Hsin Hsin Ming
(Verses on the Faith Mind)
Attributed to
Chien Chih Sengtsan,
ca. 600 C.E.
Translated by Robert B. Clarke
The tao is not difficult for those who have no preferences. 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. When the deep
meaning of things is not understood the mind's essential peace is
disturbed to no avail.
The tao is perfect like vast space where nothing is lacking and
nothing is in excess. Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept
or reject that we do not see the true nature of things. Live
neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in inner feelings
of emptiness. Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous
views will disappear by themselves. When you try to stop activity
to achieve passivity your very effort fills you with activity. As
long as you remain in one extreme or the other you will never know
oneness.
Those who do not live in the single tao fail in both activity and
passivity, assertion and denial. To deny the reality of things is
to miss their reality, to assert the emptiness of things is to miss
their reality. The more you talk and think about it, the further
astray you wander from the truth. Stop talking and thinking, and
there is nothing you will not be able to know. To return to the
root is to find the meaning, but to pursue appearances is to miss
the source. At the moment of inner enlightenment there is a going
beyond appearance and emptiness. The changes that appear to occur
in the empty world, we call real only because of our ignorance. Do
not search for the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.
Do not remain in the dualistic state, avoid such pursuits
carefully. If there is even a trace of this and that, of right and
wrong, the mind-essence will be lost in confusion. Although all
dualities come from the one, do not be attached even to this
one.
When the mind exists undisturbed in the tao, nothing in the world
can offend, and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to
exist in the old way.
When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to
exist. When thought objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes,
as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish. Things are objects
because of The subject (mind); the mind (subject) is such because
of things (object). Understand the relativity of these two and the
basic reality: the unity of emptiness. In this Emptiness the two
are indistinguishable and each contains in itself the whole world.
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine you will not be
tempted to prejudice and opinion.
To live in the tao is neither easy nor difficult, but those with
limited views are fearful and irresolute: the faster they hurry,
the slower they go, and clinging (attachment) cannot be limited;
even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.
Just let things be in their own way and there will be neither
coming nor going.
Obey the nature of things (your own nature), and you will walk
freely and undisturbed. When thought is in bondage the truth is
hidden, for everything is murky and unclear. and the burdensome
practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness. What benefit
can be derived from distinctions and separations?
If you wish to move in the tao do not dislike even the world of
senses and ideas. Indeed, to accept them fully is identical with
true enlightenment. The wise man strives to no goals but the
foolish man fetters himself. There is one Dharma, not many;
distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant. To seek
Mind with the discriminating mind is the greatest of all
mistakes.
Rest and unrest derive from illusion, with enlightenment there is
no liking and disliking. All dualities come from ignorant
inference. They are like dreams or flowers in air: foolish to try
to grasp them. Gain and loss, right and wrong, such thoughts must
finally be abolished at once.
If the eye never sleeps, all dreams will naturally cease: if the
mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they
are, of single essence. To understand the mystery of this
One-essence is to be released from all entanglements. When all
things are seen equally the timeless Self-essence is reached. No
comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless,
relationless state.
Consider movement stationary and the stationary in motion, both
movement and rest disappear. When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist. To this ultimate finality no law or
description applies.
For the unified mind in accord with the tao all self-centered
striving ceases. Doubts and irresolutions vanish and life in true
faith is possible. With a single stroke we are freed from bondage;
nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing. All is empty, clear,
self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind's power. Here
thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination are of no value. In
this world of suchness there is neither seer nor
other-than-self.
To come directly into harmony with this reality just simply say
when doubt arises, Not two. In this not two nothing is
separate, nothing is excluded. No matter when or where,
enlightenment means entering this truth. And this truth is beyond
extension or diminution in time or space; in it a single thought is
ten thousand years.
Emptiness here, Emptiness there, but the infinite universe stands
always before your eyes. Infinitely large and infinitely small, no
difference, for definitions have vanished and no boundaries are
seen. So too with Being and non-Being. Dont waste time in doubts
and arguments that have nothing to do with this.
One thing, all things: move among and intermingle, without
distinction. To live in this realization is to be without anxiety
about non-perfection. To live in this faith is the road to
non-duality, because the non-dual is one with the trusting
mind.
Words! The tao is beyond language, for in it there is no yesterday,
no tomorrow, no today.
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