The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin (sample)

The Lost Writings

of Wu Hsin

The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin

2


Translation by Roy Melvyn

Copyright 2010 Roy Melvyn

_____

Volume One

Aphorisms for Thirsty Fish

03

Volume Two

The Magnificence of the Ordinary

18

Volume Three

In the Shadow of the Formless

30

Volume Four

Recognition of the Obvious

49

Volume Five

No Great Future Attainment

62

The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin 3

Volume One

Aphorisms for Thirsty Fish Brief Background

It is widely believed that Wu Hsin was born during the Warring States Period (403-221 BCE), postdating the death of Confucius by more than one hundred years.

This was a period during which the ruling house of Zhou had lost much of its authority and power, and there was increasing violence between states. This situation birthed “the hundred schools”, the flourishing of many schools of thought, each setting forth its own concepts of the prerequisites for a return to a state of harmony. The two most influential schools were that of Confucius and the followers of Mozi ("Master Mo"), the Mohists. The latter were critical of the elitist nature and extravagant behaviors of the traditional culture. The philosophical movement associated with the Daodejing also was emerging at this time. Wu Hsin's style of Daoist philosophy developed within the context defined by these three schools and appears to be most heavily influenced by that latter. In addition, it most clearly contains the seeds of what would

become Ch‟an Buddhism in China or Zen in Japan.

Wu Hsin was born in a village called Meng, in the state of Song. The Pu River in which Wu Hsin


4

was said to have fished was in the state of Chen which had become a territory of Chu. We might say that Wu Hsin was situated in the borderlands between Chu and the central plains—the plains centered around the Yellow River which were the home of the Shang and Zhou cultures.

Certainly, as one learns more about the culture of Chu, one senses deep resonances with the aesthetic sensibility of the Daoists, and with Wu Hsin's style in particular. If the traditional dating is reliable, Wu Hsin would have been a contemporary of Mencius, but one is hard pressed to find any evidence that there was any communication between them. The philosopher Gao Ming, although not a Daoist, was a close friend and stories abound of their philosophical rivalries.

Wu Hsin‟s work was significant for Daoist

religious practitioners who often took ideas and themes from it for their meditation practice, as an example, Sima Chengzhen's „Treatise on Sitting and

Forgetting‟ (ca. 660 C.E.). He offers a highly refined

view of life and living. When he writes “Nothing appears as it seems”, he challenges the reader to question and verify every belief and every assumption.

Brevity was the trademark of his writing style. Whereas his contemporaries were writing lengthy

tomes, Wu Hsin‟s style reflected his sense that

words, too, were impediments to the attainment of Understanding; that they were only pointers and nothing more. He would use many of the same words over and over because he felt that people


needed to hear words repeatedly, until the Understanding was louder than the words.

His writings are filled with paradoxes, which cause the mind to slow down and, at times, to even stop. Reading Wu Hsin, one must ponder. However, it is not an active pondering, but a passive one, much in the same way as one puts something in the oven and lets it bake for a while.

He repeatedly returns to three key points. First, on the phenomenal plane, when one ceases to resist What-Is and becomes more in harmony with It, one attains a state of Ming, or clear seeing. Having arrived at this point, all action becomes wei wu wei, or action without action (non-forcing) and there is a working in harmony with What-Is to accomplish what is required. Second, as the clear seeing deepens (what he refers to as the opening of the great gate), the understanding arises that there is no one doing anything and that there is only the One doing everything through the many and diverse objective phenomena which serve as Its instruments. From this flows the third and last: the seemingly separate me is a misapprehension, created by the mind which divides everything into pseudo-subject (me) and object (the world outside of this me). This seeming two-ness (dva in Sanskrit, duo in Latin, dual in English), this feeling of being separate and apart, is the root cause of unhappiness.

The return to wholeness is nothing more than the end of this division. It is an apperception of the unity between the noumenal and the phenomenal in much the same way as there is a single unity between the sun and sunlight. Then, the pseudo-subject is


6

finally seen as only another object while the true Subjectivity exists prior to the arising of both and is their source.

All five volumes consist of what would appear to be his day-to-day reflections as they spontaneously arose. There is no progression in the pages, no evolution of the concepts put forth. As such, reading pages randomly or from the beginning has the same efficacy. Nor should it be read with haste; a page or two at a time is sufficient to allow for the content to sink in, as a thrown stone falls to the bottom of the lake. In its essence, this Volume One is a collection of hooks; any one of them is sufficient to catch a thirsty fish Translator’s Note

Material of this nature is not served well by language. It may seem that there are anomalies and contradictions. So, it is important to state that the translation of Wu Hsin’s words herein is not purely literal. Instead, it contains an interpretation of what was clearly implied, and this is where the limitation of words is quite evident.

