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Ikkyu has written:

OUR MIND - WITHOUT END, WITHOUT BEGINNING, THOUGH IT IS BORN, THOUGH IT DIES - THE ESSENCE OF EMPTINESS!

Remember, the word 'mind' is not the right translation. It should be 'consciousness'.

OUR CONSCIOUSNESS - WITHOUT END, WITHOUT BEGINNING, THOUGH IT IS BORN, THOUGH IT DIES - THE ESSENCE OF EMPTINESS!

It remains; it comes and goes, but it never gathers any junk. It remains utterly empty and pure and innocent. The English translators of these poems have invented a way which is not appropriate.

For our ordinary mind, they use mind with a small 'm'. Mind with a capital 'm', they use for consciousness, awareness, enlightenment. But it is very dangerous because people who are accustomed to reading the word 'mind' will not even bother to look why one 'm' is written in capitals and the other 'm' is written in small letters. To them, mind is mind.

I would not support this kind of translation.

OUR CONSCIOUSNESS - WITHOUT END and WITHOUT BEGINNING ... and remember, it is our consciousness, not mine, not yours. We are one, somewhere deep down, and to find that unity is the greatest rejoicing. There is nothing more ecstatic than to find the point where everything in existence has its roots, the very source.

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