There is a famous Zen story that once a monk asked the Zen master Chow Chu, "What is Tao (reality or path)?" The master answered, "The ordinary mind is Tao." This "ordinary mind" can be easily misunderstood as referring to the ignorant and illusory mind of the ordinary person. However, it really means the Mind-essence which the enlightened being sees and which is not a new mind or something which is different in essence from the common mind. The enlightened see mind as it is--natural, common, and intrinsic. In this sense, Mahamudra denotes the Mind-essence as "the ordinary mind" wherein one finds no loss or gain, no claim or disclaim, since it excludes all discriminations and includes all differentiations.

Before actually and directly realized the Mind-essence, whatever philosophy or theories holds ("Reality is one," "Reality is two," "Truth is this or that") are nonsense like 'Playwords' of children. When one directly and actually realizes the Mind-essence, he reaches the -beyond or the state called here "Away From Playwords."

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Not knowing their natures are identical with Buddha's
Sentient beings wander endlessly in Sangsara
To those misery-bound who have undergone endless sufferings
May I forever pity ["Succour" would be a better translation then the condescending "pity," we feel. Ed.] them with the unbearable great compassion!
May I forever pity them with the unbearable great compassion!

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Right in that moment when the Great Compassion arises
Emerges nakedly and vividly the Great Voidness.
Let me always find this unmistakable Two-in-One Path
And practice it day and night.

The teaching of Buddhism on Great Voidness and Great Compassion is not rightly understood by most people. These two are, actually, one entity in two aspects. But to the Sangsaric beings, these two are seemingly irreconcilable since in many characteristics they seem opposed, the wisdom seems 'cold' while the compassion is 'warm'; the Voidness has no object while the Compassion demands an object, etc. Only the Buddha and enlightened beings can merge the two, or, more accurately speaking, realize and unfold the identicalness and simultaneous-existing-nature of the two. Here the author points out that the unmistakable sign of the experience of the enlightened being is that during the moment of enlightenment, when the great Voidness is seen, the Great Compassion automatically arises, or, in some cases, a great and unbearable compassion, should it ever arise, will automatically bring forth the emergence of the Great Voidness.

[In this stanza is expressed the essence of the Buddhist Tantra: that the S'unya (or prajna) and active Love (or vajra)