Practice and Attain Sudden Enlightenment

A monk once asked his master: What is "Tzung"(Ch'an/Zen -- editor of the web edition)?

The master said: All Buddhas return to Tzung. Tzung is the Mind. This Mind is vast, comprehensive and empty, having neither karmic residue nor discrimination. However, without practice there can be no attainment of this Mind. The sutra says: "Buddha declared that the Mind is Tzung, that without any door whatsoever is the Dharma door and that from ancient times to the present in the west and in the east, in the teaching of all Buddhas, in the transmissions of all the Patriarchs, only this Mind is the substance of Tzung. "The substance of Mind is clean, originally perfect and bright, accords with conditions and yet is untainted. Just return to the Origin, which is neither pure nor impure, is neither less for worldly people nor more for worthy sages, does not change for different beings, is understood by wisdom, is bright and manifest, and is only One Mind. If the mind is covered over with defilements, this wonderful substance will be hidden. If you abandon this correct way of understand in order to practice other ways, then you will ultimately become a demon, having chosen the wrong way.

The monk asked: What is the Teaching?

The master said: All Buddhas expounded the True Dharma, which is composed of the expedients of the Three Vehicles and the five different natures. Also, all the Bodhisattvas composed the Sastras just to demonstrate that all things are the One Mind, so that practitioners of later times would be inspired by the Teaching to cut off illusion and return to the truth in order to practice the Doctrine and attain its aim.

The monk asked: What is the difference between Tzung (Ch'an) and the Teaching?

The master said: Tzung is the Teaching without words, while the Teaching is Tzung with words.

The monk asked: If both Tzung and the Teaching are the same principle, then why is it said that Tzung is "a special transmission outside of the Scriptures".

The master said: because students depend on words, they can develop gradual understanding by way of the Teaching. However, without words the Sudden Enlightenment of the One Mind can also be attained by Tzung. Therefore, to say that Tzung is "a special transmission outside of the Scriptures" is also to say that Tzung is the "Supreme Sect".

The monk asked: What is without "two doctrines"?

The master said: After hearing the Teaching and understanding the Doctrine, you should practice to attain spontaneous accord with the non-active Great Tao. However, to attain Sudden Enlightenment in the Ch'an Sect, you should develop a complete, concentrated practice to recover your still, bright Original Mind.

The monk asked: The sutra says, "In reality, there are not two ways to return to the Source of Nature." However, since there seem to be many expedient ways, I do not know which way is the most direct way for deliverance. Can you suggest which is the most direct way?

The master said: There are two causes inside and two causes outside characterizing the most direct way for deliverance.

The monk asked: Would you please point out the two causes, both inside and outside, characterizing this direct way?

The master said: They are the following: the cutting off of the outside causes of carnality, killing and stealing; the developing of the inside causes of understanding the Mind to see your True Nature.

The monk asked: Why should one cut off the outside causes of carnality, stealing and killing?

The master said: Due to thoughts of sexual desire, all sentient beings are involved in birth and death; because of killing all sentient beings must repay others with their own lives in transmigration; because of stealing, all sentient beings must come to rebirth to repay their principal and interest from previous lives. If you wipe out these three causes, then you will end the cycle of birth and death forever.

The monk asked: How can one see the nature of Mind by the inside causes?

The master said: If you see the Original Pure Mind, then you will see your own Nature, which is original emptiness.

The monk asked: How can you say that the Mind is originally pure?

The master said: This Mind is neither the body nor the heart. It is not the discriminating mind. It is not sophistical, but absolute; it is without birth and death; it neither exists nor non-exists. It is bright and empty. It is complete and reflects all things, is ever changing in condition yet immutable in essence, is immutable in essence yet ever changing in condition. It is eternal and immutable True Mind. All Buddhas in the past attained this Mind, and all Bodhisattvas in the present learn this Mind. All students in the future will come to understand this Mind, and all sentient beings will be confused about the nature of this Mind. All practitioners will be enlightened by this Mind. Bodhidharma came from the West to point out this Mind directly, and all virtues, from ancient times to the present, radiate this Mind. It is wonderful Mind, which cannot be described completely here and now. I describe it only briefly to encourage people of the future to believe in the Dharma and to attain Enlightenment.

The monk asked: What is seen to be the nature of Original Emptiness?