Compounding this problem, I have chosen to incorporate certain words into the translation which may appear to be incongruent relative to the time of

Wu Hsin‟s writing. The clearest example of this

would be my use of the word ego which wasn‟t to

come into being for many of hundreds of years after

Wu Hsin‟s death.

I have done this to best capture the real essence of the intention behind the word. The


original Chinese word 个人 (ge ren) means the

individual. However, using the individual doesn‟t

capture the sense of separateness that is better conveyed by ego.

The Sanskrit language also provides us with some marvelous insight. In it, the word for mind is manas, which translated literally means that which measures and compares. That says it pretty well. The Sanskrit word for ego is ahamkara; its translation is I

am the doer. Within the context of Wu Hsin‟s message, the conveyance of the idea of I am the doer is vitally important. As such, this and other small liberties that I have taken with the translation feel more than reasonable. RM

~

What follows is A dissertation on the Unspeakable.

It is an attempt to Describe the Undescribable;

To capture with words That which cannot be captured;

The Unutterable. As such, it is destined to fall short.

That having been said, Let us now proceed.

~


8

These words are The transmission of Wu Hsin.

Thanks be to Heaven for Granting their approval. They transcend time and

Therefore are beyond time. They will be as valid in Five thousand years as

They are in this moment. In the absence of a resonance, They will have no meaning nor

Create any interest. This resonance cannot be willed into being.

It is either inherent by nature or It is not.

These words come out from A place devoid of

Concepts and doubts. As such, they are not only spontaneous, but

Natural and true. They are not intended to

Create new concepts, But, to instead, Dispel old ones.

The words of Wu Hsin are Not meant for discussion which only

Distorts and pollutes. Take them in and

Move on.

~


This is the present condition: Birth is the entry to phenomenality.

Death is the exit from phenomenality. All that requires insight is: Who is born and who dies?

Or better stated: What is born and what dies?

~

The attachment to beliefs is The greatest shackle.

To be free is To know that

One does not know.

~

One is what One absorbs

~

It is easier to teach a blind man To paint than it is

To convey What-Is with mere words.

~

The end of questioning is


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The same as The end of seeking.

Further and further explanations Do not provide

That which is sought. Additional information

Does not provide That which is sought.

Drop these activities and Rest in what is

Prior to all mental activity: Awareness.

~

Sound is the same but Its expression

Through various instruments is different. So it is with Being.

~

Half knowledge cannot take one To full wisdom.

Knowledge of the world is inferior to Knowledge of that which

Births the world and is Prior to it.

~ What problems can there be that


The mind did not create? The solution to problems begins with

The cessation in believing in The content of one’s thoughts.

~

To know that one is, is natural. To know what one is

Requires a diving into the depths of One’s own being.

The pearl rests on the bottom.

~

An event becomes An experience through Personal involvement.

Collecting experiences can be Helpful with the daily aspects of life,

But it is not The road to happiness.

~

It is understood that Sleep is the desire for

A period of rest For the body.

It is less understood that Sleep is the desire for

A period of rest


12

Away from the body.

~

The inherent nature of mind is To process thought.

To attempt the cessation of thought Goes against what is natural.

The goal, therefore, is not The cessation of thought. The goal is cessation of

Identification with thought.

~

All this running around, Praying and making offerings so that

The next life will be better than This life.

What silliness! Life after this death is

Not different than, Nor better than

Life before this birth.

~

At the root, There is no difference between Separation and dissatisfaction.

This is so because


Feeling separate and apart is The primary dissatisfaction.

~

Thoughts intrude, like Unwelcome guests at a party.

Ignored and unfed, They depart.

~

What is called peace by many is Merely the absence of disturbance. True peace cannot be disturbed;

It resides beyond the reach of disturbance.

~

Nothing is as it seems. The common view is that

There is a subjective observer Observing an objective world;

The former separate from The latter.

Nothing is as it seems.

~

When here becomes


14

Everywhere and Now becomes Always, then

One has succeeded.

~

When one is enthralled with The beauty on the surface of the ocean,

The immensity of its depths can Never be discerned.

~ The Source and Substance of everything

Has no name. When Wu Hsin names it:

The Eternal or The Infinite or

What-Is or That or

The Mystery or The Absolute,

He merely points to It. Make a list of All your pains, Your sorrows,

Your hurts and disappointments. This, too, is Part of It.

~


There is reading But no reader of this writing

Without an author. The merger of

The reading and the writing is Deep insight and understanding.

