Heart: On Faith in the Mind – Shinjin no Mei

The Great Way is not difficult

for anyone without preferences of their own. 

When longing and hatred are both absent,

everything is clear and undisguised.

Cling to even the slightest attachment,

and heaven and earth are separated without limit.

If you wish to see reality,

do not cling to any view, whether in acceptance or rejection.

The struggle over what one likes and what one hates

is a kind of sickness of the mind.

When the inner meaning of a thing is not understood,

the mind’s fundamental peace is disturbed.

The Way is complete, like the vastness of space:

nothing in it is lacking, nothing is in excess.

Indeed, it is through our choice to accept or reject

that we fail to see the true nature of things.

Live without being bound by outward things or by

the emptiness felt within.

Remain peaceful in the efforts you undertake.

In the oneness of what occurs (Oneness),

mistaken views disappear of themselves.

If, for the sake of letting things happen naturally,

you refrain from acting,

that very effort of yours becomes filled with action.

As long as you cling to either of the two states,

you can never know oneness.

Whoever does not dwell in the one Way

fails through action and the renunciation of action,

through affirmation and denial.

To deny the reality of things

is to deny their truth;

to insist on the emptiness of things

is also to miss their truth.

The more we speak of it,

the further we stray from truth.

Stop arguing and reasoning.

Then there will be nothing you cannot understand.

To return to the root is to find meaning.

But to pursue appearances is to miss the source.

The moment of illumination

is a passage beyond appearances and emptiness.

In this empty world, where changes seem to occur,

what we call real, we call so out of sheer ignorance.

Do not plead the cause of truth;

stop clinging to opinions.

Do not hold fast to dualistic states.

Carefully avoid such endeavours.

If you cling to this and that, to right and wrong,

in the confusion 

you will lose the essence of the mind.

Though all dualities arise from the mind,

do not cling even to the aspect called oneness.

When the mind abides in the untroubled Way,

nothing in the world can hurt us.

If a thing can no longer hurt us,

it no longer exists in its former ways.

If dualistic thoughts do not arise,

the old mind is no longer alive.

When thought’s objects of attachment perish,

the individual who thinks also perishes;

when the mind perishes, the object of attachment also perishes.

What is seen becomes an object of attachment 

because of the individual alone;

the mind exists because of objects of attachment.

Understand the interdependence of these two, and the fundamental reality

of their unity in emptiness.

In that emptiness the two cannot be distinguished.

Each contains the whole world within itself.

If you do not cling to the opposition 

between the subtle and the coarse,

you will not yearn for a personal opinion or a preconceived judgement.

To travel the Great Way

is neither difficult nor easy;

yet those who hold limited views

are fearful and indecisive —

the more they hurry, the more slowly they go —

there is no end to attachment:

even attachment to the idea of attaining illumination leads them astray.

Leave things to their own course;

then there will be neither coming nor going.

Give way to the nature of things,

and you will walk freely, untroubled.

When thought is bound, truth too is concealed,

for everything there appears unclear and clouded;

the burdensome habit of passing judgement on everything

brings only turmoil and weariness.

What is gained through dualistic discrimination?

If you wish to travel the one Way,

do not hate even this world perceived through the senses and ideas.

Indeed, to accept them fully

is equal to attaining true illumination.

The wise are not driven by goals; 

the ignorant fret within themselves.

There is only one dharma here, not many;

it is solely to meet the need for attachment in those mired in ignorance 

that objects of attachment arise.

To seek the great mind with the ordinary, discriminating mind

is the greatest of all errors.

Rest and movement take shape out of illusion;

in illumination there are no attachments of liking or hatred.

All dualities are cast in the mould of ignorance.

They are like dreams, or like flowers in the air:

the ignorant long to grasp them.

Go beyond attachment to illusory thoughts 

such as gain and loss, right and wrong.

If the eyes never sleep,

all dreams naturally cease.

If the mind makes no distinctions,

the ten thousand things remain just as they are, 

with a single essence.

To understand the mystery of this single essence,

we must free ourselves from every bond.

If all things are seen as equal,

the timeless essence of the self is attained.

In that state without cause or effect,

no comparison or evaluation is possible.

If movement is regarded as stillness

and stillness as movement, then

the duality of movement and stillness disappears.

When such duality falls away,

not even oneness can remain there.

In this ultimate conclusion,

no rule or description finds a place.

In this world whose nature is ‘being as it is’ (Suchness),

there is neither a self nor anything apart from the self.

To come into direct contact 

with harmony with this reality, 

when doubts arise, 

simply say, ‘Not two.’

In this ‘not two’, nothing is separate, 

nothing is excluded.

Setting aside all questions of where and when, 

the illumination that perceives

is an entry into truth.

Beyond time and space, this truth neither expands nor contracts.

Within it, a single thought is ten thousand years.

Emptiness here, emptiness there,

yet the boundless universe will always stand 

before your eyes.

Infinitely large and infinitely small, 

it will be without distinctions.

For all descriptions perish, 

and no boundaries are visible.

Existence and non-existence are just the same: 

so too are being and not being.

Do not waste time on doubt and argument.

They are of no use.

One thing is this:

all things, without attachment, 

intermingle and move among one another.

To live in the recognition of this

is to be beyond perfection, 

free of all anxiety.

Living in such faith alone 

brings forth the Way of non-duality.

For non-duality itself 

is the essence of the great mind called faith.

Words!

The Way lies beyond the language of duality;

in it there is no yesterday.

No tomorrow.

No today.

*

Translated by the Zen master Shinjin no Mei from the manuscript of Jianzhi Sengcan, the third Chinese Zen patriarch, obtained from the Royal Asiatic Society Archives.