The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that simplicity and clarity in life come from being free of attachments and desires.
Sengcan's quote highlights the importance of letting go of personal preferences, attachments, and biases in order to follow the 'Great Way' or the path of enlightenment and wisdom. When individuals are not burdened by their own desires and judgments, they can navigate life with greater ease and clarity, embracing the present moment and the experiences it brings.
In practice
In a meditation class, to explain the importance of letting go of attachments.
One thing, all things: move among and intermingle, without distinction. To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about non-perfection. To live in this faith is the road to non-duality, because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.
To live in the Great Way is neither easy nor difficult, but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute: the faster they hurry, the slower they go, and clinging cannot be limited: even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray. Just let things be in their own way and there will be neither coming nor going. Obey the nature of things (your own nature), and you will walk freely and undisturbed.
Return to the root and you will find the meaning.
When mind exists undisturbed in the Way, nothing in the world can offend, and when a thing can no longer offend it ceases to exist in the old way. When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist.
When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden, for everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness. What benefit can be derived from distinctions and separations?
Step aside from all thinking, and there is nowhere you can't go.
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody understands at the time--and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
Rush, that most exciting perversion of life, the necessity of accomplishing something in less time than should be truly allowed for its doing.
The man who meets with a failure attributes this failure rather to the ill will of another than to fate.
Being an American means never having to say you're sorry.
We grow tyrannical fighting tyranny. . . . The most alarming spectacle today is not the spectacle of the atomic bomb in an unfederated world, it is the spectacle of the Americans beginning to accept the device of loyalty oaths and witch hunts, beginning to call anybody they don't like a Communist.
The great soul of power extends far beyond states, to every domain of life, from families to international affairs. And throughout, every form of authority and domination bears a severe burden of proof. It is not self-legitimizing. And when it cannot bear the burden, as is commonly the case, it should be dismantled.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.