Poetry Chaikhana Blog

Ivan M. Granger May 20th, 2009

When the mind is at peace
by P’ang Yun (Layman P’ang)

English version by Stephen Mitchell

When the mind is at peace,
the world too is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
not getting stuck in the void,
you are neither holy nor wise, just
an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.

— from The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell

/ Photo by makani5 /

Such a beautiful, direct poem by Layman Pang.

When the mind is at peace
The world too is at peace.

What more is there to add other than to experience it for oneself?

Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
not getting stuck in the void…

Enlightened awareness is not a game of carefully constructed definitions. It is not a feat of the intellect, which can only separate and categorize perceived reality. Even at its most subtle and incisive, when the intellect tries to separate the real from the non-real, it is setting up a filter upon the awareness.

When the mind is truly at peace, not only have thoughts come to a rest, but more importantly those unconscious mental filters no longer pre-sift the perception of reality.

He seems to be describing a trail for us to follow, a path found precisely where reality meets void, and we must gracefully walk between the two.

With no clinging to either “reality” or “void,” the whole and unfiltered vision comes upon us.

Engulfed by this truth, we are not “wise” or “holy” — those are further categories that others may or may not heap upon you. No, we just ARE. We are not this or that, we are.

…an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.

We no longer feel the need to do something to validate our existence; we undeniably are — and our work is therefore completed.

The Sayings of Layman P’ang is an important Chinese Zen / Chan classic, a collection of short, sometimes enigmatic dialogs and poems from this unusual sage. He is one of the first of the great Chinese Buddhist masters to reject the life of a monk even after enlightenment, choosing instead to remain a simple “layman.” That act opened the way for subsequent generations of non-monastic seekers, and householder sages.

He did, however, reject wealth and worldly attachments as a snare. He was prosperous in his youth, but decided that he worried too much about his wealth, so he decided to get rid of it. Initially, he was going to give his wealth away, but then thought that whoever received his wealth would become as attached to it as he had. So, instead, he piled all his worldly goods on a boat, floated it out to the middle of a lake, and sank it.

After that, he, his wife, and their children lived a simple life, supporting themselves by making bamboo utensils.

Despite his subsequent poverty, he lived a rich life interacting regularly with many of the enlightened Buddhist masters of his era, and they honored him as belonging among them.

More poetry by P’ang Yun (Layman P’ang)

• Poetry