Thoughts on Hsin Hsin Ming

One was first introduced to this classic Ch’an Buddhist poem, Hsin Hsin Ming (Xinxin Ming) in the Tao Forum last year as a result of a challenge when discussing a Confucian book, The Great Learning as a way to self cultivate. You see, one knows nothing about Ch’an or Zen Buddhism, and discussing Confucian thoughts in a forum dominated by Daoists and Zen Buddhists invariably stirs up resistance and animosity from some members. Therefore I was requested to explain what this poem by the Ch’an Third Patriarch Seng-t’san (or Sengcan) meant and why it emphasized the ‘Not Two’. The difficult part was to find a translation that resonates and one finally settled on the translation by Arthur Waley, made available by a Mr. Rick Mendoza at his website. (The link was lost when the ex-member deleted his post.)

Seng-t’san was a layman in his forties and ill when he met the Second Patriarch, Hui-k’o for the first time in 551 C.E. Hui-k’o , a student of Bodhidharma, deeply impressed with this layman’s capacity for the Dharma; shaved the Third Patriarch’s head and named him Seng-t’san (Jewel of the Community). Seng-t’san was gradually cured of his illness and after two years of practising together Hui-k’o gave him the robe and bowl signifying the transmission of the Dharma. Thereafter he was ordered to hide in the mountains and not to teach, in anticipation of the persecution of Buddhists in China as prophesied by Bodhidharma. Seng-t’san remained in seclusion in the mountains for more than twenty four years. He later met the monk Tao-hsin and transmitted the Dharma to him. Seng-t’san passed away in 606 C.E. under a big tree. (Source: Sacred-texts.com)

The Hsin Hsin Ming poem depicts Seng-t’san’s deep insights on the cultivation of essence and bodily life. Although one still knows nothing about Zen practices and beliefs, both the thoughts of Bodhidharma and Seng-t’san do not diverge from those of the Buddha, and that of other ancients on the Way to return to Tao. So here go one’s thoughts on the poem (broken up into two entries as the poem is lengthy). Perhaps, some comments may strike a chord with Buddhists readers and those who practise inner alchemy.

Hsin Hsin Ming:
On trust in the heart.
(Translated by Arthur Waley)

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;
While the deep meaning is misunderstood, it is useless to meditate on Rest..
It [the Buddha-nature] is blank and featureless as space; it has no "too little" or "too much;"
Only because we take and reject does it seem to us not to be so.

Comment: There is already a Perfect Way why make things difficult by choosing other ways and go astray.

Do not chase after Entanglements as though they were real things,
Do not try to drive pain away by pretending that it is not real;
Pain, if you seek serenity in Oneness, will vanish of its own accord.
Stop all movement in order to get rest, and rest will itself be restless;
Linger over either extreme, and Oneness is for ever lost.
Those who cannot attain to Oneness in either case will fail:
To banish Reality is to sink deeper into the Real;
Allegiance to the Void implies denial of its voidness.
The more you talk about It, the more you think about It, the further from It you go;
Stop talking, stop thinking, and there is nothing you will not understand.

Comment: How one can still go astray in our cultivation, if careless.

Return to the Root and you will find the Meaning;
Pursue the Light, and you will lose its source,
Look inward, and in a flash you will conquer the Apparent and the Void.

Comment: When one returns to the source, the Truth is there. Do not look outward, meditate and (perhaps) in a flash one attains the Center.

For the whirligigs of Apparent and Void all come from mistaken views;
There is no need to seek Truth; only stop having views.
Do not accept either position [Assertion and Negation], examine it or pursue it;
At the least thought of "Is" and "Isn't" there is chaos and the Mind is lost.
Though the two exist because of the One, do not cling to the One;
Only when no thought arises are the Dharmas without blame.
No blame, no Dharmas; no arising, not thought.
The doer vanishes along with the deed,
The deed disappears when the doer is annihilated.
The deed has no function apart from the doer;
The doer has no function apart from the deed.
The ultimate Truth about both Extremes is that they are One Void.
In that One Void the two are not distinguished;
Each contains complete within itself the Ten Thousand Forms.
Only if we boggle over fine and coarse are we tempted to take sides.
In its essence the Great Way is all embracing;
It is as wrong to call it easy as to call it hard.

Comment: Descriptions of duality: yin yang; forms and emptiness; and of the Center. (Consider the similarities with The Diamond Sutra.)


(Continued in the entry below.)