To this Seng-ts'an responded, "Although my body is sick, the mind of a sick man and your own mind are no different." Whatever actually happened, it was enough to convince Hui-k'o that he had found an enlightened being, one who perceived the unity of all things, and he forthwith transmitted to Seng-ts'an the symbols of the patriarchy--the robe and begging bowl of Bodhidharma--telling him that he should take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma (the universal truth proclaimed by Buddha), and the Sangha (the Buddhist organization or priesthood). Seng-ts'an replied that he knew of the Sangha, but what was meant by the Buddha and the Dharma? The answer was that all three were expressions of Mind.2 This exchange seems to have taken place while Hui-k'o was in the northern Wei capital of Yeh-tu.3 In later years Seng-ts'an found it necessary to feign madness (to escape persecution during the anti- Buddhist movement of 574), and finally he went to hide on Huan-kung mountain for ten years, where his mere presence reportedly was enough to tame the wild tigers who had terrorized the people there. The only surviving work that purportedly relays his teaching is a poem, said to be one of the earliest Ch'an treatises, which is called the _Hsin-hsin- ming_, or "On the Believing Mind."4 It starts off in a lyrical, almost Taoist, voice worthy of Chuang Tzu, as it celebrates man's original nature and the folly of striving. _There is nothing difficult about the Great Way But, avoid choosing! Only when you neither love nor hate, Does it appear in all clarity. Do not be anti- or pro- anything. The conflict of longing and loathing, This is the disease of the mind. Not knowing the profound meaning of things, We disturb our (original) peace of mind to no purpose.5 _Next, the poem turns to an acknowledgment of the Mahayanist concept of the all-encompassing Mind, the greatest single truth of the universe, and of Nagarjuna's Void, the cosmic emptiness of _sunyata_. _Things are things because of the Mind. The Mind is the Mind because of things. If you wish to know what these two are, They are originally one Emptiness. In this Void both (Mind and things) are one, All the myriad phenomena contained in both.6 _ The poem closes with an affirmation of the Ch'an credo of unity and the absence of duality as a sign of enlightenment. _ In the World of Reality There is no self, no other-than-self. . . . All that can be said is "No Duality!" When there is no duality, all things are one, There is nothing that is not included. . . . The believing mind is not dual; What is dual is not the believing mind. Beyond all language, For it there is no past, no present, no future.7 _