Magellan's Log: Hsin Hsin Ming: Two Translations

The Hsin Hsin Ming + Bach
hsinhsinmingcoversm.jpg (8427 bytes) A spoken version of one of the Hsin Hsin Ming, mixed with bits of Bach. This CD is a public service of Magellan's Log. The price covers only our production and shipping costs. Use, share, copy, give to friends.

Hsin Hsin Ming:
Two Translations

wpe34.jpg (4331 bytes) Inerrantists we shall always have with us.

For anyone who has worked seriously with translating from one language to another, the very concept of "inerrancy" is at best amusing and at worst appalling. Because of both linguistic and cultural differences, any translation, no matter how skilled, is a flawed re-creation of the original. (The biblical inerrantists, of course, maintain that translations of the Bible are perfect because it is the word of God and God would not allow error in translations of "his" own words. Such circular arguments, when people build lives, organizations, and politics on them, lead to a peck of trouble; otherwise they are best preserved in glass cases as examples of charming late-date primitivism.)

Readers of Magellan's Log will have noticed a certain Zen-slant unifying just about everything we do here. And beneath that Zen-bias is the Hsin Hsin Ming, an early sixth century Chinese document which we have gone on about at some length elsewhere. (Really percipient readers will have also noticed that sometimes when we run out of satirical things to do, we'll run off a few graphics , insert a quote from the Hsin Hsin Ming, add a midi, and post it for your contemplative pleasure [here, or here, for example]).

We have also elsewhere praised Robert B. Clarke's remarkable translation of the Hsin Hsin Ming. Recently we came across a translation by none other than D.T. Suzuki, the Japanese-American scholar who in the 20th century functioned as the patriarch and all-round grand-old-man of American Zen studies.

It occurred to us that our readers might find it as stimulating as we did to put the two translations side by side. While maybe not quite as different as night and day, the two works certainly read as different parts of the same elephant. Clarke strives toward translating meaning, even if that occasionally requires him to introduce a term or two not in the original; the result is a remarkably clear, euphonious work. Suzuki, the scholar, is in contrast clearly bound by literalness, and his stiff, jerky translation results from the attempt to force a certain "Chinese-ness" onto English.

Which is "better"? Depends on your needs, doesn't it? Put together, the two translations refract meaning and light from the original and off each other in an extraordinary way.
--Doc Cuddy

Note: The divisions of the text below are made solely for ease of reading and comparison, and do not appear either in the Chinese or the English versions.

Hsin Hsin Ming
"Verses on the Faith Mind"
Translated by Robert B. Clarke.

Hsin Hsin Ming
"On Believing in Mind"
Translated by D.T. Suzuki

The tao is not difficult for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinions for or against anything.

To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Perfect Way knows no difficulties Except that it refuses to make preferences;

Only when freed from hate and love, It reveals itself fully and without disguise.

A tenth of an inch's difference, And heaven and earth are set apart;

If you wish to see it before your own eyes, Have no fixed thoughts either for or against it.

To set up what you like against what you dislike This is the disease of the mind:

When the deep meaning [of the Way] is not understood Peace of mind is disturbed to no purpose.

The tao is perfect like vast space where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things.

Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in inner feelings of emptiness.

Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity your very effort fills you with activity.

As long as you remain in one extreme or the other you will never know oneness.

[The Way is] perfect like unto vast space, With nothing wanting, nothing superfluous:

It is indeed due to making choice That its suchness is lost sight of.

Pursue not the outer entanglements, Dwell not in the inner void;

Be serene in the oneness of things, And [dualism] vanishes by itself.

When you strive to gain quiescence by stopping motion, The quiescence thus gained is ever in motion;

As long as you tarry in the dualism, How can you realize oneness?

Those who do not live in the single tao fail in both activity and passivity, assertion and denial.

To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality, to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality.

The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you wander from the truth.

Stop talking and thinking, and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

To return to the root is to find the meaning, but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.

At the moment of inner enlightenment there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.

The changes that appear to occur in the empty world, we call real only because of our ignorance.

Do not search for the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.

And when oneness is not thoroughly understood, In two ways loss is sustained:

The denying of reality is the asserting of it, And the asserting of emptiness is the denying of it.

Wordiness and intellection- The more with them the further astray we go;

Away therefore with wordiness and intellection, And there is no place where we cannot pass freely.

When we return to the root, we gain the meaning; When we pursue external objects, we lose the reason.

The moment we are enlightened within, We go beyond the voidness of a world confronting us.

Transformations going on in an empty world which confronts us Appear real all because of Ignorance:

Try not to seek after the true, Only cease to cherish opinions.

Do not remain in the dualistic state, avoid such pursuits carefully.

If there is even a trace of this and that, of right and wrong, the mind-essence will be lost in confusion.

Although all dualities come from the one, do not be attached even to this one.

When the mind exists undisturbed in the tao, nothing in the world can offend, and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way.

When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist.

Abide not with dualism, Carefully avoid pursuing it;

As soon as you have right and wrong, Confusion ensues, and Mind is lost.

The two exist because of the One, But hold not even to this One;

When a mind is not disturbed, The ten thousand things offer no offence. No offence offered, and no ten thousand things;

No disturbance going, and no mind set up to work:

When thought objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes, as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.