The master said: The nature of the One Reality is original emptiness and stillness, without shape and form, as clear as space, immovable and unshakable, deep and permanent. It is called the Original Face and Truth. All mountains, rivers, the great earth, all phenomena in the universe, and all things pure and impure come from this.

The monk asked: Are Original Nature and True Mind one or two?

The master said: They are neither one nor two.

The monk asked: What is neither one nor two?

The master said: Original Nature is the substance, and True Mind is the function. Original Nature is like a clear, bright mirror; and True Mind is like pure, radiant light. The ancient master said, "Original Nature is bright and wonderful. "Original Nature is the substance, which is deep and permanent. True Mind is the wonderful function, which is bright, perfect and illuminating, just as light illuminates a mirror. Since light and the mirror are two, you, therefore, cannot really say they are one; also, since light and the mirror are one, you, therefore, cannot really say they are two.

The monk asked: Since this is the case - that all Buddhas and all sentient beings are one substance of Mind Nature - then why are the Buddha and all other holy and sentient beings also worldly?

The master said: All Buddhas and sentient beings have the nature of Original Emptiness. Because the mind has both purity and impurity, there exist, therefore, the holy and the worldly.

The monk asked: Why does the mind have purity and impurity?

The master said: Original Nature is like a mirror that is completely still and bright. True Mind, like pure, clear light reflected in a mirror, illuminates all things without obscurity. All sages respond to things without a discriminating mind; they come and go, never taking hold of anything, like pure, colorless light. All sentient beings, on the other hand, respond to things with a discriminating mind, grasping, liking, disliking and making all sorts of distinctions, like impure, multi-colored light. However, even on this level, although the function, as in the case of light, can be experienced dualistically as pure of impure, yet the substance, as in the case of the mirror, remains one.

The monk asked: Does the substance of Mind Nature have limits?

The master said: Yes!

The monk asked: How wide are they?

The master said: They embrace and contain all the ten directions of inexhaustible space.

The monk asked: Since Mind Nature is without any boundaries whatsoever, why does it appear to be located inside the body?

The master said: Since beginningless time, all sentient beings have been imprisoned by the womb and shackled by the body, which they have always grasped very tightly; therefore, they have the almost unbreakable delusion that Mind Nature is inside the body. This is tantamount to regarding a thief as one's own son. It is like falling into a vast, eternal hell. When can you ever get out?! Not only are both heavenly beings and human beings confused about this, so also are the followers of the Two Vehicles.

The monk asked: If Mind Nature is not in the body, from where am I thinking at this very moment?

The master said: Your question is really about deluded consciousness and the body, because it implies that thinking and anxiety are your Mind. This is because of the deceptive influence of the six types of sensory objects, which deludes you about your True Nature and which makes you foolishly grasp the idea that your Mind is inside your body. Thinking in this way, how can you ever escape from the prison of the womb? In the Surangama Sutra, Buddha, replying to Ananda, says, "Ananda, this is a result of your false thinking, which arises from external objects and deludes you about your True Nature and which has deceived you since beginningless time and continues to deceive you, thereby making you lose awareness of that which is basically permanent; therefore, you continue in the round of birth and death. "To understand this you should know clearly that the mind of thinking and anxiety is like a shadow in a mirror or illusory flowers in the sky - really only voidness, just original nothingness.

The monk asked: If thinking and anxiety and the deceptive influence of the six types of sensory objects are in or connected with the body, what and where, then, is my bright and wonderful Mind Nature?

The master said: All sentient beings completely misunderstand the boundlessness of Mind Nature, which is neither inside nor outside the body. However, they grasp at the shadows of the six types of sensory objects and think that space includes the body and that the body includes the fleshly mind. Then they grasp at greed and love and, thus, bind themselves ever more and more to the cycle of the Wheel of Birth-and-Death. Who really, without any doubt whatsoever, knows that space, the great earth and all the other "things" in the universe are actually just false shadows and insubstantial illusions manifesting themselves in the bright and wonderful Mind Nature? The Surangama Sutra says, "Dimness creates emptiness; and both, in the darkness, unite with it to become form. The mingling of form with false thinking causes the latter to take the shape of a body, which is then stirred by accumulated causes within and is drawn to external objects. Such inner disturbance is mistaken for the true nature of Mind, and thus arises the false view of a mind dwelling within the physical body and the concurrent failure to realize that this body - are all nothing but phenomena within the wondrous, bright True Mind. "Because I am afraid that you still do not understand, let me give you a further analogy. Original nature is like a universal mirror. True Mind is like pure, bright universal light. Mountains, rivers, the great earth and all the other phenomena of the universe - even the physical body and consciousness - are just like shadows or reflections in the mirror. Because all sentient beings recognize only these shadows or reflections, they remain submerged in and bound to the four kinds of birth and the nine states of being. However, if they can just recognize the universal mirror itself and the bright, universal light, then they will, quite naturally and suddenly, recover the Original True Mind Nature.

