Mind and painting
It is like a painter
Spreading the various colors:
Delusion grasps different forms
But the elements have no distinctions.
In the elements there's no form,
And no form in the elements;
Yet apart from the elements
No form can be found.
In the mind is no painting,
In painting there is no mind;
Yet not apart from mind
Is any painting to be found.
That mind never stops,
Manifesting all forms,
Countless, inconceivably many,
Unknown to one another.
Just as a painter
Cannot know his own mind
Yet paints due to the mind,
So is the nature of all things.
Mind is like an artist,
Able to paint the worlds:
The five clusters [aggregates] are born thence;
There is nothing it does not make.
As in the mind, so is the Buddha;
As the Buddha, so living beings:
Know that Buddha and mind
Are in essence inexhaustible.
If people know the actions of mind
Create all the worlds,
They will see the Buddha
And understand Buddha's true nature.
Mind does not stay in the body,
Nor body stay in mind:
Yet it is able to perform Buddha-work
Freely, without precedent.
If people want to really know
All Buddhas of all times,
They should contemplate the nature of the cosmos:
All is but mental construction.