Things are objects because of The subject (mind); the mind (subject) is such because of things (object).

Understand the relativity of these two and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.

In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable and each contains in itself the whole world.

If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

The subject is quieted when the object ceases, The object ceases when the subject is quieted.

The object is an object for the subject, The subject is a subject for the object:

Know that the relativity of the two Rests ultimately on one Emptiness.

In one Emptiness the two are not distinguished, And each contains in itself all the ten thousand things;

When no discrimination is made between this and that. How can a one-sided and prejudiced view arise?

To live in the tao is neither easy nor difficult,

but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute: the faster they hurry, the slower they go, and clinging (attachment) cannot be limited;

even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.

Just let things be in their own way and there will be neither coming nor going.

The Great Way is calm and large-hearted, For it nothing is easy, nothing is hard;

Small views are irresolute, The more in haste the tardier they go. Clinging is never kept within bounds,

It is sure to go the wrong way;

Quit it, and things follow their own courses, While the Essence neither departs nor abides.

Obey the nature of things (your own nature), and you will walk freely and undisturbed.

When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden, for everything is murky and unclear,

and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness.

What benefit can be derived from distinctions and separations?

If you wish to move in the tao do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.

Indeed, to accept them fully is identical with true enlightenment.

Obey the nature of things, and you are in concord with the Way, Calm and easy and free from annoyance;

But when your thoughts are tied, you turn away from the truth, They grow heavier and duller and are not at all sound.

When they are not sound, the spirit is troubled;

What is the use of being partial and one-sided then?

If you want to walk the course of the One Vehicle, Be not prejudiced against the six sense-objects.

When you are not prejudiced against the six sense-objects, You are then one with the Enlightenment;

The wise man strives to no goals but the foolish man fetters himself.

There is one Dharma, not many; distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.

To seek Mind with the discriminating mind is the greatest of all mistakes.

The wise are non-active, While the ignorant bind themselves up;

While in the Dharma itself there is no individuation, They ignorantly attach themselves to particular objects.

It is their own mind that creates illusions- Is this not the greatest of all self-contradictions?

Rest and unrest derive from illusion, with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.

All dualities come from ignorant inference.

They are like dreams or flowers in air:
foolish to try to grasp them.

Gain and loss, right and wrong, such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.

The ignorant cherish the idea of rest and unrest, The enlightened have no likes and dislikes:

All forms of dualism Are contrived by the ignorant themselves.

They are like unto visions and flowers in the air;

Why should we trouble ourselves to take hold of them?

Gain and loss, right and wrong- Away with them once for all!

If the eye never sleeps, all dreams will naturally cease:

if the mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence.

To understand the mystery of this One-essence is to be released from all entanglements.

When all things are seen equally the timeless Self-essence is reached.

If an eye never falls asleep, All dreams will by themselves cease:

If the Mind retains its absoluteness, The ten thousand things are of one Suchness.

When the deep mystery of one Suchness is fathomed, All of a sudden we forget the external entanglements;

When the ten thousand things are viewed in their oneness, We return to the origin and remain where we ever have been.

No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relationless state.

Consider movement stationary and the stationary in motion, both movement and rest disappear.

When such dualities cease to exist Oneness itself cannot exist.

To this ultimate finality no law or description applies.

Forget the wherefore of things, And we attain to a state beyond analogy;

Movement stopped and there is no movement, Rest set in motion and there is no rest;

When dualism does no more obtain, Oneness itself abides not.

The ultimate end of things where they cannot go any further Is not bound by rules and measures:

For the unified mind in accord with the tao all self-centered striving ceases.

Doubts and irresolutions vanish and life in true faith is possible.

With a single stroke we are freed from bondage; nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.

All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind's power.

Here thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination are of no value.

In this world of suchness there is neither seer nor other-than-self.

In the Mind harmonious [with the Way] we have the principle of identity, In which we find all strivings quieted;

Doubts and irresolutions are completely done away with, And the right faith is straightened;

There is nothing left behind, There is nothing retained,

All is void, lucid, and self-illuminating; There is no exertion, no waste of energy--

This is where thinking never attains, This is where the imagination fails to measure.

In the higher realm of true Suchness There is neither "self" nor "other":

To come directly into harmony with this reality just simply say when doubt arises, ‘Not two.’

In this ‘not two’ nothing is separate, nothing is excluded.

No matter when or where, enlightenment means entering this truth.

And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space; in it a single thought is ten thousand years.

When direct identification is sought, We can only say, "Not two".'

In being "not two" all is the same, All that is is comprehended in it;

The wise in the ten quarters, They all enter into this Absolute Reason.

This Absolute Reason is beyond quickening [time] and extending [space], For it one instant is ten thousand years;

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 tao is beyond language, for in it there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.

Whether we see it or not, It is manifest everywhere in all the ten quarters. Infinitely small things are as large as large things can be, For here no external conditions obtain; Infinitely large things are as small as small things can be,For objective limits are here of no consideration.

What is is the same as what is not, What is not is the same as what is:

Where this state of things fails to obtain, Indeed, no tarrying there.

One in All, All in One--

If only this is realized, No more worry about your not being perfect!

Where Mind and each believing mind are not divided, And undivided are each believing mind and Mind,

This is where words fail; For it is not of the past, present, and future.

END

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