Sen-ts’an, an early Chinese Zen master, urged nonjudgmentalism as a prerequisite to following “the perfect way” in this poem from the eighth century CE: The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose; Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference, and Heaven and Earth are set apart; 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.34
