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The Ceasing of Notions [or the Treatise on the Transcendence of Cognition]

45.  Emmon asks ‘if there is affinity towards killing, might this [feeling of separation] not lead to the grave offence of killing?’

Master Nyuri : ‘A brush fire rages up the mountain slope, a gale uproots trees, a landslide buries animals, flood water drowns insects.
If the heart is like this, killing a person is also possible.  But when the heart is confused and sees life and death, then a single ant can hold your life in bondage.

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Emmon asks ‘if there is affinity towards stealing, might this not lead to the offence of stealing?’

Master Nyuri:  ‘Bees drink from flowers by the pond; sparrows peck millet in the farmyard; cows feed on the beans in the wetlands; horses graze on the grain in the fields.
After all, if another’s possession is not discriminated as such, even the summit of a mountain can be taken respectfully.  Were this not so, a leaf as thin as needlepoint could make a rope round your neck and enslave you.

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Emmon asks ‘ are there also affinities that tend to sexual indulgence?’

Master Nyuri:  ‘The sky vaults over the earth; yang and yin unite; piss flows into the latrine; spring water flows into the aqueduct.
A heart like this is not obstructed by anything.  But if selection brings about discrimination, then even one’s own wife makes one feel lecherous.

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Emmon asks ‘ and the affinities that can bring about lying?’

Master Nyuri:  ‘Speaking, but there is no one who speaks; words uttered, yet they come from an empty heart.
A voice like the sound of a bell, a breath like the sighing of the wind.  If the heart is like this, then even what is named Buddha ceases.
But if the heart is not like this, then even invoking the name of the Buddha is but a lie.