The monk asked: Because vast Mind Nature, which includes all things, is not in the body, is it correct to think that it is outside the body?

The master said: No! That is not right!

The monk asked: Since I do not understand why it is neither inside nor outside, would you please explain it to me clearly?

The master said: Original Nature is as omnipresent as space. Being neither inside the body nor outside the body, True Mind does not dwell anywhere. It neither is the body nor is not the body. Therefore, even though Ananda looked for Mind in seven places, still he could not locate it because it is without a basis. The second Patriarch understood this truth and so, according with the Tao, uttered only one word. However, maybe it is still not clear, so let me give you another example. Original Nature is like the clear water of the ocean, while True Mind is like the light of that clear water. The body is like bubbles rising as wind moves over the water. Also, the ocean water is like the Dharmakaya, while the wetness of the water is like Original Nature. However, both the wetness of the bubbles and the wetness of the water are of the same nature. Therefore, there is no inside and no outside. Both the water and the bubbles have the nature of wetness, but worldly people mistakenly just grasp at the bubbles, abandoning the boundless ocean. The Surangama Sutra says, "Like an ignorant man who overlooks the great ocean but grasps at a floating bubble, regarding that bubble as the whole body of water in its immense expanse, you are doubly deluded among the deluded. "If one comes to understand that both the water of the bubble and the water of the ocean have only the one original nature of wetness, then how can he continue to cling to the erroneous notion of inside and outside? What a pity if you do not comprehend Original Nature!

The monk responded: The wetness of water is like the nature of the Dharmadhatu, and the wetness of the bubble is like consciousness in the body. Those two natures of wetness are not different; therefore, there is neither inside nor outside. Although there is neither inside nor outside, nevertheless, at the end of one's life, one leaves this place and is born in another place. So then it seems that there, indeed, is an inside and an outside. Taking this into account, how can you then say absolutely that there is no inside and no outside?

The master said: You still do not understand what I have taught you, and you continue to ask me where the sky-flowers (specks in the eye fluid seen as spatial presences) come from and where they go. You are very foolish, indeed! Because you do not regard your Original Nature right from the very beginning, false thoughts arise; and you then become bound within the prison of the womb. You consider your Original Nature to be located within your body; and then you go grasping at life after life, thinking that Mind Nature has an inside and an outside and that it comes and goes like those illusory flowers in the sky. However even though sky-flowers come and go in space, space itself never moves. Although consciousness seems to have an inside and an outside, Original Nature has neither and it never moves. Just as flowers in the sky are an illusion, so, also, consciousness in the body is false. You must use space, sky-flowers and other illusions to understand that the notion of consciousness as being or residing within the body is false. You should think about this yourself.

Do you, perhaps, still not understand? Let me quote from the Surangama Sutra once again: "Think of the void in an empty pitcher which has two mouths. If one stoppers both mouths and carries the pitcher to another country, the void does not go from one place to

another. If it were actually possible to carry the void from one place to another, then the first place would lose some of its voidness. Also, on arrival elsewhere, when the mouths of the pitcher were unstoppered and it was turned upside down, one would see the void pouring out of it and a consequent increase of voidness in the second place. "Logically, of course, this could not happen. Therefore, you should understand that consciousness is unreal and is neither conditional nor self-existent.

Let me explain this further. Stoppering the two mouths of the pitcher, called a bird-vase, can be compared to two kinds of karma - good and evil. The pitcher itself is like karma strength, which can guide the consciousness to go somewhere. The void inside the pitcher is like the consciousness that follows karma. There seems to be both an inside and an outside void about the pitcher, however, in reality, these "two voids" are not different substances. Both the inside and the outside voids originally are one; therefore, there is really neither inside nor outside. This void inside the pitcher can be compared to Original Consciousness, which is just emptiness. The karma of good and evil, guiding this Consciousness to somewhere - just as one carries a pitcher a thousand miles from the starting point - is rather like abandoning something here and receiving it there. The Surangama Sutra says, "Ananda, the void does not come from another place and does not arrive at this place. "So we can compare abandoning the body to the pitcher's going from one place to another; i.e., the consciousness of the previous body does not decrease but receives the new body in this place. However, consciousness, like the void in the pitcher, never departs when the body dies; rather, consciousness is already here simultaneously with the birth of the new body.

