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Hsin Hsin Ming:Faith in Mind by the Third Patriarch

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  • Hsin Hsin Ming:Faith in Mind by the Third Patriarch

    hi,this question is for everybody,but i would like to know the opinion of,doc,uwe,arhat:
    i read a lot on this web,and it's amazing,havve lots of information.but i never read about hsin hsin ming,and it's strange because my kung fu master allways said,that is one of the most important readings for chan buddhism.

    did you read it?

    sorry for my english
    son of the light

  • #2
    Faith In Mind by the Third Patriarch. It is a very deep Chan teaching, probably one of my favorites. I have a copy of it somewhere around here, when I find it, I'll send it to Doc, so he can put it up.
    "For some reason I'm in a good mood today. I haven't left the house yet, though. "

    "fa hui, you make buddhism sexy." -Zachsan

    "Friends don't let friends do Taekwondo." -Nancy Reagan

    Comment


    • #3
      Thanks Fa Hui, that'd be great....
      practice wu de

      Comment


      • #4
        well in fact i have some copies,the problem it's that every translation is different,i have one in english isn't the best bu,i hope you like it
        Attached Files
        son of the light

        Comment


        • #5
          Translation

          Yan,

          in regards to your question, yes I did read and re-read it on occasion. However, I prefer the James B. Clarke translation. Being a professional translator myself, I have to say, that the one attached is just plain awful to put it mildly.


          Here is the one I prefer from James B. Clarke.

          Hsin Hsin Ming


          The Great Way 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 Way 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 by 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 Way

          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 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 the Way,

          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 the Great Way 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 the 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 One Way

          do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.

          Indeed, to accept them fully

          is identical with 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 the way

          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 self nor other-than-self.

          To come directly into harmony with this reality

          just say when doubt rises "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 and 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.

          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.

          Comment


          • #6
            Translation 2

            A little follow-up. There are a number of translations out there. Also, there is a translation from Stanley Lombardo, which is a modern English version. This one is also very good.


            If I would have to make a choice which ones I prefer, it would be first the Clarke translation, followed by the translation below, and finally the Lombardo translation.


            I include my second preference here below. It was done by an unknown translator but is also (IMHO) very good.


            Translation 2

            The Ultimate Way is without difficulty; it's only averse to discrimination:
            Just do not hate or love, and it will be thoroughly clear.
            A hairsbreadth's miss is as the distance between sky and earth.
            If you want to have it appear before you, don't keep conforming and opposing.
            Opposition and conformity struggling become a sickness in the mind.
            If you don't know the hidden truth, you work in vain at quieting thought.
            It is complete as space itself, without lack or excess.
            It is indeed because of grasping and rejecting that you are therefore not thus.
            Do not pursue existing objects, do not dwell in forbearance of voidness:
            In a uniformly equanimous heart these quietly disappear of themselves.
            Stop movement to return to stillness, and stopping makes even more movement:

            As long as you remain in dual extremes, how can you know they're of one kind?
            If you don't know they're of one kind, you will lose efficacy in both realms.
            Trying to get rid of existence is obscuring being;
            Trying to follow emptiness is turning away from emptiness.
            Much talk and much cogitation estranges you from it even more:
            Stop talking and cogitating, and you penetrate everywhere.
            Return to the root and you get the essence;
            Follow perceptions and you lose the source.
            The instant you turn awareness around, you transcend the emptiness before the eon.
            Changes in the emptiness before us all come from arbitrary views:
            It is not necessary to seek reality, all that is needed is ending the views.
            Dualistic views do not abide; be careful not to pursue them.
            As soon as there is affirmation and denial, you lose your mind in confusion.
            Two exist because of one; do not even keep the one.
            When the one mind is unborn, myriad things have no fault.
            No fault, no things; unborn, unminding.
            When the subject disappears from objects, objects submerge along with the subject.
            Objects are objects because of the subject, the subject is the subject because of objects.
            If you want to know them both, they are basically one void.
            One voidness the same in both equally contains myriad images.
            If you do not see fine and coarse, how could there be preference?
            The Great Way is broad, without ease or difficulty.
            Small views and foxy doubts slow you up the more you hurry.
            If you cling to it, you lose measure, and will inevitably enter a false path.
            Let it be as it naturally is; its substance neither goes nor stays.
            Let your nature merge with the Way, and you will roam free of vexation.
            Tying down thoughts goes against the real; oblivion is not good.
            It is not good to belabor the spirit; why estrange the familiar?
            If you want to gain the way of oneness, don't be averse to the six sense fields.
            The six sense fields are not bad; after all they're the same as true awakening.
            The wise do not contrive; fools bind themselves.
            Things are not different in themselves; you arbitrarily get attached yourself.
            If you take the mind to use the mind, is this not a big mistake?
            When deluded, you create peace and chaos, when enlightened, there is no good or bad.
            All dualistic extremes come from subjective considerations.
            Dreams, illusions, flowers in the air; why bother to grasp them?
            Gain, loss, right, wrong; let them go all at once.
            If the eyes do not sleep, dreams disappear of themselves.
            If the mind does not differ, all things are one suchness.
            One suchness embodies the mystery, utterly still and unconditioned.
            To see all things equally, is to return again to the natural state.
            Without any reason therefore, you cannot judge or compare.
            Stopping is movement without motion, movement is still without stopping:
            Since both are not established, how can one be such?
            When you find out the ultimate consummation, you do not keep rules and models.
            When the mind in harmony is equanimous, all doings come to rest.
            When doubts are thoroughly cleared, true belief is directly in tune.
            Nothing at all stays; there's nothing to fix in mind.
            When open and clear, spontaneously aware, you aren't wasting mental effort.
            The realm that is not an object of thought cannot be assessed by conscious feelings.
            The reality realm of true suchness has no other or self.
            If you want to tune in right away, just speak of nonduality.
            Nonduality is all the same; there's nothing it doesn't contain.
            The wise ones of the ten directions all enter this source.
            The source is neither expansive nor contracted; one instant is ten thousand years.
            There is nowhere that it is not; the ten directions are right before the eyes.
            The small is the same as the large; you forget all about the bound of objects.
            The largest is the same as the small; you do not see beyond it.
            Being is none other than nonbeing, nonbeing is none other than being;
            Anything that is not like this definitely should not be kept.
            One is all, all are one;
            If you can just be like this,
            What ruminations will not end?
            The true mind is nondual, nonduality makes the mind true.
            There's no more way to talk of it; it is not past, or future, or present.

            Comment


            • #7
              Just curious Uwe, what is it that you prefer about the Clarke translation when compared with the second translation or the Lombardo translation?
              Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.

              Comment


              • #8
                uwe.

                that's my favourite too,i have it in spanish from a osho's book "el libro de la nada"

                i know that there is more transalations and i told you that the one i have in english isn't very good,but my question is,they use this reading in shaolin?

                i apreciate your answer.
                thanks a lot
                son of the light

                Comment


                • #9
                  Sheng Yen?

                  Master Sheng Yen has done a great translation which is my favourite, have placed a copy on http://triple5.org (article title faith in mind)

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