The Mind - Chu Hsi

The Mind is most spiritual. 

So fine is it that it penetrates the very point of a hair, 

or the smallest blade of grass, 

and I become conscious of them. 

So great is it that there is not a single place from nadir to zenith, 

or within the four points of the compass, 

where it is not present. 

Back through the countless ages of the past, 

or forward through the unknown periods of future time, 

my thought reaches to the end of them 

the very moment it proceeds from my Mind. 

It is unfathomable in its spiritual intelligence, 

most intangible, most spiritual and marvellous in its orderliness! 

And yet, though there is no one who does not possess this Mind, 

most men know only the desire for gain till 

the Mind becomes completely submerged in it. 

At home or abroad, all that they seek is pleasure and self indulgence; 

their every thought, the moment it is born, is of these things.

---

Chu Hsi [Zhu Xi] (1130-1200) China

Translated by Joseph Percy Bruce

Source: The philosophy of human nature. Translated from the Chinese, with notes by Chu, Hsi, 1130-1200; Joseph Percy Bruce, Probsthain, 1922

This section is taken from "Mind, Forty-nine sections from The Conversations", no. 25