Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Hsin Hsin Ming

 

INSCRIPTION ON FAITH IN MIND

tr. Prof. Dusan Pajin
Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, Hong Kong 1988, pp. 270-288

 

 The best way is not difficult                                  
 It only excludes picking and choosing
 Once you stop loving and hating
 It will enlighten itself.

 Depart for a hairbreadth                                                  
 And heaven and earth are set apart,
 If you want it to appear
 Do not be for or against.

 To set longing against loathing
  Makes the mind sick,
  Not knowing the deep meaning (of the way)
  It is useless to quiet thoughts.

  Complete it is like great vacuity
  With nothing lacking, nothing in excess.
  When you grasp and reject
  There is no suchness.
        
  Do not follow conditions, 
  Do not dwell in emptiness.
  Cherishing oneness in the hearth,
  Everything will stop by itself.

                                                       
  Rest to stop motion,  
  And rest will move you again.
  If you are merely in either,
  How will you know oneness?

 Not understanding oneness  
  You will miss in two ways.
  Expelling being you will be without it,
  Following emptiness you are always behind it.

  The more words and thoughts 
  The more you will go astray
  Stop speaking, stop thinking
  And there is nothing you cannot understand.

  Return to the root and obtain the purport. 
  Following the outcome you lose the source.
  For a moment turn inward,
  And surpass the emptiness of things.
  Changes that go on in emptiness 
  All have their cause in ignorance.

  Do not seek the true,
  Only abstain from views.
  Do not dwell in dual views,
  Be careful not to pursue them.

  The slightest trace of right and wrong
  And mind is lost in confusion.
  One being is the source of the two
  However, do not even maintain the one.

  With one mind there is no arising,
  Then everything is without blame.
  No blame, no things. 
  No arising, no mind.

  The subject follows when the object ceases
  The object is expelled when the subject sinks.
  The object is related to the subject
  The subject is related to the object.

  If you want to know these two
  Their origin is one emptiness.
  In one emptiness both are equal
  Evenly containing innumerable forms.

   
  Do not differentiate coarse and fine
  And you will not be for or against.
  The great way is all‑embracing 
  Neither easy nor difficult.
        
  Small views are irresolute, full of doubt,
  Now in haste, then too late.
  Grasp beyond measure
  And you will go astray.

  Letting go leads to spontaneity,
  Essence neither goes nor abides.
  Accord your nature with the way
  And go free of troubles. ~

  Fettered thinking strays from the real,
  It darkens, sinks and spoils.
  To weary the spirit is not good.
  Of what use are strange and familiar?

  In following the One vehicle
  Do not dislike the six sense‑objects.
  Not disliking the six sense‑objects 
  Turns out equal to perfect awakenness.

  The wise performs through non‑action.
  The fool ties himself.
  Things are not different,
  Ignorance leads to preference.

  To use the mind to hold the mind
  Is it not a great mistake?
  Out of confusion arise rest and disturbance.
  Awakening negates liking and disliking.

  All opposite sides
  Lead to absurd consideration.
  Dreams, illusions, flowers in the air
  Why strive to grasp them?

  Profit and loss, right and wrong
  Away with this once for all.
  If the eyes are not closed
  All dreams stop by themselves.

  If the mind does not discriminate
  All things are of one suchness.
  In the deep essence of one suchness
  Resolutely neglect conditions.

  When an things are beheld as even
  You return again to spontaneity.
  Put an end to the cause
  And nothing can be compared.

  Cease movement and no movement arises.
  Set rest in motion and there is no resting.
  When both do not make a whole
  How will one be for you?

  Investigate to the end
  And there is no principle or rule retained.
  Accord the mind with Impartiality
  Which stops every action.

  All doubts are cleared
  True faith is firm and harmonized.
  Nothing is detained,
  Nothing to remember.

  Vacuous, enlightened, self‑illumined,
  Power of the mind is not exerted.
  Thought is useless here,
  Sense or feeling cannot fathom this.

  In the real suchness of the thing‑realm
  There is neither other nor self,
  Swiftly to accord with that
  Only express non‑duality.

  In non-duality all is equal, 
  Nothing is left out.
  The wise from all directions
  All belong to this teaching.

  This teaching is not urgent, or extensive                    
  Beyond a moment, or an eon,
  Not here, not there,
  Everywhere in front of the eyes

  Very small and large are equal.
  When boundaries are forgotten,
  Very large and small are equal,
  The limits cannot be seen.
            
  With being there is nonbeing. 
  With non‑being there is being.
  If not so ‑
  Do not hold on to it.

  One is all,    
  All is one ‑
  Merely with such ability
  Worry not for finality.

  Faith in mind is non‑dual.
  Non‑duality is faith in mind.
  Discourse here stops ‑
  With no past, present, future.