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| - Introduction Page One ... Page Two ... Page Three ... Without Commentary Cleary Translation Shinjin-No-Mei by D.T.Suzuki A translation known as Faith Mind by Clark is a W.I.P. The original Chinese Related links: Seeking_The_Ox Introduction to: The Hsinhsinming Seng T'san, Third Chan Patriarch The following is an excerpt from: Zen and Zen Classics Volume One R. H. Blyth ("Shinjinmei") was one of the first treatises on Zen, at least, of those that remain to us. The author of this Buddhist "hymn", Sengtsan (Sosan), the third (Chinese) Zen patriarch from Dharma, the first Chinese and the twenty-eighth Indian Zen patriarch, lived during the sixth century, dying in 606 A.D. His place of origin is unknown. The conversion of Sengtsan at the hands of Huike (Eka), the Second Patriarch, is recorded in the "Chuantenglu" ("Dentoroku"), Part 3: Sengtsan asked Huike, saying, "I am diseased: I implore you to cleanse me of my sin". Huike said, "Bring me your sin and I will cleanse you of it". Sengtsan thought for awhile; then said, "I cannot get at it". Huike replied, "Then I have cleansed you of it". Sengtsan realized, not simply in his mind, but in every bone of his body, that his sinfulness was an illusion, one with that of the illusion of self. As soon as we are aware of our irresponsibility, all the cause of misbehaviour disappears in so far as the cause, (the illusion of the self) is removed. If we have no self, it cannot commit sin. Yet, it must be added, "I can't see how you and I, who don't exist, should get to speaking here, and smoke our pipes, for all the world like reality". (Stevenson, "Fables") And from another point of view, our self is real entity, real in so far as we know (physically) that, as Yuima said, your illness is my illness. When one part of the body is diseased, all is diseased, for "We are members one of another". In this sense, there is no rest for any one of us while one restless *soul* remains. But the real rest of "the man who has arrived", is something much deeper than this, which no simile or metaphor can express, lying as it does essential in the restlessness itself. An old waka says: After the clouds have passed away, "How bright is has become!" For in the sky, all the while, It is the region of Arnold's lines, "In Kensington Gardens": Across the girdling city's hum. How green under the boughs it is! To go back to Sengtsan. He became the disciple of the Second Patriarch and practiced austerities and led a life of devotion and poverty, receiving the bowl and the robe, insignia of the transmission through Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch (of China) of the Buddha Mind. At this time, one of the periodic persecutions of Buddhism broke out. Sutras and images were burned wholesale; monks and nuns were returned to the lay life. Sengtsan wandered for fifteen years all over the country, avoiding persecution. In 592, he met Taohsin (Doshin), who became the Fourth Patriarch. His enlightenment was as follows: Taohsin came and bowed to Sengtsan, and said, "I ask you for your merciful teaching. Please show me how to be released". Sengtsan answered, "Who has bound you?" "No one", he replied. Sengtsan said, "Why then do you ask to be released?" Taohsin immediately came to a profound realization. (Chuantenglu, 3) This is very much like, even suspiciously like, the enlightenment of Sengtsan himself. The question of historicity is quite different, however, from the "truth" of the incident, which is that of the "Hsinhsinming" itself, which owed its composition, no doubt, to the fact that during these troublous times the wordless message was in danger of being entirely forgotten, or worse still, misunderstood. What this was may be seen in the Four Statements of the Zen Sect [The originator of these seems to be unknown. They are sometimes attributed to Bodhidharma, but are more likely to have been formulated afterwards, during the Tang and the Sung Eras.]: To apply this to poetry, whose medium is words and phrases, may seem absurd. It is like pictures without paint and music without sound. But words are a peculiar medium, in being the vehicle for all communication, whether poetical or otherwise. In poetry, parallel with it, living a life of its own apart from that of the so-called poetry, is an unnameable spirit that moves and has its being. It is the darkness and silence of things, of which the ordinary poetical meaning is the light and sound. There is a transmission from poet to poet of the spirit of poetry deeply similar to that of Zen from monk to monk. A poet knows another poet by indubitable yet invisible signs; the same is true of the artist and the musician. But the poet especially (in the wide and profound sense of the word) feels and transmits unwittingly that attitude towards life that is the real poetry of the world. Two flew off, -- Butterflies. ~ Chora ~ (1720-1781) In this verse, the ordinary poetical meaning is discarded; what remains is that dark flame of life that burns in all things. It is seen with the belly, not with the eye; with "bowels of compassion". be such a thing as pointing without a finger? How can art subsist without a medium? What is this silence that block for me, In my loneliness; Now again let it cease. ~ Buson ~ (1715-1783) A fishing village; Dancing under the moon, To the smell of raw fish. ~ Shiki ~ (1866-1902) A rounded sphere Of winter seclusion. ~ Yaha ~ (1662-1740) Attaining Buddhahood means attaining manhood, being a citizen of the world, of double sex; besides this Shakespearean state, it means attaining childhood, beast-hood, flower-hood, stone-hood, even word-hood and idea-hood, and place-hood and time-hood. What a difference Between a man and a woman! But as for the bones, Both are simply human beings. ~ Ikkyu ~ (1394-1481) A letter thrown away, Blown along in the grove. ~ Issa ~ A cock crowed; Some more fell. ~ Baishitsu ~ It was the inner meaning of these Four Statements that Sengtsan desired to perpetuate in the five hundred and eighty-four characters of the poem. In it he has condensed the essence of all the Buddhist Sutras, all the one thousand seven hundred koans of Zen. The title of the work may be explained in the following way. First *hsin* is faith, not in the Christian sense of a bold flight of the soul towards God, a belief in what is unseen because of what is seen, but a belief in that which has been experienced, knowledge, conviction. Second *hsin*, the mind, is not our mind in the ordinary sense, but the Buddha-nature which each of us has unbeknown to us. *Ming* is a recording, for the benefit of others. The title thus means a description of that part of oneself where no doubt is possible. This is the same unshakable conviction that Shelley and Beethoven and Gauguin had. They too recorded what they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears, there to hesitation or indecision could enter. Especially noteworthy is the absolute faith in the value of the apparently trivial. A baking pan Thrown away among the parsley. ~ Buson ~ Fallen on the outer verandah, The earth with them. ~ Ransetsu ~ What is the Buddha? A baking pan thrown away in the parsley. What is the meaning of Dharma's coming from the West? Young greens on the verandah, the dirt with them. But these things are not something outside the mind. As Dogen (1200-1253) said: The "Hsinhsinming", entitled "Inscribed on the Believing Mind", was translated, extraordinary well, in 1927, by Dr. Suzuki Daisetz, in "Essays in Zen Buddhism", Series 1, pp. 182-187. [Reprinted in "Manual of Zen Buddhism", 1935, pp. 91-97. The title is changed to "On Believing in Mind".] (The present translation is in many places little more that a garbled version of his.) It consists of 146 unrhymed lines of four characters a line, shorter than the general run of Chinese verse, which usually has five or seven. Perhaps the brevity suits the mood of Zen, and prevents any literary or rhetorical flourishes. There have been many commentaries on the "Hsinhsinming", the first perhaps being by Chou Myohon, 1263-1323, who quotes the "Chengtaoke" ("Shodoka"), in illustration. Of other verse expositions of Zen, we may mention first this "Chengtaoke" [Translated by Suzuki in "Manual of Zen Buddhism", 1935, pp. 106-121.], a hundred years later than the "Hsinhsinming", by Yungchia, (Yoka Daishi), d. 713, one of the chief disciples of Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch. It is three times as long, and more flowery in style. In the Tang Dynasty we have also the "Tsantungchi" ("Sandokai") [This means, "Difference-identity-agreement", or "Phenomena-reality-ite", Zen as the harmony between the sameness and difference of things.], by Shihtou (Sekito), 700-790. Then we have "Paochingsanmei" ("Hokyosammai"), ascribed variously to Yuehshan (Yakusan), 731-834; Yunyen (Ungan), d. 841; and Tungshan (Dosan), 807-867. To the Tang period also belongs the most famous of the strictly Zen poets, Hanshan (Kanzan), whose dates are uncertain. An examples of his verse is the following: Like the mountain pool, clear and pure, -- But what can I compare it to? This reminds us of Shakespeare's "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Coming to the Sung dynasty, we have the poetical comments by Hsuehtou (Seccho), c. 1000 A.D., in the Piyenchi ("Hekiganshu") [Cases 2, 57, 58, 59 are based on the first lines of the Hsinhsinming, which Chaochou (Joshu) seems to have admired.], edited by Yuanwu (Engo), who was born in 1135; and the verses composed by Hungchih (Wanshi) [One would expect "Kochi".], 1091-1157, for the "Tsungjunglu" ("Shoyoroku"), a similar compilation of "cases" of Zen. All these, including the "Hsinhsinming" itself, seem to me verse, not poetry. It is true that, to parody Keats, the life of Zen is the poetical life, and the poetical life in the life of Zen; this is all we know, and all we need to know. But art in not life; it is in some sense the very dissatisfaction with life, which if perfectly satisfactory, (as in the case of the rest of creation,) will never transform itself into those psalms and symphonies which The "Hsinhsinming" then, is rather the basis for a theory of poetry, or the philosophic background, an expression of the implicit *raison d'etre* of the composition of certain kinds of poetry, like that of haiku, of Wordsworth and Clare, of Tao Chinnimg (Toenmei) and Po Chui (Hakukyoi). In explaining and illustrating the "Hsinhsinming" I have therefore quoted the poets rather than the religious writers. The poetry is the flower, the "Hsinhsinming" is the roots. Introduction Page One ... Page Two ... Page Three ... Without Commentary ... Cleary Translation ... Shinjin-No-Mei D.T.Suzuki A translation known as Faith Mind by Clark is a W.I.P. as is the original Chinese Related links: Seeking_The_Ox
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