In his TED talk, Jonathan Haidt quotes Chinese Zen Master Seng-ts'an, more commonly known as Sengcan, the Third Chinese Patriarch.
"If you want the truth to stand clear before you," Haidt quotes Sengcan, "never be for or against. The struggle between 'for' and 'against' is the mind's worst disease."
According to legend, Bodhidharma bought the true meaning of Buddhism to China, and passed it on to his eventual student Huike, who later passed it on to Sengcan. It is said that Sengcan was over forty years old when he first met Huike in the year 536, staying with him for six years.
On his first encounter with Huike, Sengcan said, "I am riddled with disease. Please absolve me of my defilement," and Huike replied, "Bring your defilement here and I will absolve you." After a long pause, Sengcan said "When I look for it, I cannot find it." Huike replied, "I have absolved you. You should live by the Three Treasures" (Buddha, dharma, and sangha).
In the year 574, Sengcan fled to the mountains with Huike due to the Buddhist persecution underway at that time. Following the overthrow and death of the Buddhist benefactor Emperor Wu, the subsequent government attempted to exterminate Buddhism by closing temples, destroying written records and monuments, and defrocking much of the Buddhist clergy. Huike warned Sengcan to stay in the mountains and “Wait for the time when you can transmit the Dharma to someone else.” Sengcan remained in hiding on Wangong Mountain and then on Sikong Mountain, and afterwards he wandered for 10 years with no fixed abode.
As a result, very little is known about Sengcan. Like Bodhidharma and Huike before him, Sengcan's practice is reputed to have emphasized the elimination of all duality and the “forgetting of words and thoughts," stressing instead the wisdom of silent contemplation. Although Sengcan has traditionally been honored as the author of the poem Hsin-hsin Ming (Faith In Mind), most modern scholars dismiss this as unlikely and improbable.
The words that Haidt quotes are from the Hsin-hsin Ming. Specifically, the lines
If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against
The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease.
If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against
The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease.
are from near the beginning of the poem. As translated in the Soto Zen tradition, the poem begins,
When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.
This is often paraphrased colloquially as "The Great Way is not difficult - just quit your picking and choosing."
Jonathan Haidt encourages us to drop our self-righteousness and moral indignation over what we see as right and wrong (or "right" and "left" politically), and instead accept that both sides believe in what they're doing and that they're correct, and to understand the different moral values behind the two different viewpoints. When we can then see and hear each other clearly, a meaningful dialogue can begin.
This is often paraphrased colloquially as "The Great Way is not difficult - just quit your picking and choosing."
Jonathan Haidt encourages us to drop our self-righteousness and moral indignation over what we see as right and wrong (or "right" and "left" politically), and instead accept that both sides believe in what they're doing and that they're correct, and to understand the different moral values behind the two different viewpoints. When we can then see and hear each other clearly, a meaningful dialogue can begin.
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