To be bigoted & argue with others, is to subject one's essence of mind to the bitterness of mundane existence.
Interpretation
Bigotry can poison the mind and lead to a bitter life.
Huineng suggests that engaging in bigotry and arguments with others not only harms relationships but also diminishes the quality of one's own thoughts and existence. It implies that such negativity traps a person in a mundane and unfulfilling life, inhibiting personal growth and understanding.
In practice
During a lecture on tolerance, the speaker might quote Huineng to emphasize the importance of open-mindedness.
Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon's location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?
When our mind works freely without any hindrance, and is at liberty to 'come' or to 'go', we attain Samadhi of Prajna, or liberation. Such a state is called the function of 'thoughtlessness'. But to refrain from thinking of anything, so that all thoughts are suppressed, is to be Dharma-ridden, and this is an erroneous view.
Words are not truth. Truth is like the moon, and words are like my finger. I can point to the moon with my finger, but my finger is not the moon. Do you need my finger to see the moon?
Sit all together in meditation. Become peacefully calm and quiet, without motion, without stillness, without birth, without destruction, without coming or going, with no judgments of right or wrong, neither staying nor going. This, then, is the Great Way.
To meditate means to realize inwardly the imperturbability of the Essence of Mind. _x000D_ _x000D_ The reason why we are perturbed is because we allow ourselves to be carried away by the circumstances we are in. Those who are able to keep their mind unperturbed, irrespective of circumstances, have attained Inner Peace.
Brittle masculinity, in the right setting, becomes political atrocity. Strength brings problems; weakness brings others, but weakness posing as strength is the most dangerous of all.
The universe has a body and soul and evolves through cosmic time. As microcosms of stardust, we do the same.
I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.
After all, if there is no class stratification in a society, it follows that there is no state, because the state arose as an instrument to be used by a particular class to control the rest of society in its own interests.
The voice of the people is the voice of humbug.
Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value.
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