Impermanence, aging, and illness
Do not give people a set time.
One may be alive in the morning,
Then dead at night,
Changing worlds in an instant.
We are like the spring frost,
Like the morning dew
Suddenly gone.

- Kuei-Shan (771-854)

Without going outdoors
The Sage knows all things under heaven.
Without looking through the window
He sees the Way of Heaven.
The more one ventures forth
The less one knows.

- Tao te Ching

Devote yourself to the absolute emptiness; contemplate earnestly in Quiescence. All things are together in action, but I look into their non-action, for things are continuously moving, restless, yet each is proceeding back to its origin. Proceeding back to the origin means Quiescence. To be in Quiescence is to see “Being-for-itself.”

- Lao tzu

What is this wonder-filled universe?
What constitutes seed?
Who centers the universal wheel?
What is this life beyond form pervading forms?
How may we enter it fully,
Above space and time,
Names and descriptions?
Let my doubts be cleared.

- Vigyan Bhairava (~4000 years ago)

The spiritual light, shining independently,

Transcends the senses and objects;

The essence is revealed, real and eternal,

Not confined to written words.

The nature of mind has no stain;

It is basically complete of itself.

Just detach from false mental objects

And be enlightened to being-as-is.

-Baizhang