Thus, it can be concluded that consciousness does not come packaged, as it were, in the new body. In reality, before the new body is born, consciousness already has been in continuous existence. One who is confused about this and who does not understand thinks, erroneously, that consciousness is within the body and, also, that it comes and goes. If one clearly understands that the substance (consciousness) never has this and that or inside and outside, then how could he possibly conclude that it comes and goes?

The master said: All things are produced by causal conditions and end by causal conditions. Even though they may manifest the actions of coming and going, the perfect, bright Original Nature, in reality, never changes. Because worldly people, who have sick, inverted vision, only recognize illusory sky-flowers as real, they, as a consequence have the continuing illusion of creation and destruction; and they are endlessly influenced and deluded by the environment. The sutra says, "Since beginningless time, all sentient beings have had so many reverses and held so many inverted views (just like a confused person losing his bearings and becoming lost in the four directions) that they consider the four elements to be the body and the deceptive influence of the six types of sensory objects to be their own Mind. "It is just like the case of one who has an eye problem. He sees flowers in the sky until they disappear in space, but he cannot really say how these sky-flowers are created nor just how they are annihilated. This is because there never really was a place for such creation. All sentient beings originally exist from no birth and no death; but they are deluded, as we have observed, and so they experience both birth and death. Therefore, they assert that there actually are birth and death in transmigration. However, one who has experienced Sudden Enlightenment knows that birth and death are, in reality, the results of deluded, false consciousness and that the substance of Mind and Perfect Enlightenment is always permanent and indestructible. There was one patriarch who said, "Even when every last skeleton is pulverized and dispersed, only the One Mind still remains bright." For one who realizes this Mind, how can there be any birth and death?

The monk asked: I understand all that you have said. It is quite clear, but can you explain why I seem to have my body and my mind at the beginning of my life?

The master said: The source of Truth is pure, and the Ocean of Enlightenment is clear and still, originally never having any trace whatsoever of either the active or the passive. So how can it then have even the tiniest trace of name and form? Because there is ignorance, a thought suddenly arises in the beginning to start the thought process. Because of this, the dust of confusion arises. Following this, perception arises; and consequently name and form become firmly established and rooted. As a mirror manifests forms, suddenly the sense organs and the body arise in that very second in which the world is completely created by thought. Finally there arises the duality of liking and disliking, which continues the fruit of karma. Due to all of this, Truth becomes confused and sinks into the Three Realms to engage in transmigration forever.

The monk responded: It is surely just as you say. The sense organs and the body appear suddenly due to ignorance at the beginning of the rising of a single thought; and, also, when the delusory body terminates, the four elements dissipate. So just how do we come to rebirth due to this false consciousness?

The master said: All worldly people in daily life exist with many feelings, including love and aversion, thus always and ever creating new karma, either good or evil. Then, according to these causes, they realize effects when, at the end of their present lifetime, they return to darkness to discover what their causal conditions for rebirth are. At this time, glimpsing a single point of light, they instantly are pulled and go directly to that very point, which just happens to be the place where their future parents are engaged in sexual intercourse. If, at that very moment, their own thoughts of love and hate arise, they are pulled into the blood-sperm mixture of the womb, just as lodestone magnetizes and pulls iron, disturbing it instantly.

There are five sages of development in the womb. The first seven days can be described as mixed or impure. The father's sperm and the mother's blood are mixed and shaped like creamy paste. Thus, name and form are mixed; hence, this stage is called impure. During the second seven days, an ulcerous bubble, as big as a garden pea, appears; but the inside still looks like creamy liquid or paste because the blood has not yet been begotten. During the third seven days, further congealing takes place, condensing with a little bit of blood. During the fourth seven days, the condensed mixture gradually thickens and hardens, and the five viscera take shape little by little. During the fifth seven days, the small shaping mass takes in some air; also, the embryo's four limbs begin to take shape along with the five organs by the end of this period. During the sixth seven days, hair, nails and teeth develop. During the seventh seven days, the organs develop fully; that is, all the viscera and organs become perfect. After ten months, when it is born to become a human being, the essence of consciousness has already become divided into six functions to create karma with its surroundings. Thus, through seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing, one cycles continuously, birth after birth and death after death, forever, in transmigration.