~

How many have there been Who have come to Wu Hsin

To ask “Why?” Why is this? or

Why is that? “Why?”

As there are many perspectives, There can be many answers.

Yet, in the end, The best answer to “Why?” is

Why not?

~

It is man Who is in movement

Against the background of immobility. But who moves the moved?

~

We are afloat in


16

The Great River. All are carried along.

Some swim against the flow. They, too, are carried along.

~

The departure from what is natural is The birthplace of personality.

The world of persons is A solitary place,

Each separate and alone. To achieve peace,

One must retrace the way one came.

~

What is latent and What is dormant are

Not the same. The dormant arises and sets;

The latent ever is.

~

Only the fool Seeks to stop

The shaking of

The moon‟s reflection on the water.

The acceptance of what Cannot be changed


Paves the way to The changeless.


18

Volume Two

The Magnificence of the Ordinary Forward

It has been said that should someone find a bright star, they have no right to keep it in their pocket. Instead, they should carry it openly so that its light may shine on all.

These lost writings of the ancient Chinese Wu Hsin are one such star. In Volume One: Aphorisms for Thirsty Fish, Wu Hsin spelled out the reality of being and stripped away the hallucination of the separate, individual doer.

In Volume Two: The Magnificence of the Ordinary, he concentrates much of his writing in describing what it’s like to live from this different point of view. Surprisingly, it is not some cosmic, mind blowing, disassociation from everything. Instead, he suggests that the mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

He presents a view of the world where black is not separate from white. They are two opposite poles of a unitary wholeness. No good without bad, no high without low, etc. What may be good today may be bad tomorrow. Seeing this clearly, one understands it is best to live without judgment.

He also draws a definitive distinction between knowledge and knowing. The former is of things, of


form, of the world. It is cumulative. The latter is organic, inherent and not contingent on anything. It is the very movement from knowledge to knowing that is the unambiguous affirmation of a life lived naturally and in alignment with What-Is. He describes such a life this way:

Wu Hsin has given up All notions of what he is not: Not the mind, Not the body, Not the senses. He knows that he knows these But is not them. His is a life of ease. No longer habitual, No longer mechanical, Remembering only What needs to be remembered; Doing only What needs to be done, Spontaneously, in every moment.

His words are often terse, yet undeniably potent; provocative and immensely profound. In a sense, each text is hologramatic; a seeming part containing the whole. A single statement within this collection is sufficient to jolt the reader into a new dimension of awareness. He prescribes no process, sets out no path to be followed. Everything unfolds.

He stresses that none of this is something to be acquired. It is not something to be gained which can eventually be lost. It is here and now; it was here


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before and will continue to be here in the future. It is the very Ground of Being and it is available to all without further postponement or delay. He sums this up succinctly in his opening four lines:

The world is a collection of objects. That which perceives the objects Cannot itself be an object. You are That.

There will always be conscious beings wondering about the fact of their being conscious and enquiring into its cause and aim. What am I? Who am I? Such questions have no beginning and no end. And it is crucial to know the answers, for without a full understanding of oneself, both in time and in timelessness, life is an illusion, a projection from the mind, completely enslaved to neurology, genetics and circumstances.

Simplicity and humility are the keynotes of the life and words of Wu Hsin. He espouses no teaching, claiming he has none to offer, no system or philosophy or method to expound. He knows his own real nature, acknowledging that it is no different from another’s.

The key, he suggests, is that the mind must cease its incessant movement and recognize and penetrate its own being, not as being anything in particular, neither here nor there, but just timeless being.

This timeless being is the source of both the primal energy of life and of consciousness. Every human has it, every human is it, but not all know


themselves as they truly are. Instead they identify themselves with a name, a shape, a personality and the collections and content of their thoughts.

The only way to rectify the error is to understand the modes of the mind and to turn it into an instrument of self-discovery. In earlier times, the mind was originally a tool in the struggle for biological survival. It had to learn the laws and ways of Nature in order to conquer it. That it did, but in the process, the mind acquired the art of symbolic thinking and communication, the art and skill of language. Words became important; ideas and acquired the appearance of reality, the conceptual replaced the real. The result is that man now lives in a world, where verbal pointers are mistaken to be facts.

The most commonly used word is I. The mind includes in it anything and everything relating to its counterpart, the body. To explore the sense of I, to reach its source, is the breakthrough into the real and away from the imagined.

Discontinuous, the sense of I must have a source from which it emanates and returns. As to methods of realizing one’s unity with beingness and life, Wu Hsin is elusive. But for all, the portal, regardless of how one arrives at it, is the sense of am-ness, prior to the notion of I am, as something separate and distinct.

It is through apperceiving the full scope and vastness of this am-ness, that one can realize the primordial and the ultimate.

This dwelling on the sense of being is simple, easy and natural. No preparation is required and no effort, regardless of its intensity, can achieve it. The


22

payoff is that one becomes fully conscious while remaining active and is therefore a gift to the entire world. Life goes on, but it is spontaneous and free, meaningful and happy.

Volume Two, The Magnificence of the Ordinary continues Wu Hsin’s elucidation of this natural state. In it, he provides additional pointers to this effortless way of being.

~

The world is a collection of objects. That which perceives the objects

Cannot itself be an object. You are That.

~

Just as honey is not sweetness, The words of Wu Hsin are not

The truth. However, time spent with these words is like

The aftermath of rain. In due course, a sprouting of Understanding will occur and

Will bear fruit at a pace Outside of one’s control.

~

Do not deem


Wu Hsin to be insane Simply because you cannot hear

The music he dances to. Man is the one who is insane:

His solution to his Need for security is to

Lock himself away in a prison. What could be more secure than

A prison? He passes his time

In a solitary cell labeled “me”. Believing he is now safe and that

No other can harm him, He has exchanged freedom

For security. What is outside

The walls of the prison is the unknown, Possibly not secure,

Not safe, Alien, at times hostile, and

Not at all predictable. Yet what sane man would choose

Prison over freedom? Man is the one who is insane:

He trades the experience of life, Here and now,

For time and attention spent On regretting the past,

Wishing for a better past and Hoping for a brighter future,

For a future that will right What is now deemed not right.

The fragrance of the apple blossoms,


24

The laughter of a child, The blueness of the sky,

All sacrificed on the altar of Mental preoccupations.

What a waste! Man is the one who is insane:

Yet, quite normal Within societal boundaries.

Numerous methods may lead one to Being more comfortable.

But that is all you get: One who is more comfortable in their prison,

Not one freed from their prison. Nothing gets a person out of their prison

Because the person is the prison.

~

Wu Hsin may say something well; That doesn’t mean he has

Anything to say. What he speaks of is greater than

Anything he can say about it. He will reveal it

In much the same way As a sculptor reveals the image,

By removing chunks from the block.

~

These words are not directed to Any individual,


Any personality, Any you.

Instead they go to that Which supports the “you”,

Sustains the “you”, Yet is prior to it.

~

If one takes the rear end of a dog From the front end of a dog

One has no dog.

~

Yu Ping watched the moon rise Yu Ping watched the moon set.

He saw the sun rise and the sun set. Day after day: Moon rise, set Sun rise, set.

Noticing that the sun always rose, After the moon set,

Yu Ping wrongly concluded that The setting of the moon was

The cause of the rising of the sun.

~ How can black be known In the absence of white?


26

~

The success of one Can only be measured against

The failure of another.

~

To whatever degree Man attempts to control nature,

Nature responds in kind. It cannot be mastered but

It can be destroyed. In so doing,

Man destroys himself.

~ It is the way of energy that

It does not need a governor. Why perpetuate an illusion

By seeking to control anything?

~

All enemies are implicit allies In the game of hatred.

In the absence of either, There is no game.

~


Perfect archery Has no archer.

~

The strategy of seeking An advantageous position

Over life is The wellspring of sorrow.

~

Wu Hsin did not Come into the world;

Rather, he came out from it.

~

Man and his environment are not Separate and distinct;

Push one and the other moves. This interaction is an Integral process of a Unitary wholeness.

~

At what point does Telling your god


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What to do and What you want,

Become tiresome? At what point is this

Seen through For the sham that it is?

~

Time eats every thing.

~

All life is a single event: One moment flowing into the next,

Naturally. Nothing causing everything.

Everything causing everything.

~

How is beginning defined? Is it the birth of the baby or Is it the birth of its mother?

~

What is the world other than Numberless mirrors

Reflecting the light from


A single source?

~

The Source of being Cannot be conceived.

Only objects are conceived, While the subject remains

Finer than mist. Wu Hsin advises to Stop searching for

What cannot be found and Instead realize that

One’s inherent nature is that of The sought.

~

No amount of study, No attendance in any school Can teach one to be oneself.

Being is everything, Being any thing in particular is

An illusion.


30

Volume Three

In the Shadow of the Formless

Forward

You hold in your hand a most unique tutorial

on the subject of being. In one sense, it is unique in

that the subject of how-to-be does not receive much

attention. In another sense, its uniqueness rests in the

simplicity and clarity in which the subject is

presented.

These lost writings of the ancient Chinese Wu

Hsin are completely devoid of compromise. They

challenge the most fundamental assumptions we

make about ourselves and our world and, when

viewed from openness, are truly transformative.

In Volume Three, In the Shadow of the Formless,

Wu Hsin continues his great treatise with some

surprising statements. For example:


One inherent error is

The preference for

The song of the future over

The seeming blandness of

The present moment.

Another error is

Using the mind

To try to understand

The words of Wu Hsin.

The mind is a tool

Unsuited to this task.

The proper tool is silence.

The seed is in the ground;

The sun will shine;

The rain will fall;

Nothing need be done.

Nothing need be done. After all the words

have been read, after their meaning has been

pondered with new concepts possibly added, nothing

need be done. How hard this is for the Western mind

to accept. “What do I need to do to get it?” is the


32

usual question. Here, Wu Hsin provides the

disconcerting answer “Nothing need be done”.

Behind this statement lies the even more

disquieting question “Who is there to do anything?”

Therein, the reader is returned to one of the central

themes of Wu Hsin, that is, that there really is no

such thing as an individual:

There is a belief of separateness,

That you are separate from the rest.

There is nothing you can do

To rid yourself of this belief because

“You” is the belief.

Stated in modern terms, the philosophy of

Wu Hsin could be summed up in this manner: There

is thinking and there is functioning, distinct from

thinking. Thinking reflects the programming for

survival, for continuity, which manifests through the

psychosomatic apparatus. A reference point is

created via the thought me. This me is the sum or

totality of all fears: the fear of pain, the fear of loss,


and ultimately, the fear of absence. Most of the

thoughts regarding me are repetitious, an extraneous

feedback loop in the nervous system.

Interestingly however, thought is not born in

the brain any more than a radio creates sound. It is

merely transmitted through it. Functioning occurs

through the workings of consciousness and the life-

force. Functioning is effortless and natural. Cells are

replaced, wastes are eliminated, what needs to be

done gets done.

There is an aware-presence-energy. Giving

attention to thought perpetuates the programming.

Giving attention to the functioning, the aware-

presence-energy, facilitates the de-programming. The

"I/me" is latent in the apparatus at birth, as the

flower is latent in the seed. The preliminary

programming is installed genetically.

At some point between 18-24 months,

sufficient memories, both pleasant and unpleasant,

have accumulated thereby triggering the "I/me" or

self consciousness to arise. Seeing itself as separate


34

and insecure causes the activation (boot) of the

programming as a means of protection.

It is perpetually modified and adjusted

(upgraded) by the experiences of the apparatus and is

further “tweaked” by the moment-by-moment

adjustments made by the endocrine system. From

that point forward, the hardware (soma) receives the

input from the environment. It is processed by the

software (psyche) which provides the output

([re]action). There is no individual, as such, doing

anything. Everything that happens is the cause of

everything that happens. There is no center to

infinity.

I strongly doubt that Wu Hsin would want

readers to take him at his word. Instead, he would

ask that each investigate the matter deeply within

oneself. Search for the individual, locate the

operating center. This is the lasting challenge of one

of the most profound teachers of all time.

~

Using the flutist’s flute


Does not make one

A flutist.

Wu Hsin has no tools,

No method to render.

He speaks of how it was for him,

Not implying that it will be

Likewise for another.

~

Wu Hsin has no intended outcome in

The offering of these words,

Just as water is unconcerned

Whether or not

It quenches thirst.

~ All individuals die.

Only those

Who are no longer individuals

Live forever.

~


36

One inherent error is

The preference for

The song of the future over

The seeming blandness of

The present moment.

Another error is

Using the mind

To try to understand

The words of Wu Hsin.

The mind is a tool

Unsuited to this task.

The proper tool is silence.

The seed is in the ground;

The sun will shine;

The rain will fall;

Nothing need be done.

~

You believe that

There is nothing greater than

Your God.

Wu Hsin says


There is nothing greater than

Your God and

I am that Nothing.

~

The reconciliation of

The feeling of separateness with

The reality of unity is

The enlightened view.

That which provided

The feeling of separateness

Takes it away.

There is nothing to be done.

~

What is derived from effort

Relates to the physical realm only.

What is derived from effortlessness, is

True knowing.

Not a knowledge of things, but

A knowing of What-Is.


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Just as a spider

Spins a web out from itself,

So does each man spin his world

Out from himself.

Seeing this is

The beginning of the end.

~

Everywhere one looks,

One sees aspects of

A single unity.

