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INTRODUCTORY NOTES TO
HSIN HSIN MING
Verses on the Faith Mind
by
The 3rd Zen Patriarch, Sengstau
These verses were given to me as a birthday present on 29
September 1982, while I was residing at Suan Mokkh Monastery in
Southern Thailand They were given to me by a westerner who had
been ordained as a Buddhist monk and who had painstakingly
written them down by hand. There was no reference as to where he
had found them and so it is not possible to give credit to the
translator or publisher or ask permission for their further
dissemination beyond these few words of acknowledgment.
The desire to write lengthly notes on these verses is a
sign of my own attachment to them. The fact that I do not write
those notes may, perhaps, be credited to some small sliver of
wisdom derived from my study of them. In any case, having made
what acknowledgments as are possible, I offer these verses on the
Faith Mind to you, the reader, for your welfare and spiritual
profit.
Peace....
Omshanti....
HSIN HSIN MING
Verses on the Faith Mind
by
The 3rd Zen Patriarch, Sengstau
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 when 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 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 such 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 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 benefits 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 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 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 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.
Infinitelfy 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 with 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 trusting mind.
Words!
The Way is beyond language, for in it there is no yesterday,
no tomorrow, no today.