be anything in particular. Can there be a greater freedom than this?
• Silence is the bridge between the formless and the world of form.
• How can light find darkness? Darkness is merely the absence of light. How can one find one’s source? One’s source is revealed in the absence of one’s self.
• Stop running towards positive states and from negative states. Stop.
• I am sorry to disappoint you. But Wu-Hsin has no teaching for you. No method, no way, no system. Simply be as you are and all will be right.
• It has taken considerable time for your illusions to be built up. Yet, it takes no time at all to dissolve them. To replace them with simplicity in, and acceptance of, Life.
• Expectation is the grandfather of disappointment. The world can never own a man who wants nothing.
• The adversarial relationship with life is the prison. Acceptance of life as it comes, day by day, moment by moment, is the key to the lock on the door.
• Make no effort to meditate make no effort to meditate make no effort to make no effort, being is not something one does. Being is what one is.
• Every form reflects it, yet, it cannot be seen by the eyes. In silence, a subtle, inner eye opens, that sees the real underlying all appearances.
• When names and forms are put away, when all judgement ceases, what remains is called The True. It appears like a mirror in which the Infinite is reflected. It looks back at each who gaze upon it.
• Don’t pretend to be what you are not; Don’t refuse to be what you are.
• If one saw oneself as the entire world, one could do no harm. Why see oneself as only hands, feet, torso, thoughts, and feelings? This is a falsehood.
• In the instant of action, there is no actor. it is only afterward that the go, this false identity, appropriates the action as mine.
• When the mind is seen as continually kidnapped by thoughts, the first step towards freedom has been taken. Now, cease listening to what is being heard. Instead, listen to what is listening.
• The fruit contains the seed which contains the fruit.
• The greatest wealth is contentment. The greatest happiness is freedom from opinions. The greatest peace is attained through the abandonment of desires.
• Why are you worshipping the teapot instead of drinking the tea?

*All above statements are direct quotes or paraphrases from Wu Hsin, translated by Roy Melvyn

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Tyler C. Newman