Bodhidharma: Apart from motion there's no mind, and apart from mind there's no motion

Soh Wei Yu
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Haven’t touched this book (a collection of many sutras and teachings of Zen masters, curated by Venerable Shen Kai) in years. Caught my eye and I opened it. The first page I opened to, it described the anatman insight. Wonderful. A passage by Bodhidharma.



Soh Wei Yu
From the first image:
My translation:
若自心动，乃至语言施为运动，见闻觉知，皆是动心动用。


Language and behavior, perception and conception are all functions of the moving mind, seeing, hearing, cognizing are all the functions of a moving mind.


动是心动，动即其用。动用外无心，心外无动。


Motion is the motion of mind, motion is its function. Apart from motion there's no mind, and apart from mind there's no motion.


动不是心，心不是动。动本无心，心本无动。


But motion isn't mind. And mind isn't motion. Motion is basically mindless. And mind is basically motionless.


动无心离，心无动离，动是心用，用是心动。


There's no mind for motion to exist apart from, and no motion for mind to exist apart from. Motion is mind's function, and its function is its motion.


动是心用，用是心动。动即心用，用即心动。


Motion is mind's function, and function is mind's movement. Movement is precisely mind's function, function is precisely mind's movement.


不动不用，用体本空。空本无动，动用同心，心本无动。

Without movement and without function, function is fundamentally empty of substance. Emptiness is primordially without movement, movement and function are both mind, and mind is primordially without movement.


故经云：动而无所动，终日去来而未曾去，终日见而未曾见，终日（口＋笑）而未曾（口＋笑），终日闻而未曾闻，终日知而未曾知，终日喜而未曾喜，终日行而未曾行，终日住而未曾住。故经云：言语道断，心行处灭，见闻觉知，本自圆寂。乃至嗔喜痛痒何异木人，只缘推寻痛痒不可得。


Hence the sutras tell us to move without something moved, to come and go without ever having gone, to see without ever seeing, to laugh without ever laughing, to hear without ever hearing, to know without ever knowing, to be happy without ever being happy, to walk without ever walking, to stand without ever standing. And the sutras say, "annihilating the locus of mental functioning, cutting off the path of language". Fundamentally, seeing, hearing, and knowing are themselves completely quiescent [empty and non-arisen]. Your anger, joy, or pain is like that of a wooden dummy. You can search the pain and itches, but it's unfindable.

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Soh Wei Yu
As Jayson MPaul wrote before:
“none of these things are about nihilism, although that is a real danger for those who misunderstand emptiness. No Mind is what is always already true. It has no existence of its own. No mind apart from phenomena, no phenomena apart from mind. This is what Soh Wei Yu meant when he said there is no true existence of mind."

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    • Geovani Geo
    This is really very good - says my mind 🙂


    • Geovani Geo
    But I don't remember such passage in Bodhidharma's text. Probably a diference in interpretation of ideograms. BTW... this is a significant issue regarding ideograms.


    Soh Wei Yu
    Geovani Geo existing translations are really not so good.
    My translation is better. 🤪

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