Ordinary Heart is The Way (Zhàozhòu and Nánquán)
Translated by: Tony Nguyễn Wiederhold from 趙州禅師語録 (Jōshūzenji Go-roku, Akizuki, 1964)

Note: This is what Practice Leaders and Timekeepers usually recite before our silent meditation practices. 

One day, Zhàozhōu asked Nánquán: “What is The Way?”
Nánquán said, “Ordinary heart is.”
Zhàozhōu said, “May it be pursued or not?”
Nánquán said, “If you seek it, you’ll never find it.”
Zhàozhōu said, “Well, if I don’t seek it, how can I know about The Way?”
Nánquán said, “The Way does not belong to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is fake enlightenment. Not knowing is unremembering. If you sincerely live The Way of No Pretending, it’s just like the sky: wide open, vast, emptiness. How can you say yes or no to it?”

At these words, Zhàozhōu fell awake. Their heart became serene, like the bright moon.

The original Chinese text was written in 953 CE. This version is from a Song Dynasty work called 古尊宿語錄 .

師問南泉：如何是道。
泉云：平常心是。
師云：還可趣向不。
泉云：擬即乖。
師云：不擬爭知是道。
泉云：道不屬知不知。知是妄覺、不知是無記。若眞達不擬之道，猶如太虛，廓然蕩豁。豈可強是非也。

師於言下頓悟玄旨，心如朗月。

Seasons Poem
Translated by Tony Nguyễn Wiederhold from 禪宗無門關 (Chán Zong Wúmén Guan, Fo Guan Shan Monastery)

Note: these are usually the words we use to break silence at the end of our retreat practices. It is a poem that accompanies a version of  “Ordinary Heart is The Way” that is found in Wumen Guan (禪宗無門關), first published in 1229 CE.

Spring has 100 blooms. Autumn has the moon.
Summer has cool breezes. Winter has snow.
When your ordinary heart is unobscured,
it is a season of celebration for all beings.

春有百花秋有月
夏有涼風冬有雪
若無閑事掛心頭
便是人間好時節

Xuân hữu bách hoa, thu hữu nguyệt,
giá hữu lương phong, đông hữu tuyết.
Nhược vô nhàn the quải tâm đầu,
tiện thị nhân gian hảo thời tiết.

The Heart Sutra
Translated by Tony Nguyễn Wiederhold from the Vietnamese literary and chant versions, Ma-ha Bát-nhã Ba-la Mật-đa Tâm Kinh, Việt Văn và Phiên Âm

Note: the bolded section is what ưe recite at the beginning of meditation in our Movement and Meditation for Collective Liberation practices. 

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the Way of No Pretending, realizes that all five skandhas are empty and immediately moves beyond all forms of grief and cruelty.

Shariputra, form is not different from emptiness. Emptiness is not different from form.
That which is form is emptiness. That which is emptiness, form.
The same is true of feeling, perception, impression, and discrimination.

Shariputra, all phenomena are marked with emptiness.
They do not appear out of nothing or disappear into nothingness, are not tainted or pure, and do not increase or decrease. Therefore, in emptiness, no form, no feeling, perception, impression, or discrimination.

No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind.
No color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind.
No realm of eyes and so forth until no realm of mind discrimination.
No ignorance and also no extinction of it and so forth until no old age and death and also no extinction of them.

No Suffering, no Origination, no Stopping, no Path.
No knowledge, and also no attainment with nothing to attain.

Compassionate beings practice The Way of No Pretending and the heart has no hindrance.
Without any hindrance, no fears exist.
Far apart from every distorted view, one dwells in Nirvana.

In all times, all Buddhas depend on The Way of No Pretending and attain that which is unsurpassable: Collective Liberation.

Therefore, know that The Way of No Pretending is the great transcendent mantra,
is the great, bright mantra,
is the utmost mantra,
is the supreme mantra that is able to relieve all suffering and is true, not false.

So proclaim the prajna paramita mantra. Proclaim the mantra that says:

Gate gate paragate parasamgate. Bodhi. Svaha!
Gate gate paragate parasamgate. Bodhi. Svaha!
Gate gate paragate parasamgate. Bodhi. Svaha!

(Gone, gone, really gone, altogether gone. Awake. Aha!)