The monk asked: If one has the form of spirit-consciousness, then does one, consequently, come to rebirth in a physical body?

The master said: Yes!

The monk asked: What shape does it take?

The master said: The spirit-consciousness - or "middle existence" - of a human being takes the shape of a human being, having an apparent body, and it appears between death existence and rebirth existence. It has the form of a child for two or three years and is about two feet high. The "middle existence" of an animal takes the shape of an animal. It is exactly the same with all other orders of being. Even though these shapes of consciousness infinitesimally small, they can, nevertheless, still create all sorts of karma. To become involved again in the cycle of reincarnation, at the side of parents, allowing the dualistic thought of hate and love to arise, is generally known as "having a soul".

The monk asked: What is the nature of that non-womb-entering spirit, which is called "dwo-shih"?

The master said: There may be someone who practices the Tao in his lifetime in the world or someone who has great blessings but does not want his spirit, after his death, to enter just any womb indiscriminately, preferring to wait for some auspicious condition. Just as this preferred mother, who has good or auspicious conditions in her life, is giving birth to her baby, the "dwo-shih", who has great blessings, suddenly approaches, scolding in a very loud voice, and forces the original, less blessed spirit already housed within to leave the child. Then this highly blessed spirit usurps the position of the original spirit. This, then, is the nature of the "dow-shih". However, all these things are inconceivable to the rational mind and cannot be intentionally arranged or planned.

The monk asked: All sentient beings in the world, perhaps, after their deaths really seek rebirth for themselves just as they choose, like the "dwo-shih", but would any being choose rebirth and suffering in hell? Is hell, perhaps, not real?

The master said: One the contrary! Hell is very real, indeed! This hell-condition is strictly dependent on the mind. All sentient beings create karma by means of ten different habits. Because of that karma, they receive retribution; and if that karma is evil enough, then hell will manifest itself from the mind, not from any other region. The Avatamsaka Sutra says, "To perceive the nature of the Dharmadhatu, just understand that all things are created by the mind. "Therefore, we can understand that to take the position of suffering in hell is a condition created by the mind itself.

In the Surangama Sutra, Buddha, speaking to Ananda, says, "Ananda, all hells are created by ten causes and six effects, which confuse all sentient beings. "People should not doubt that hell is real, or they might tend to become neglectful, not cease creating evil karma and persist forever in their bad habits. However, when hell does manifest from the mind, it is impossible to escape. As people live in the world, doing good or evil in a great or a small way, all happens according to the law of cause and effect. This means that great good causes will result in the effect of rebirth in heaven, while deeply evil causes will result in the effect of rebirth in hell. One who has an equal number of both good and evil causes will have rebirth as a human being. Some beings, having both sins and blessings of an inferior sort and not yet coming to rebirth, may suddenly take a shape that is called "chung yin shen" (intermediate existence). Originally it is nothing, but it transforms into a shape - thus, rebirth from transformation - about three feet high and having six organs, that quickly comes and goes with no obstructions. It may appear to others' vision to be only a shadow. It dies after seven days, only to come alive again; but the length of its life is rarely ever more than seven weeks. Thus, it only has a short life span - one, two or three weeks - to search out its conditions for rebirth. Usually people call this being "a soul".

The monk responded: The substance of Original Nature is vast and includes infinite space. True Mind really dwells nowhere, neither inside nor outside. However, consciousness itself seems to dwell in the body as a prisoner. So is True Mind inside of consciousness or outside consciousness?

The master said: As gold is bonded to minerals and water to waves, even so the Alaya consciousness, in bondage to the Bhutatathata. Therefore, the advanced student should understand what is true and what is false, and he must depend on True Mind to attain Bodhi; furthermore, he must understand that to follow the false mind will cause him to drift in the ocean of birth and death endlessly.

The monk asked: Not knowing just how the mind of consciousness is situated in the body, just how can we distinguish what is True Mind from what is false mind?

The master said: True Mind is the mind of stillness and illumination. The false mind of knowledge is the mind that keeps us from causal attainment.

