Abide not with dualism, carefully avoid pursuing it; as soon as you have right and wrong, confusion ensues and Mind is lost.
— Sosan Ganchi Zenji, On Believing In Mind
The two exist because of the One, but hold not even to this One; when a mind is not disturbed, the ten thousand things offer no offense.
No offense offered, and no ten thousand things; no disturbance going, and no mind set up to work; the subject is quiet when the object ceases, the object ceases when the subject is quieted.
The object is an object for the subject, the subject is a subject for the object; know that the relativity of the two rests ultimately in one Emptiness.
When a conflict arises with our spouse, partner, coworker, or child, when we hear about terrorism or acts of brutality and injustice, how do we respond according to the Way? Sosan tells us that right and wrong, good and bad, truth and falsehood, love and hate rest in one Emptiness.
Last week we heard Hakuin reply in the face of judgment and falsehood, ” Is it so? “. His response emerged from emptiness, an emptiness from which a compassionate response arose without effort or thought, without moral obligation or a sense of pity.
Hakuin was empty, but not passive or inert. He expressed no preference or judgment when presented with the baby, yet all was resolved of its own accord.
Just as the couple abandoned the baby, then confessed the truth and retrieved the baby, Hakuin returns to his response again and again, ” Is it so? “.
So too in Zazen does our breath, like Hakuin’s response, arise again and again of its own accord, compassionately sustaining us without effort or thought.