The mind of the great sage from India
Was secretly transmitted east and west.
Human faculties are sharp or dull,
But the Way has no southern or northern patriarch.
The spiritual source is bright and pure,
Branches and streams flow unseen.
Clinging to phenomena is fundamentally delusion,
Conforming to principle is also not enlightenment.
Each and every gate, all realms,
Interpenetrating and not interpenetrating.
Interpenetrating, they mutually involve;
Otherwise, they abide in their own positions.
Form is fundamentally distinct in substance and appearance,
Sound is originally different in pleasure and pain.
Implicitly accord with superior and middling teachings,
Clearly discern the phrases of purity and turbidity.
The four elements' nature naturally returns,
Like a child finding its mother.
Fire is hot, wind moves and shakes,
Water is wet, earth is solid and firm.
Eye and form, ear and sound,
Nose and smell, tongue and sourness.
Yet according to each and every dharma,
They are distributed according to root and leaf.
Root and tip must return to the source,
High and low use its words.
Where there is brightness, there is darkness—
Do not meet it with darkness.
Where there is darkness, there is brightness—
Do not regard it with brightness.
Brightness and darkness are mutually relative,
Like front and back steps.
All things have their own function—
Speak of their use and application.
Phenomena exist like lid fitting box,
Principle responds like arrow-tip meeting arrow-tip.
Receiving words, one must grasp the source;
Do not set up your own rules.
If eye contacts but does not comprehend the Way,
How can moving feet know the path?
Advancing is not a matter of near or far;
Delusion creates solid barriers of mountains and rivers.
Respectfully stated to those who study the mystery:
Do not vainly pass the time.