“The Mind of Nature — What Remains When Judgment Is Gone”

Picture yourself hiking deep into the mountains — past waterfalls, wild herbs, and deer startled by your footsteps — until you reach a place no one has visited before. This vivid, lyrical teaching from Teacher Woo Myung describes the beauty of the natural world and reveals that the mind of nature is what remains when all human judgment, envy, and conceit have disappeared.

Video Transcript

Stop living in this land go to the everlasting world of happiness and live there forever Teacher Woo Myung this poem is called the mind of nature the sky is so clear it is a shade of blue that appears almost black flowing in the valley between the mountains the water and the stone bedded stream is inexpressibly clear and in it nameless fish start here.

There plain the mountains are high and here and there flowers are in bloom new leaves are budding on treetops in the mountains wild herbs are sprouting and many fresh shoots can be seen on the hardy kiwi trees following the mountain valley I stumble on a patch of wild mountain vegetables as I forage for mountain herbs seeking out spots yet untouched by people the warm sun the clear.

Air and water refreshes my body worn and stained by the city my body feels as light as a feather taking after the surroundings my whole body feels so clean and thanks to all the hiking that I did in my youth I do not tire despite walking up many hills I sit on a large rock near the water to eat my packed lunch there is a small waterfall.

Close by an honest slope near the cascade a bird I cannot identify quietly chatters as it flits back and forth in spring there are so many things in the mountainside too beautiful to enjoy alone the day is warm and I begin to wonder how long it has been since someone last came by the places I’ve been these high mountains.

Secluded valleys are hard to get to and I wonder whether anyone has ever been here climbing higher up the mountain I can see there are less leaves growing on the trees and a startled mountain deer runs away casting back side long looks as it runs the animals.

Vegetation here in the mountains live generation after generation just like people without homes with only their naked selves facing the winds if the winds are blowing the rain if the rain is falling and the snow if it is snowing in the cold if it is cold in the heat if it is hot they live without words everything that exists disappears comes again and then again disappears.

Only I know the principle that the place they return to is the origin and it is the origin from whence they came trying to seek and attain something from this transient world so many people fight kill and thief in my eyes they are truly foolish one has become the mind of nature when he is without the mind of blame without envy jealousy or conceit without judgment.

Right and wrong discernment of this and that when all human minds have disappeared his mind is the of nature you.

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