Zen Buddhist Text : Hsin-hsin Ming

By Third Ch'an Patriarch Chien-chih Seng-ts'an

 The Zen Buddhism religion and spirituality online library

The title of the Hsin-hsin Ming may be explained in the following way:

信

Hsin means "belief" or "faith." This is not the faith in the ordinary sense, it is a belief that comes from firsthand experience, a faith which arise out of supreme knowledge and wisdom of enlightenment. This "believing" is an affirmation that all existence or reality is essentially the Buddha mind, which is our true nature. Hsin is the conviction that at the bottom of all phenomena lies the One Mind, the Buddha mind, which is one with our real nature, the Buddha-nature.

心

Hsin literally means "heart." It means mind, not the deluded mind of the ignorant but the Buddha-mind. Hsin is the mind that merge with the all-encompassing One Mind.

銘

Ming literally means "inscription." It means written expression or record. Ming also means warnings or admonitions.

        Hsin-hsin Ming is one of the earliest and most influential Zen writings. It is usually referred to as the first Zen poem. It consists of 146 unrhymed four-character¹ verses² (lines), total 584 characters³. The Hsin-hsin Ming was composed in shih⁴ form. Shih was the principal poetic form in use in the early period, it is first used in the Book of Odes⁵ (Shih-ching, Shikyõ). Like the early shih, the Hsin-hsin Ming consists of lines that are 4-characters in length, but contrary to most shih, no end rhyme is employed in the poem.

         As a characteristic of shih, one line usually constitutes a single syntactical unit. Since one character represents one syllable, and since classical Chinese is basically monosyllabic, this means that there are usually four words to a line. Lines tend to be end-stopped, with few run-on lines, so that the efffect is of a series of brief and compact utterances.

         This concise form of four characters a line is shorter than the general run of Chinese verse, which usually has five or seven characters per line. Economy, even starkness of expression is a characteristic of the Hsin-hsin Ming. It is more of a verse than poetry and its brevity is one of the peculiar characteristics of this famous work. Its contents is closer to the Buddhist sutras than poems. In fact, the Hsin-hsin Ming can be regarded as a sutra. Many verses are like a short Zen saying and therefore can be taken as if they are a single-sentence Zen maxim. The original text was not divided in stanzas. Some translators divided the poem in different ways, with or without adding numbers to them.

         The Hsin-hsin Ming has an important place In Ch'an Buddhist tradition. The poem has been very influential in Zen circles and many important commentaries were written on it. The opening stanza, "The best way is not difficult. It only excludes picking and choosing," is quoted by many Zen masters as well as in the classical Zen works such as the Blue Cliff Records⁶. Along with the following influential poems, it is considered as a poem which reveals the essence of Zen philosophy:

The Hsin-hsin Ming

 By Third Ch'an Patriarch Chien-chih Seng-ts'an

Inscribed On the Believing Mind

Translated by Daisetsu Teitarõ Suzuki

至道無難  The Perfect Way knows no difficulties

唯嫌揀擇  Except that it refuses to make preference:

但莫憎愛  Only when freed from hate and love,

洞然明白  It reveals itself fully and without disguise.

毫釐有差  A tenth of an inch's difference,

天地懸隔  And heaven and earth are set apart:

欲得現前  If you want to see it manifest,

莫存順逆  Take no thought either for or against it.

違順相爭  To set up what you like against what you dislike –

是爲心病   This is the disease of the mind:

不識玄旨  When the deep meaning [of the Way] is not understood

徒勞念靜  Peace of mind is disturbed and nothing is gained.

圓同太虚  [The Way is] perfect like unto vast space,

無欠無餘  With nothing wanting, nothing superfluous:

良由取捨  It is indeed due to making choice

所以不如  That its suchness is lost sight of.

莫逐有縁  Pursue not the outer entanglements,

勿住空忍  Dwell not in the inner void;

一種平懷  When the mind rests serene in the oneness of things,

泯然自盡  The dualism vanishes by itself.

continue reading at: http://www.cosmicchrist.net/ZenBuddhistHsinhsinMing.htm

(from Essays in Zen Buddhism, by D.T. Suzuki – First Series 196-201)

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Zen Buddhist Text : Hsin-hsin Ming

By Third Ch'an Patriarch Chien-chih Seng-ts'an