109. Incurring Not a Single Thought and Letting All Thoughts Die Out

¹ The hardest thing in life is to have control over one’s heart. To cultivate the Dao is to temper one’s heart. All saints of the three religions (Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism) took the “mind” as the main principle of cultivating the Dao.

¹ 人生最難把握的就是自己的心。修道就是修心。三家（釋、道、儒）聖人，均以「心」為修道的總綱。

² Confucianism talks about “rectifying the mind and making the will sincere.” Buddhism advocates “seeing into one’s original nature.” Daoism stresses “tempering the mind.”

² 儒家講「正心誠意」，佛家講「明心見性」，道家講「煉心」。

³ Human desires are insatiable. To temper the mind is to refine the mind that is full of desires until nothing is left. The goal is to empty the mind, to have no thoughts, no feelings and no self.

³ 因為人的慾望是永遠無法滿足的。修心就是把充滿慾望的心，煉得一無所有。以無心、無念、無情、無我為目的。

⁴ If one can temper the mind to be un- aroused, treat wealth and fame as passing clouds, and treat drinking, sex, and insatiable thirst for wealth and anger as dung, he will be able to incur not a single thought and all thoughts die out. It is to turn an ordinary person’s mindset to Dao mindset, which is the original heart.

⁴ 能修到不動心，視榮華富貴如浮雲，酒色財氣如糞土，也就是能做到一念不起，萬念俱寂，將凡夫俗子之心煉成道心，即本心的境界。

⁵ A Chinese adage of sixteen characters says: “Human hearts are unpredictable and are prone to do evil; the development of everything always begins from something small, thus the ruler of a country needs to be keen in senses and judgment, and always takes preventive measures; he should persistently explore the truths of all matters with an undivided mind and does not allow anything to interfere with his judgment; he needs to follow the law of nature and takes unbiased approach in running the country.” ^[24] This explains the secret knowledge of what tempering the mind is all about.

⁵ 中國有十六字心傳：「人心惟危，道心惟微；惟精惟一，允執厥中」，便是說明煉心之堂奧。

Kazan Kai Kan (Kazan Conference Center), Tora no Mon, Tokyo, Japan, November 19, 1983

日本東京虎門霞山會館－民國七十二年十一月十九日