Xinxin Ming

Themes

Bernard Faure observes that the Xinxin Ming exhibits criticism of the Northern School practice known as "maintaining the one" or "guarding the one" (shouyi 守一), which was falling out of fashion with the eclipse of Northern Chan. Such criticism can be seen in the following passage from the Xinxin Ming: "If there is even a trace of ‘is’ or ‘is not,’ the mind will be lost in confusion. Although the two comes from the One, do not guard even this One." It has also been pointed out that the Xinxin Ming closely resembles the short Oxhead School work, the Xin Ming (Mind Inscription), a text taken to contain criticisms of the similar Northern School practice of "maintaining (or guarding) the mind" (shouxin 守心) by some scholars, such as Kuno Hōryū and Henrik Sorensen.

Likewise, Dusan Pajin observes that both the Xinxin Ming and the Xin Ming contain similar admonitions against using the mind to hold the mind and using the mind to maintain tranquility. Pajin also points out that the Xinxin Ming exhibits influences from Daoism and he notes the inclusion in the text of such terms as wuwei (non-action), as well as ziran (naturalness, spontaneity), which Pajin says "has a completely Taoist meaning." Pajin writes that this aligns with the Chan tendency, influenced by Daoism, "to stress spontaneity, at the expense of rules, or discipline." Pajin also writes that the Xinxin Ming's emphasis on faith in mind could be understood as a Chan response to Pure Land practice in which one puts one's faith in Buddha Amitābha.

Meaning of xinxin

Xinxin has commonly been interpreted as "faith" or "trust." For example, one translation is "Faith in Mind" (See The Poetry of Enlightenment: Poems by Ancient Ch'an Masters, Ch'an Master Sheng-Yen).

Yoshida Osamu translates xinxin as "faith-mind," and says, "Although xin (faith) and xin (mind) in the conventional sense are concerned respectively with object and subject, in ultimate reality they are not different." Similarly, Joanne Miller writes, "Xinxin refers to the conviction that the searching mind is the object of its own search i.e., buddha nature. In terms of a process or a practice, this faith is the experience of the mind when we experience non-duality. In this state, the trusting mind itself becomes the object of trust." R.H. Blyth also says that the believing mind is not a belief in something. It is not a matter of one thing believing in another. Rather, Blyth quotes the Nirvāṇa Sūtra which says, "The Believing Mind is the Buddha nature." Blyth comments that, "It is perfect because it is single, unique, complete, all-including."

McRae translates xin 信 as "to rely on," noting this entails faith or conviction. However, he also points out, following Yanagida, that in the compound xinxin 信心, the first character can also have a meaning similar to "true," and should be translated along the lines of "perfected." He suggests that the title Xinxin Ming be translated either as Inscription on Relying on the Mind or Inscription on the Perfected Mind.

From the Chan/Zen point of view, the true mind is perfect as it is. It is only false views that obscure the true mind's inherent perfection. As the text states,

Any degeneration of your previous practice on emptiness arises because of false perspectives. There is really no need to go after the Truth but there is indeed a need to extinguish biased views.

Moreover, the passage that follows immediately after explicitly warns against losing the original, true mind:

Do not dwell in the two biased views. Make sure you do not pursue. The moment you think about right and wrong, that moment you unwittingly lose your true mind.

Whether translated as Faith in Mind, Believing in Mind, Trust in Mind, or The Truthful Mind, the central message of the Xinxin Ming is the same: to point directly to Mind by giving up one-sided views so we can see the One Suchness of reality as it is.

Excerpts

Opening verse

The opening verse, variously translated, sets out the fundamental principle:

The best way [Great Way, the Tao] is not difficult

It only excludes picking and choosing

Once you stop loving and hating

It will enlighten itself.

(trans. D. Pajin)

Alternatively:

The Perfect Way knows no difficulties

Except that it refuses to make preferences;

Only when freed from hate and love,

It reveals itself fully and without disguise

(trans. by D.T. Suzuki)

And also:

There is nothing difficult about the Great Way,

But avoid choosing!

Only when you neither love nor hate,

Does it appear in all clarity.

(trans. R.H. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics)

Last verse

The poem ends with:

Emptiness here, Emptiness there,

but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.

Infinitely 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 in 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 the trusting mind.

Words! The Way is beyond language,

for in it there is

no yesterday

no tomorrow

no today.

(trans. Richard B. Clarke)

Alternatively:

One in All,

All in One—

If only this is realized,

No more worry about your not being perfect!

Where Mind and each believing mind are not divided,

And undivided are each believing mind and Mind,

This is where words fail;

For it is not of the past, present, and future.

(trans. D.T. Suzuki)

And also:

One thing is all things;

All things are one thing.

If this is so for you,

There is no need to worry about perfect knowledge.

The believing mind is not dual;

What is dual is not the believing mind.

Beyond all language,

For it there is no past, no present, no future.

(trans. R.H. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics)