From The Maxims Of Seng Tsan

[poliphilo]

The wise let things be
But the foolish are restless.
In truth all things are worthy of love,
But the foolish pick and choose.
They create illusions and fall madly in love with them.
How ridiculous this is.

The ignorant are torn by desire
But the wise have no likes and dislikes.
Good and evil, right and wrong, the lovely and unlovely:
All are illusions, conjuring tricks, insubstantial pageants.
Reach for them and there’s nothing.
Gain and loss, right and wrong:
Clear your mind of such nonsense.

Comments

[ex-kalymura481.livejournal.com]

My reaction to the first verse was: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

However, by the second: "Good and evil, right and wrong, the lovely and unlovely: All are illusions" suggests (to me) that religions are out-ruled too.

Interesting; thank you.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

This guy was a Zen master. Zen is more philosophy than religion. In other verses he talks about The Unity- by which he means something akin to Western transcendentalist views of Deity, I think.