HS - The Grasped

The Grasped

The grasped cannot be grasped,
The seen cannot be seen,
The heard cannot be heard:
The one mind is inconceivable.

The finite and the infinite
Are both ungraspable;
If any want to apprehend them,
Ultimately they apprehend nothing.

To say what should not be said
Is self-deception;
When one's own task is not complete,
One cannot gladden others.

Those who wish to laud the Buddha's
Boundless body of wondrous form
Could not express it fully
Even in countless eons.

Just as the wish-fulfilling jewel
Can manifest all colors,
Being colorless yet manifesting color,
So are all the Buddhas.

Also like clear space
Is formless and invisible
And though it shows all forms
None can see space,
So it is with the Buddhas;
They manifest infinite forms everywhere
Yet are not in the province of mental activity
So no one is able to see them.

Though the Buddha's voice is heard,
The sound is not the Buddha;
And yet not apart from sound
Can the Truly Awake be known.

Enlightenment has no coming or going;
It's apart from all discrimination;
How then can one
Say he is able to see it?

The Buddhas have no doctrine:
How could Buddha have an explanation?
It is just in accord with one's own mind
One thinks Buddha expounds such a doctrine.