How can the seer, therefore,

Believe itself to be separate?

Is not the one who sees

Merely another aspect of

That which is seen?

~

Although feeling lost is an illusion,

It is the first step in

Finding That which can


Never be lost.

Being is the seed of manifestation in which

All actions happen.

Just as a forest of trees is

Contained in a single seed,

So all of life is in

The seed of being.

Who, therefore, is doing anything?

~

Different instruments produce

Different sounds constituting

The melody of life.

The incense stick is lit.

It burns until

It is completely finished.

What remains is

The lighter of the stick.

He who sees the stick in himself and

Understands what Wu Hsin has said,

Has done very well.


40

~

Thoughts are like

The promises of politicians and

Should be treated accordingly.

What is this body but

An animated corpse?

The investigation of the animator

Yields the knowing of which

Wu Hsin speaks.

~

The music is latent in

The flute just as

The child is latent in

The mother.

See that you have

Brought your world with you.

Then, let it go.

~


Giving attention to What-Is and

Not giving attention to

What appears to be, is

The key to opening

The prison door.

~

There may be many receptacles that

Hold the river water.

Yet, the quality of the water

Remains unchanged.

To identify with the receptacle is

The only error.

~

All seeking is for

The cessation of pain.

When the seeker is gone,

The pain is gone.

~


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Trace your good luck

Back to its source or

Trace your bad luck

Back to its source and

You will discover that

The Source is the same.

From the One

Comes the Many.

As a baby nurses at

Its mother’s breast,

One must nurse at

The source of life’s sustenance

So that one may discover

The essence of being.

~

Being natural is

Being sacred.

Movement away from there is

Movement toward unhappiness.

The position is quite simple:

The One manifests as


The Many.

The water taken from the river is of

The same quality as

The water in the river although

It may appear in

A different vessel.

~

If one sees oneself as

The center of everything with

The power to shape things

To suit one’s desires, then

One has become

One’s god.

~

A dog does not know

He is a dog.

He only knows

He is.

If only man


44

Could be so fortunate.

~

Identification with a body is

The birth of the person,

The individual.

The personality then acts

To protect the body from

That which is

Other than itself.

When this false identification is

Seen through,

That which one truly is

Manifests and shines.

~

Deep understanding,

True understanding is permanent.

The pickle never

Returns to being a cucumber.


~

Until the boundary between

Inner and outer dissolves,

All changes are only minor.

~

In the cessation of duality,

Oneness is revealed.

There can be no

Being one with…

There is only being.

~

In ancient times,

Before there were individuals,

There were no problems.

Then, the individuals

Turned this against that and

Problems arose.

Identification with a body is

Merely a habit,


46

Taught to the child

Early in its life.

Breaking this habit is like

A chick breaking its shell.

What a wondrous world awaits.

~

To depart from a vast no-thing

To become a small some-thing is

The pinnacle of foolishness.

Living spontaneously leaves

No time to think.

This is true living.

~

Choice is an illusion.

The individual having choice or

Not having choice is

Also an illusion.

What is an illusion?

It is when things are not


As they seem.

Once a realignment occurs,

One watches

What is happening

Without believing that

One is making it happen.

The body does what it chooses;

It wakes without permission,

Gets ill without permission.

Dies without permission.

All of this is to say,

A role is played;

Nothing more.

~

Those who have re-cognized

Their true condition

Welcome whatever comes, thereby

Living life to its fullest.

The person is

A phenomenon in time.

Being is eternal.


48

~

Devotion to a teacher is

Far less important than

Devotion to a teaching.

True stillness,

Stillness without someone

Trying to be still, is

The solvent in which

All individual conditioning

Can be dissolved.

What remains is a neutrality,

An acceptance of What-Is.


Volume Four

Recognition of the Obvious

Forward

Trying to grasp the teachings of Wu Hsin is

like trying to grasp the wind in the palm of your

hand. While they are as refreshing and fragrant as a

fresh breeze, they can also be as devastating as a

wildfire.

Wu Hsin doesn’t provide answers to the

questions of life because life is its own answer. It is

what-is. It moves, it flows, it breathes itself into and

through everything.

Instead, the writings of Wu Hsin expose,

without com-promise, the fundamental

misconception that there is something called an

individual that needs to find something else outside

of itself. Admittedly, the sense of being a separate

individual feels very real and affects every part of that

apparent experience. Wu Hsin makes it abundantly


50

clear; however, that this is a state of contracted

energy, a sense of having lost something unnamable.

It would therefore seem that the source of all

unhappiness is the individual not getting/finding

what it wants. Yet, this is not the problem. Wu Hsin

ponders:

All suffering is personal.

