
No matter where you are on the planet we invite all to reflect
on a spiritual text or passage with Jivanjili each month.
The suggestion is to read the selected text slowly and reflectively
as many times as you wish. If you feel moved by Heart you may write
Jivanjili with your insights and reflections. You might be answered by Heart,
by Jivanjili herself, by the birds or the gentle breeze of the wind.
For those who attend satsang bring your insights and reflections so that we may
shine light on them together.
Seng T’san – Hsin Hsin Ming:Verses on the Faith Mind*)Part 1 and 2 together
This month we are going deeper into the complete text. Please read the text slowly over and over again while resting deeply in your heart. The transmission through the words is profound if you read in complete openness.
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. 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 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 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 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, and when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.
Things are objects because there is a subject or mind; and the mind is a subject because there are objects. 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 Clinging cannot be limited; Obey the nature of things If you wish to move in the One Way The wise man strives to no goals Rest and unrest derive from illusion; If the eye never sleeps, To understand the mystery of this One-essence For the unified mind in accord with the Way With a single stroke we are freed from bondage; To come directly into harmony with this reality Emptiness here, Emptiness there, Infinitely large and infinitely small; One thing, all things; Words!
*) The title of the Hsin-hsin Ming may be explained in the following way: 信 Hsin means "belief" or "faith." This is not the faith in the ordinary sense; it is a belief that comes from firsthand experience, a faith which arises out of supreme knowledge and wisdom of enlightenment. This "believing" is an affirmation that all existence or reality is essentially the Buddha mind, which is our true nature. Hsin is the conviction that at the bottom of all phenomena lies the One Mind, the Buddha mind, which is one with our real nature, the Buddha-nature. 心 Hsin literally means "heart." It means mind, not the deluded mind of the ignorant but the Buddha-mind. Hsin is the mind that merge with the all-encompassing One Mind. 銘 Ming literally means "inscription." It means written expression or record. Ming also means warnings or admonitions. Hsin-hsin Ming is one of the earliest and most influential Zen writings. It is usually referred to as the first Zen poem. The Hsin-hsin Ming has an important place In Ch'an Buddhist tradition. The poem has been very influential in Zen circles and many important commentaries were written on it. The opening stanza, " The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences” is quoted by many Zen masters as well as in the classical Zen works such as the Blue Cliff Records. It is considered as a poem which reveals the essence of Zen philosophy. |