Xinxin Ming
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Xinxin Ming (信心銘) (Wade-Giles: Hsin Hsin Ming; Japanese: Shinjinmei (or Shinjin no Mei)) a verse attributed to the Third Chinese Chan (Zen) Patriarch Jianzhi Sengcan 僧璨(?-606) (Wade-Giles: Chien-chih Seng-ts'an; Japanese: Kanchi Sosan), is one of the earliest Chinese Chan expressions of “faith in mind” as opposed to the more common Buddhist faiths present at the time---faith in the Buddha, in the Dharma and in the Sangha.
The title has been variously translated as Inscription on Trust in the Mind, Verses on the Faith Mind, and On Believing in Mind, as well as others. John McRae (1986:316 n. 64) argues that the title should be translated as “Inscription on Relying on the Mind” or “Inscription of the Perfected Mind”.
Although Sengcan has been traditionally been attributed as the author, modern scholars believe that the verse was written well after Sengcan’s death, probably during the Tang Dynasty (Chinese: 唐朝; pinyin: Tángcháo) (618 – 907). (Dumoulin, p 97) Some scholars note the similarity with a poem called Mind Inscription by Niu-t'ou Fa-jung (594-657) (Gozu Hõyû 牛頭法融) of the Ox-head School of Chan and have speculated that the Xinxin Ming is an enhanced, abridged version of the Mind Inscription. The classical source of the Xinxin Ming can be found in the Transmission of the Lamp (Wade-Giles: Ching-te Ch'uan-teng Lu; Japanese: Keitoku Dentõroku 景德傳燈錄 景徳伝灯録).[1]
The Xinxin Ming has been much beloved by Chan (Zen) practitioners for over a thousand years. It is still studied in Western Zen circles. As an early expression of Chan Buddhism, it reveals a Taoist influence commingled with Buddhist spirituality. It draws on the Wisdom sutras of Buddhism to express ultimate unity between opposites and the metaphysical notion of emptiness which can be traced back to Nagarjuna (c.150-250 AD) (Chinese: 龍樹). Broadly speaking, the Xinxin Ming deals with the principles of non-duality, practice and the results of practice and the application of principle. [2]
The opening verse, variously translated, sets out the fundamental principle:
- The best way [Great Way, the Tao] is not difficult
- It only excludes picking and choosing
- Once you stop loving and hating
- It will enlighten itself. (translated by D. Pajin)
The poem ends with:
- 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.
- Don't 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 Way is beyond language,
- for in it there is
-
- no yesterday
-
- no tomorrow
-
- no today.
Translated by Richard B. Clarke
[edit] References
- ^ for a fuller discussion on authorship see Sacred Texts
- ^ see Pajin
Dumoulin, Heinrich (1994, 1998) Zen Buddhism: A History, Volume I, India and China, Simon & Schuster and Prentice Hall International ISBN 0 02 897109 4
McRae, John R (1986) The Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch'an Buddhism, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 0-8248-1056-2
Pajin, Dusan (1988) On Faith in Mind, Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, Hong Kong 1988, pp. 270-288. available here or here