In the absence of the person,

Where can suffering alight?

No amount of effort can ever bring anything

other than more me searching for that which the me

doesn’t have, the end result only serving to reinforce

the reference center: me. In Volume Four, Recognition of

the Obvious, Wu Hsin illuminates that all hopes of

attainment, all efforts at becoming, ultimately avoid

that which me most fears … its own absence.

This message is so simple it totally confounds

the mind. Almost instantaneously, the mind says

“Yes, but…………what about this, what about

that?” There is no 'yes, but'. You can't say 'yes' and


continue with 'but'. If the 'yes' is a real 'yes', that

releases the thing into nothingness and it is finished.

If you say 'but', you are giving continuity to that dead

structure of thought, past experience and future

hope.

Wu Hsin puts it this way:

What is keeping one from being in one’s natural state?

One is constantly moving way from oneself.

One wants to be happy;

One is dissatisfied with one’s experiences of life.

One wants new ones.

One wants to perfect oneself,

To change oneself.

Trying to be something other than what one is, is

The going away from oneself.

It is the resistance to What-Is.

The desire to alter this you, is

The only energy that sustains it.

In the absence of this energy,

You cannot continue;

Then, the natural state shines effortlessly.


52

Appearances notwithstanding, it is really as

simple as that. What is unnatural may obscure what is

natural. But it doesn’t negate it. When you look at an

Escher picture, it may all of a sudden seem to turn

inside out. Nothing has changed in the picture, but

something has shifted in your perception of it. At this

point you could say everything has changed, or

nothing has changed.

To see through these things, requires

investigation. This is the real gift of Wu Hsin, the

challenge to investigate the validity of all concepts

and all beliefs. It is here that the seeing through takes

place and the clarity occurs. Yet, this clarity also has

its price:

One can’t have a piece of It.

It is all or nothing.

One must make room;

It requires a lot of space.

Everything must go.


~

The first thought is I.

It is the root-thought,

The foundation upon which

All else is built and from which

All other thoughts have their origin.

The arrival of the I-thought and

The arrival of the world

Occur simultaneously.

Neither exists without the other.

This is Wu Hsin’s open secret.

Those that make it their own

Move beyond struggle and strife,

Pleasure and pain.

To discard this is to

Throw away the diamonds with the ice.

~

Awareness is the primal constant.

On it, worlds are built and

Individuals are imagined.


54

~

Clarity is the great neutralizer.

~

Thinking is not the natural state.

Perceiving thought is the natural state.

The pure perceiving is prior to

The imposition of a perceiver.

~

There are some

Who are afraid of

Stepping outside of their huts,

Afraid of what they’ll find.

More are there

Who are afraid of

Stepping outside of their minds.

Afraid that they’ll find nothing when

They look back.


~

One can feel miserable on

A beautiful beach.

One can feel ecstatic

While in jail.

The outer need not

Dictate the inner.

When the wall between the two dissolves,

That which sources both is revealed.

~

When man wants to

Run away from the potential

Contained within him,

He creates his god to aspire to.

Wu Hsin declares:

They are not two.

~

The personal world is

A reflection of the person.


56

What madness it is

To fault the reflection!

Can an image be changed without

Changing the face?

~

It is only ideas that

Create the notion of separation.

When it is seen that

Everything rises and sets in you,

What can you be separate from?

~

The vision of unity is

The end of all things personal.

There is no event that

Delivers this unity vision.

Who could it occur to?

With nobody here and

Nobody there,

Everything is as it should be.


~

All disappointment,

All disillusionment is

An invitation to investigate

Who is disappointed;

Who is disillusioned?

~

The work of this moment is

Watching the work of this moment.

~

Focusing on the plot of the book

Does not bring one

Closer to the author.

~

Where the where is not,

When the when is not,

I am.


58

~

In every experience,

The expression is

The objective part, which is changing.

The background is

The subjective part;

The unchanging field.

~

That which is by its nature restless

Can never find peace.

Peace of mind is

The mind’s fantasy.

~

When it is seen that

An empty cup is receptive and

A full cup cannot receive,

Those with wisdom choose emptiness.


~

To be natural

Requires no learning.

~

Stop pretending that what isn’t is

Superior to What-Is.

It isn’t.

~

Either one is

Responsible for everything or

One is responsible for nothing.

The end result is the same.

~

Wang asked Wu Hsin:

“When shall I achieve this clarity?”

Wu Hsin replied,

“When the when is dead”.


60

~

Ignorance is the

Ignoring of what is

Clear, present, and obvious.

