The Hsin
Hsin Ming + Bach
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
(Verses on the Faith Mind)
A Christian Version
Attributed to
Chien Chih Sengtsan,
ca. 600 C.E.
Translated by Robert B. Clarke
(The word "grace" has been substituted for the word
"tao".)
Grace 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.
Grace 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.
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.
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 Grace, 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.
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.
To live in Grace 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.
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 Grace do not dislike even the world of senses
and ideas. Indeed, to accept them fully is identical with true 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.
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.
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. 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.
For the unified mind in accord with Grace 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.
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.
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.
Dont 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! Grace is beyond language, for in it there is no yesterday, no
tomorrow, no today.
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Ming
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