The Perfect Penetration of the Six Roots

Sitting in stillness at dawn, the sounds of drumming, wind, chanting, and birdsong all enter the ears; the mind transcends the mundane world, ripple-free.

Inner thoughts arise again—matters of the world, the nation, sentient beings, propagating the Dharma to liberate multitudes—all emerge; the mind detaches from all appearances, without stirring even a slight ripple.

Worldly affairs—the croaking of frogs, the chirring of cicadas, the struggles of ants, the strife of bees—merely provoke a laugh. Except for death, nothing is of great import. Even matters of life and death are not significant; like bubbles arising and vanishing, all is empty illusion.

Transcendent affairs—liberation from all sufferings, propagating the Dharma to benefit beings—cannot be taken seriously, for all are but events within a dream. Fame, profit, offerings, slander, praise, acclaim, ridicule, vows, responsibilities—all are merely empty appearances.

All sounds are like echoes in an empty valley—none are grasped. All forms are like mirages—none are clung to. All principles and phenomena are like tortoise hair and rabbit horns—none are clung to. The world's threats and temptations are all traps; the world's bustling dances of splendor are all thorns. Words, laughter, speech, silence, raising hands, moving feet—all fabricated actions are karmic suffering. When the six sense faculties encounter objects—sights, sounds, pleasures, pursuits—if even a hair's breadth is clung to, it is like swallowing poison.

The eye, form, and seeing are all empty. The ear, sound, and hearing are all empty. The nose, scent, and smelling are all empty. The tongue, taste, and tasting are all empty. The body, touch, and feeling are all empty. The mind, mental objects, and thinking are all empty. The emptier is empty; the emptied is empty; even the emptiness within the mind is empty; even the emptiness of emptiness is empty—until not a single filament can be established, not a speck of dust can be obtained. Not established nor unestablished; not obtained nor lost. Only then is the message of homecoming realized.

Home has no four walls, no blade of grass, not even a pinpoint of land—ultimately without the slightest dust. Not even "without the slightest dust" exists; even "non-existence" is nonexistent. Upon reaching this, not only are the ear faculty perfected, the eye faculty perfected, the nose faculty perfected, the tongue faculty perfected, the body faculty perfected, but the mind faculty is also perfected—all six sense faculties are perfected. Perfected into what? Zen!