If the cloth fits, wear it.

~

As soon as your god is assigned attributes,

It becomes merely another object in

A world of objects.

Only the non-objective god is

The true subject.

~

The desire for salvation is

The elixir of fools.

The only saving one needs is to be

Saved from one’s imagination.

~


The way the world appears is

Dependent on which side of the window

One is looking from.

~

If the person is

Merely an appearance, then

Who cares?

~

Until one becomes clear about

The true source of happiness.

All looking for it is folly.


62

Volume Five

No Great Future Attainment

Forward

There really isn’t anything to add to what I

have written in the previous Forwards. In this final

volume, Wu Hsin continues his onslaught on the

seemingly known while providing new insights into

the mystery called Awareness.

One aspect that does not receive a lot of

attention is that the reader should approach Wu Hsin

with unwavering trust. Set aside all notions of what is

already known and evaluate this message on the

merits of its resonance with the reader. The math

teacher is not questioned that 2+2 =4; it is taken as a

priori. The same attitude is required here.

Otherwise:

Wu Hsin may talk for years on end.

However, he can never convince a blind man of


The beauty of a rainbow.

~

Ignorance disguised in new vocabulary does not

Make for understanding.

~

This life that is taken so seriously,

What is it really?

Is it anything more than that small dash between

The date of birth and

The date of death?

~

What constitutes the sense of I am this is

Constantly changing while

What constitutes the sense of I am is unmoving.

The shift in the attention from

The former to the latter is

The perfume of lucid sight.


64

~

When objectification ceases,

Time ceases,

Space ceases,

The need for these media ceases.

~

Is life better understood by

Looking at it more closely, or by

Stepping back further from it?

Standing back from the seeming seer is

The distance needed to bring perspective.

~

A wise man never overcomes adversity.

He circumvents it.

~

Wu Hsin and you were both present at

The birth of the sky.


He remembers,

You do not.

~

Anything in time cannot be eternal.

That which stands outside of time is

Eternity itself.

Hearing its call is

The end of time.

~

A thought appears.

Is there someone thinking or is it

Only the echo of a knock on the door

Reverberating through an empty house?

~

Despite how it seems.

A rooster’s crowing does not cause

The sun to rise.

Lucidity discriminates between

The apparent and the real.


66

~

Bridging the gap between

Your god’s will and your own is

The revelation of What-Is.

~

Security is the freedom from

The need for security.

~

Clouds appear and disappear,

The sky remains unfazed.

~

Individual effort to affect circumstances

Obscures life’s magic.

~

The one one knows,

One is not.


When the one not-yet-known is known,

No further knowing is required.

~

The propriety of any action

Exists only in

The mind of the actor.

It may be deemed appropriate by some and

Inappropriate by others.

It may be deemed appropriate today and

Inappropriate tomorrow.

Wu Hsin does not squander his time judging.

~

There is no going within to

A within that cannot be located.

Imaginations cannot be ended with

More imaginations.

~

A flawed perspective breeds


68

A flawed view.

~

One never sees things as they are.

One sees things as one is.

~

All beliefs are woven;

True knowledge is bedrock.

Small doubt precedes small clarity.

Great doubt precedes great clarity.

~

All objects, whether

Physical or mental are

Pointers to that which perceives them.

To see this is to be this.

~

If one is not


Trying to get to some place,

One cannot become lost.

~

There is a beginning and an end to

All things objective.

That which perceives them has no beginning

Nor any end.

Being birthless,

It is deathless.

~

The arrival of clarity is

The losing of

What was never one’s own.

~

The body is insentient.

No different than a stone.

That which perceives via the body is not

The body.


70

It is that which enlivens the body.

It is both the witness and

The substance of all experience.

It is That.

~

Thoughts are not the problem.

Ownership of thoughts is the problem.

~

The individual and the world are

Co-created moment by moment in imagination.

Appearing together and

Disappearing together in

That which never appears or disappears.

~

Wu Hsin has no teaching.

Wu Hsin points to what Wu Hsin is,

What one is, and


The absence of difference in the two.

In this, all teachings are contained.

~

The ones who have been

Seeking for the longest time are

The ones who refuse to

Let go of the seeking.

~

The power of the ocean is

The support of every wave.

Can there be any wave in

The absence of the ocean?

~

The vision of the mind is

The vision of the world.

~


72

What distinguishes

A wise man from the common man is that

The wise man does not need tomorrow.

He doesn’t even want it;

Now is enough.

~

The world appears in your light.

With the light in abeyance,

Nothing is.


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author, visit:

www.roymelvyn.com

The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin (sample)

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