ONE EMPTINESS: An Incantation to Benefit Others – (Hsin Hsin Ming[i])Entrusting the Essential ‘Heart-Mind’
Note –
The Hsin Hsin Ming (or Shin Jin Mei in Japanese) has been traditionally attributed to the third Ch’an Ancestor after Bodhidharma, Jianzhi Sengcan who lived in the 6th century. While it may have been written down much later, its quality of expression and language reflect this ‘spirit’ of early Ch’an perspective and practice. During one retreat time in the mountains, when I was for half the year or so, primarily engaged with the Hsin Hsin Ming, I found it beneficial to take some time and go through the varying ‘translations’ from the original Chinese to write some notes and ended up with this version. All ‘translation’ is to some degree interpretation, so what came out of this process, was this interpretive rendering where I endeavored to unpack some of the nuances in English… though a hundred ‘translations’ may find the Hsin Hsin Ming’s meaning inadequate and elusive. -KS
1
The Way (Tao) is without resistance,
Hence negates (your) preferences
2
Giving up craving and aversion
It clearly manifests
3
The smallest measuring
Splits apart earth and sky
4
Should you come to see,
Give up affirming and negating
5
Any hesitancy between ‘yes’ or ‘no’
Unbalances the ‘Heart-Mind’
6
Not actualizing this profound truth
Our Heart-Mind is disturbed and restless
7
Like the wholeness of endless space
The Tao has no deficiency or excess
8
Because of controlling and rejecting
Suchness (tathatha) is not experienced
9
Neither chase the senses
Nor be attached to emptiness
10
Practice the peace of unity
And this distracted dualism disappears
11
Gaining stillness through stopping movement
Leaves stillness achieved alive with motion
12
Attached to these extremes of movement and stillness
How can you actualize the One?
13
When Oneness is not actualized
Both stillness and movement are lost
14
Negating reality is the affirmation of reality
And the affirmation of emptiness is its negation
15
Mere chatter and idle thought
Disrupt the Wayless Way
16
Practicing the negation of speech and mind
One may go freely anywhere
17
Finding rootedness, we attain essence.
This spiritness is lost when we chase the outer ‘brightness’
18
The experience of one instant of Mindful absorption
Carries us beyond the dichotomy of appearance and emptiness
19
The movement between appearance and emptiness
Looks real because of our resistance
20
There is no need to chase truth
Cherish the ‘seeing of No-Seeing’
21
Do not stay in the dualistic view of things
Conscientiously avoid seeking!
22
With even a trace of right and wrong,
The Heart-Mind becomes lost in complexity
23
Out of the One, comes two…
Let go of the One as well!
24
When the unified Mind does not separate
The ten thousand things are blameless
25
No blame, no ten thousand things
With no movement arising, there is no Mind (self) arising
26
When the object is absorbed, so is the Mind.
When Mind (self) dies to oblivion, the objective world ceases
26 (alternate)
The world is object for the experiencer
The experiencer is subject for the world
27
Know that this inter-relationship
Rests essentially on One Emptiness
28
In One Emptiness, this apparent duality is unified
All the ten thousand things are thus contained
29
Without distinguishing ‘this’ or ‘that’
Is it possible for a biased view to arise?
30
Tao is all encompassing
In its nature, nothing easy, nothing hard
31
Narrow views are full of fear and doubt
The hastier you live, the less you grow
32
Clinging to the idea of ‘Supreme Enlightenment’
We lose our inner direction
33
Letting go, everything remains AS IT IS,
The essence that abides in non-attachment allows all things to remain as they are.
34
Giving yourself up to your True Nature is unifying with the Way
Open wandering dispels affective conditions
35
Thinking based on attachments circumvents the truth
And the mind becomes obscured in craving and aversion.
36
These distortions injure the ‘Heart-Essence’
So what is the use of craving and aversion?
37
If you wish to follow the way of the One Vehicle,
Do not disparage or dislike the six sense objects
38
Indeed, not reifying and conditioning the six sense objects
You then return to the enlightened condition
39
The wise man acts without acting – beyond controlling
The ignorant keep themselves all knotted up
40
Nothing is separate from the Dharma,
Yet the ignorant cling to craving and aversion
41
Seeking the Mind with the mind
Is this not the greatest of all self-contradictions?
42
From ignorance comes resistance (rest) and agitation (unrest)
The enlightened condition transcends craving and aversion
43
All this dualistic experience
Is created by our ignorance
44
Like dreams, mirages and flowers in the air
Why be pre-occupied with needing to grasp?
45
Profit and loss, right and wrong
Away with them in one instant!
46
To the sleepless eye
The dream ceases spontaneously
47
The unified Mind
Experiences all reality as One Suchness, One Taste,
48
In the deep mystery of ‘One Suchness’
External distraction is released
49
Viewing the ‘One Suchness’ of reality
One returns to timeless origin
50
Incomparable and transcending analogy
Is this state beyond relations
51
Movement ceasing is No movement
Resting ceasing is No rest
52
When this duality ends
Unity as such does not remain
53
In the ultimate view
Everything is unbound by rule and measure
54
With the mind in harmony with the Way
All action ceases
55
Fragmented doubt vanishes
Genuine entrustment is affirmed
56
Nothing is left behind
Nothing to be remembered
57
Experience is Self-illuminating, lucid emptiness,
Effortless, stainless, energetic economy
58
Beyond the usefulness of thought
Where knowledge cannot measure
59
This experience of ‘True Suchness’
Neither of ‘self’ nor ‘other than self’
60
Should you ask for clear understanding
All that is possible is ‘Not Two’
61
This ‘Not Two’ is the unified state
It is all encompassing
62
All enlightened ones
Enter this perfect truth
63
This perfect Truth transcends time and space
An instant moment is an eon of time
64
Things conditioned as ‘here’ or ‘there’
The Infinite is present before our very eyes
65
The infinitesimal is as great as the infinitely expanded
For limits do not exists
66
The infinitely expanded is as small as the infinitesimal
Beyond the bounds of the seen
67
What is, contains what is not
What is not, contains what is
68
Until this is beheld
Your position is untenable.
69
One is All,
All is One
70
Realizing this
There is no need to worry about imperfections.
71
The Entrusting ‘Heart-Mind’ is non-dual
And indivisible is the Entrusting ‘Heart-Mind’
72
Here, all language fails,
the Way cannot be described by words….
It is of
no past,
no future
and no present.
(interpretive ‘translation’ completed at what was near what I called Raven Eye Peak and our then ‘Enso Retreat’ May 22, 2010)