The Gatha on the Transmission of the Dharma by the 24th Patriarch, Venerable Siṃha

Original Text: When we speak of knowing and seeing, both knowing and seeing are the mind; at the moment when the mind is knowing and seeing, knowing and seeing are right here and now.

Explanation: When we express views and insights through speech, all these verbalized insights flow forth from the self-mind, manifesting as the functional utility of the self-mind’s inherent virtue. They are entirely the self-mind, neither separate from nor identical to it. At the very moment knowing and seeing arise, a portion of the seed functions within the self-mind transforms into the discriminative roles of knowing and seeing. It is like gold being fashioned into a ring: the gold does not lose its intrinsic nature, yet it acquires the function of a ring. Similarly, the self-mind flows into the forms of knowing and seeing without losing its fundamental essence. Just as a ring is made entirely of gold, knowing and seeing arise entirely from the self-mind. The ring is wholly gold, but not all gold is made into rings; knowing and seeing are wholly the nature of the self-mind, but not all of it flows into knowing and seeing.