Inscription on Faith in Mind
One is All
Translation of the Hsin-hsin ming
Dusan Pajin, Belgrade University
Cf.
Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 19, 1992. Pp. 81-108
“On Faith in Mind,” Journal of Oriental Studies, vol. XXVI, no. 2. Hong Kong, 1988.
http://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Translations/HsinHsinMingTranslation.html
http://dekart.f.bg.ac.yu/~dpajin/text/hsin1.htm
http://home.att.net/~paul.dowling/archive/zen/pajin.htm
I.
1) The best way in not difficult
It only excludes picking and choosing.
Once you stop loving and hating
It will enlighten itself.
2) Depart for a hairbreadth
And heaven and earth are set apart,
If you want it to appear
Do not be for or against.
3) To set longing against loathing
Makes the mind sick.
Not knowing the deep meaning (of the way)
It is useless to quiet thoughts.
4) Complete it is like great vacuity
With nothing lacking, nothing in excess.
When you grasp and reject
There is no suchness.
II.
5) Do not follow conditions,
Do not dwell in emptiness.
Cherishing oneness in the heart,
Everything will stop by itself.
6) Rest to stop motion,
And rest will move you again.
If you are merely in either,
How will you know oneness?
7) Now understanding oneness
You will miss in two ways.
Expelling being you will without it.
Following emptiness you are always behind it.
8) The more words and thoughts
The more you will go astray.
Stop speaking, stop thinking
And there is nothing you cannot understand.
9) Return to the roof and obtain the purport.
Following the outcome you lose the source.
For a moment turn inward,
And surpass the emptiness of things.
Changes that go on in emptiness,
All have their cause in ignorance.
III.
10) Do not seek the true,
Only abstain from views.
Do not dwell in dual views,
Be careful not to pursue them.
11) The slightest trace of right and wrong
And mind is lost in confusion.
One being is the source of the two
However, do not even maintain the one.
12) With one mind there is no arising,
Then everything is without blame.
No blame, no things.
No arising, no mind.
13) The subject follows when the object ceases,
The objects is expelled when the subject sinks.
The object is related to the subject
The subject is related to the object.
14) If you want to know these two
Their origin is one emptiness.
In one emptiness both are equal
Evenly containing innumerable forms.
IV.
15) Do not differentiate coarse and fine
And you will not be for or against.
The great way is all-embracing
Neither easy nor difficult.
16) Small views are irresolute, full of doubt,
Now in haste, then too late.
Grasp beyond measure
And you will go astray.
17) Letting go leads to spontaneity.
Essence neither goes nor abides.
Accord your nature with the way
And go free of troubles.
18) Fettered thinking strays from the real,
It darkens, sinks and spoils.
To weary the spirit is not good.
Of what use are strange and familiar?
V.
19) In following the one vehicle
Do not dislike the six sense-objects.
Not disliking the six sense-objects
Turns out equal to perfect awakenness.
20) The wise performs through non-action.
The fool ties himself.
Things are not different,
Ignorance leads to preference.
21) To use the mind to hold the mind
Is it not a great mistake?
Out of confusion arise rest and disturbance.
Awakening negates liking and disliking.
22) All opposite sides
Lead to absurd consideration.
Dreams, illusions, flowers in the air
Why strive to grasp them?
23) Profit and loss, right and wrong
Away with this once for all.
If the eyes are not closed
All dreams stop by themselves.
VI.
24) If the mind does not discriminate
All things are of one suchness.
In the deep essence of one suchness
Resolutely neglect conditions.
25) When all things are beheld as even
You return again to spontaneity.
Put an end to the cause
And nothing can be compared.
26) Cease movement and no movement arises.
Set rest in motion and there is no resting.
When both do not make a whole
How will one be for you?
27) Investigate to the end
And there is no principle or rule retained.
Accord the mind with impartiality
Which stops every action.
VII.
28) All doubts are cleared
True faith is firm and harmonized.
Nothing is detained,
Nothing to remember.
29) Vacuous,enlightened, self-illumined,
Power of the mind is not exerted.
Thought is useless here,
Sense or feeling cannot fathom this.
30) In the real suchness of the thing-realm
There is neither other nor self.
Swiftly to accord with that,
Only express non-duality.
31) In non- duality all is equal,
Nothing is left out.
The wise from all directions
All belong to this teaching.
32) This teaching is not urgent or extensive,
Beyond a moment, or an aeon,
Not here,not there,
Everywhere in front of the eyes.
VIII.
33) Very small and large are equal.
When boundaries are forgotten,
Very large and small are equal,
The limits cannot be seen.
34) With being there is non-being.
With non-being there is being.
If not so –
Do not hold on to it.
35) One is all,
All is one –
Merely with such ability
Worry not for finality.
36) Faith in mind is non-dual.
Non-duality is faith in mind.
Discourse here stops –
With no past, present, future.