Sosan’s teaching, preserved above all in the verses known as the *Xinxin Ming* or “Faith in Mind,” reshaped the inner lives of his students by directing them away from anxious striving and toward trust in the mind’s inherent clarity. Rather than urging harsh asceticism or elaborate technique, he emphasized a relaxed, natural awareness in which enlightenment is recognized as already present rather than laboriously acquired. This orientation encouraged followers to loosen their grip on self-improvement projects and to allow realization to emerge when forced effort and contrivance are relinquished. In this way, the path became less about climbing toward a distant goal and more about uncovering what had never truly been absent.

A central thread in his influence lay in the radical critique of dualistic thinking. Sosan’s counsel that the Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences invited students to release rigid divisions such as right and wrong, gain and loss, sacred and ordinary. By learning to see through these habitual splits, they cultivated a non-discriminating awareness that eased inner conflict and psychological suffering. This did not amount to a rejection of ethical sensitivity, but to a shift from rule-bound moralism to responsiveness grounded in direct, unclouded seeing. Many came to experience what later tradition would call “ordinary mind”: a simple, unforced clarity no longer dominated by the restless “monkey mind” of judgment and anxiety.

Because Sosan framed awakening as compatible with all circumstances, his followers were encouraged to integrate practice with the whole fabric of daily life. Work, relationships, and mundane tasks were no longer viewed as distractions from the path but as the very field in which non-dual awareness could be lived. His emphasis on effortless practice and simplicity made this approach accessible to ordinary practitioners, not only to specialists in secluded settings. Over time, this way of embodying non-attachment in the midst of activity shaped how students related to illness, limitation, and the changing conditions of existence, treating them not as obstacles but as conditions within which realization could deepen.

Through these teachings, Sosan’s impact extended beyond immediate psychological relief to a more enduring transformation of orientation. Students learned to meet thoughts and emotions without being consumed by them, to rest in a mind that does not constantly pick and choose, and to trust a wisdom that does not depend on conceptual elaboration. This style of natural, effortless awakening, transmitted through his disciples, became foundational for later developments in Zen, influencing how subsequent generations understood meditation, ethical life, and the possibility of awakening amid the ordinary flow of experience.