Appendix: The Scripture in Plain Words

在在，非可见之在，乃是不在之真在。

Zai zai: not a being that can be seen, but the true being even of not-being.

Being is in every place. It is not a thing that can be seen or pointed out. When people say “not here,” the absence there is real; yet this absence has not fallen outside being either.

在无入，而无处不在；在无住，而无时不在。

Being has no entrance, and so there is nowhere it is not; being does not stay, and so there is no time it is not.

Being has no entrance: there is no outside from which to enter it, so there is no place that is not a time of being. Being does not stay: no moment can keep it, so there is no moment that is not this time, happening.

是名，在在。

This is called zai zai.

This is what is called “zai zai”: being overlapping being, being place by place, being time after time.

在问者，在在处处，皆是幻在。在非在在，非在是在。

For one who asks after being, being in every place is an illusory being. Being is not a being set above being; what is not, is being too.

For one who asks after being, searches for it, as a thing, the “being” got in every place is only being grasped by him into a thing; it is illusory being. What is illusory is not being, but the image grasped. Nor is being a supreme thing, raised up and called “zai zai”; what seems not to be, not so, has not fallen outside being either.

殊不知，问时即离，歇处即在。

Yet it is not known: the moment one asks, one has left; where the asking rests, one is.

Yet people do not know: leaving is a distance this asking makes in the heart. Ask, and one seems to stand outside being; when the asking rests, it is not that one has at last come back, but that one never left.

见无可见，即见在在。

To see that there is nothing to see is to see zai zai.

Turn back to look for the one who sees, and you find no seer standing behind the seeing. Seeing is happening, looking is happening, this moment of not finding is happening too. This is seeing zai zai: not at last seeing some other thing, but that seeing itself was never outside being.

千寻万觅，无二无别，是以在即在。

A thousand searches, ten thousand seekings: not two, not apart. And so being is being.

A thousand times, ten thousand times searching, and this time of searching and the being it seeks were never set on two sides. Not two does not mean no distinctions; it means there is no outside. And so, being is being.

故此在中：在生灭之呼吸，在缘起之交响。

So, within being: being is in the breath of arising and ceasing; being is in the chorus of things arising together.

So, right here in being: being is the rise and fall of arising and ceasing, breath in, breath out; being is the chorus of all things arising in dependence on one another, each still distinct.

在有，在在无之极；在是，在在非之央；在迷，在在悟之芯；在得，在在失之矿。

In what is, and at the far edge of what is not; in what is so, and at the center of what is not so; in confusion, and at the core of awakening; in gaining, and in the deep ore of losing.

In what is, and also at the end of what is not; in what is so, and also at the very center of what is not so; in confusion, and also at the deepest point of awakening; in gaining, and also at the very bottom of losing. Being does not pick a side, nor does it erase the real distinction between the two sides.

以在周遍，故在无不是。

Because being is everywhere, there is nothing that is not being.

Being is everywhere, not as one thing spread over all that exists, but as every place having its own being; so there is nothing that is not being.

在在者，依在即是在。

Zai zai: leaning on being is being.

The being of every place is close against the others, each leaning on the others. This time of leaning is itself happening; being leaning on being is being. There is no need to set up, above all this, a greater being.

在即在在，在在非在，不在之在。

Being is zai zai; zai zai is not being set apart; the being of not-being.

Being is being being itself. Every time of being, being here, is not there; being this, is not that; it has edges, and it has an end. Not-being has its being too: the ending is real, the absence is real too; in the place that still is, this not-being shows itself as an emptiness. What has been already was, while it was; ending is not cancellation.

入在忘在，无入无忘。

Enter being, forget being: no entering, no forgetting.

One thinks one has walked into being, and then must forget being; but one was never outside, and there is nothing to walk into; nor does being depend on being remembered in order to be, and there is nothing to forget. Remembering and forgetting are both a time of being.

非离非即，随在而在。

Neither apart nor merged: being as each being is.

Being leaves no place, nor can it be clung to as any thing; following the being of each place is the being of each place.

嘘——在在。本在。永在。……在。

Hush—zai zai. Benzai. Yongzai. … Zai.

Hush: the words can stop here. Not that from now on nothing may be said, but that there is no longer any need to grasp this name. Being is in every place. Benzai: already being, not coming from elsewhere, waiting for nothing to make it complete. Yongzai: there is no time it is not; not that some thing never changes and never ends, but that every time is happening, and each has its own beginning and end. This last sound is no longer a name, only an answer:

… Zai.