The monk asked: Just what is the false mind of knowledge that keeps us from causal attainment?

The master said: Originally the false mind was empty, but because it had the subject-object duality and discriminated outside itself - liking and disliking, grasping and rejecting - it attained only confusion, thought after thought, without ceasing. So it was born into heaven, hell and all the other states of being. Originally there was no birth to be considered as birth, and there was no death to bethought about as death. Mind was just free, like a monkey playing in a tree or like a horse running in a field; it just loafed about, without desire, in the Three Realms forever.

The monk asked: If the false mind has knowledge, then how can illusion arise?

The master said: Illusory thought is like the moon in water, and false-mind knowledge is like flowers in the sky - both arise due to the perception of the duality of subject and

object. Due to discrimination - the function of knowing mind using the organs - illusory thought comes from outside the body. If there is mind without an object, then there can be no substance. Objects are illuminated by mind; but if objects are destroyed, there is no more illumination. All things arise by means of thought, but without thought all things are empty. If one takes these false things for the substance of truth, one then creates false causes, which, in consequence, take the effect of annihilation. In this case, how can one ever realize True Mind?!

The monk asked: What is True Mind, and what is the Knowledge that is true and bright?

The master said: True Mind is clear and luminous with no object whatsoever, is still and shining, encloses the Great Void, never has any purpose, and is always bright and understanding. It is open without a trace and folds with no vestige of action. It is as clear as a lake reflecting the wild fields. It is as clear as a dustless mirror in the sky that reflects within itself the infinite universe in all its variety, which is neither within nor without and which neither exists nor non-exists. All Holy Ones return there, and all Buddhas of the Three periods are permanently abiding there. It is called Original True Buddha Nature and is also called Pure Dharmakaya. If one rejects this Dharma to follow or practice others, he can only become a demon in the end.

The monk asked: How can you prove that True Mind has been realized?

The master said: True Mind is still and bright as well as clear and boundless. The universal cannot cover it. Nothing can hide or conceal it. No deva or human being can see it. Demons cannot find it. The sharpest knife cannot cut it. The fire-kalpas cannot burn it. The iron-ringed mountain cannot sink it. Transmigration cannot confound it. It is perfect and completely bright forever. If you can understand the nature of True Mind, then you, also, can attain to the Complete Enlightenment of Buddha at any time.

The monk asked: How can one transform intellectual knowledge so that it becomes natural understand? Also, how can one turn the false mind around so that it becomes True Mind?

The master said: The false mind is tied to the sense organs, while True Mind is not tied to the sense organs.

The monk asked: Can you characterize the false mind tied to the sense organs and True Mind not tied to the sense organs?

The master said: Originally there were no world, body and mind. All was stillness and emptiness in a state of radiant perfection. However, due to the sudden arising of just a single thought, the organs of thought became connected with objects. Because objects lead to such thoughts as liking or disliking, the condition of the discriminating mind is like a moth flying to a lamp, grasping and rejecting the flame; it can also be compared to a silk womb tightly bound within its own threads. However, if there is no discrimination regarding objects by the sense organs, then you own spiritual light will always be clearly shining. If the six senses could interchange their functions with each other, then all things and the self would not be different.

The Surangama Sutra says, "You have only not to follow the states of stillness and disturbance, of contact and separation, of changing and unchanging conditions, of clearance

and obstruction, of creation and destruction, and of light and darkness. From these twelve worldly conditions, just root out any one of your six sense organs to disengage it from both inner and outer adhesion. As soon as it is subdued and brought back to the Real, the latter's light will appear. When its bright nature becomes manifest, the other five adhesions will, simultaneously, be rooted out; and you will be completely free from wrong views created by sense data. This light does not follow the sense organs but manifests itself through them, and so all six organs function through each other." Further one, in the same Sutra, we read: "Ananda, if all your sense organs are rooted out, your inner light will appear. All transient sense data, as well as the changing conditions of the material world, will vanish like ice melted by boiling water, and you will realize Supreme Bodhi instantly."

Probably you still do not understand, so let me explain it to you again. Both True Mind and the false mind have the function of knowing, but the false mind depends on the sense organs and data to have its knowledge, whereas True Mind functions without the organs and data to have understanding or awareness. One who wishes to learn the Tao, should understand, right at the very beginning, what True Mind is and what false mind is so that practicing and attaining the Tao will be easy.