Jianzhi Sengcan

Third Patriarch of Chinese Chán after Bodhidharma and Huike, thirtieth Patriarch in the line from the Buddha.
Author of the Xinxin Ming.

鉴智僧璨

中國禪宗第三祖，
繼菩提達摩與慧可之後，
佛祖傳法第三十代祖師。
《信心銘》作者。

璨

SENGCAN

僧璨与〈信心铭〉

僧璨，是中国禅宗的第三代祖师，为慧可大师的法嗣，生活在六世纪后期一个变动不安的时代。据传他并非通过仪式或经典而悟道，而是以直接的体证而得觉悟。他被后世尊为〈信心铭〉的作者，这部简洁的禅宗诗文精炼地表达了觉悟的真义。

〈信心铭〉以节奏明快、格言式的诗句写成，阐述觉悟源自于止息分别，不再执著于自与他、是与非。千余年来，它被奉为禅宗思想的基石之一，将道家的自然直觉与佛教的禅修精神融为一体，呈现出一种纯净而无造作的觉悟境界。

SENGCAN AND THE FAITH IN MIND

Sengcan, the Third Patriarch of Chinese Chán Buddhism and successor to the great master Huike, lived during the late sixth century, a time of transition and uncertainty in China. He is said to have realized awakening through direct insight rather than through ritual or scripture, and is remembered as the author of the Xinxin Ming (Tsin-Tsin Ming or Hsin-Hsin Ming), translated as Inscription on Faith in Mind, a concise expression of the essence of Zen.

The Xinxin Ming, composed in rhythmic, aphoristic verse, teaches that enlightenment arises when one ceases to divide the world into self and other, love and hate, right and wrong. For more than a thousand years it has stood as a cornerstone of Chán thought, bridging the intuitive simplicity of Taoism and the meditative discipline of Buddhism into a single vision of direct, uncontrived awareness.

XINXIN MING

信心銘

道

無

根

心

行

幻

覺

一

大道

不執著

回歸本源

心與二元

行道

幻實

覺悟

一與超越

THE GREAT WAY

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When neither love nor hate arises, all is clear and undisguised. Separate by the smallest amount, however, and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth. If you wish to know the truth, then hold to no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind. When the fundamental nature of things is not recognized the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail. The Way is perfect as vast space is perfect, where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

NON-ATTACHMENT

Indeed, it is due to our grasping and rejecting that we do not know the true nature of things. Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in ideas or feelings of emptiness. Be serene and at one with things and erroneous views will disappear by themselves. When you try to stop activity to achieve quietude, your very effort fills you with activity. As long as you remain attached to one extreme or another you will never know Oneness. Those who do not live in the Single Way cannot be free in either activity or quietude, in assertion or denial. Deny the reality of things and you miss their reality; assert the emptiness of things and you miss their reality. The more you talk and think about it the further you wander from the truth. So cease attachment to talking and thinking, and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

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RETURNING TO SOURCE

To return to the root is to find the essence, but to pursue appearances or "enlightenment" is to miss the source. To awaken even for a moment is to go beyond appearance and emptiness. Changes that seem to occur in the empty world we make real only because of our ignorance. Do not seek for the truth; Only cease to cherish opinions.

MIND & DUALITY

Do not remain in a dualistic state; avoid such easy habits carefully. If you attach even to a trace of this and that, of right and wrong, the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion. Although all dualities arise from the One, do not be attached even to ideas of this One. When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, there is no objection to anything in the world; and when there is no objection to anything, things cease to be— in the old way. When no discriminating attachment arises, the old mind ceases to exist. Let go of things as separate existences and mind too vanishes. Likewise when the thinking subject vanishes so too do the objects created by mind. The arising of other gives rise to self; giving rise to self generates others. Know these seeming two as facets of the One Fundamental Reality. In this Emptiness, these two are really one— and each contains all phenomena. If not comparing, nor attached to "refined" and "vulgar"— you will not fall into judgment and opinion.

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LIVING THE WAY

The Great Way is embracing and spacious— to live in it is neither easy nor difficult. Those who rely on limited views are fearful and irresolute: The faster they hurry, the slower they go. To have a narrow mind, and to be attached to getting enlightenment is to lose one’s center and go astray. When one is free from attachment, all things are as they are, and there is neither coming nor going. When in harmony with the nature of things, your own fundamental nature, and you will walk freely and undisturbed. However, when mind is in bondage, the truth is hidden, and everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness. What benefit can be derived from attachment to distinctions and separations? If you wish to move in the One Way, do not dislike the worlds of senses and ideas. Indeed, to embrace them fully is identical with true Enlightenment. The wise person attaches to no goals but the foolish person fetters himself or herself. There is one Dharma, without differentiation. Distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant. To seek Mind with the discriminating mind is the greatest of mistakes.

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ILLUSION & REALITY

Rest and unrest derive from illusion; with enlightenment, attachment to liking and disliking ceases. All dualities come from ignorant inference. They are like dreams, phantoms, hallucinations— it is foolish to try to grasp them. Gain and loss, right and wrong; finally abandon all such thoughts 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 realize the mystery of this One-essence is to be released from all entanglements. When all things are seen without differentiation, the One Self-essence is everywhere revealed. No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relationless state of just this One. When movement stops, there is no movement— and when no movement, there is no stopping. When such dualities cease to exist Oneness itself cannot exist. To this ultimate state no law or description applies.

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REALIZATION

For the Realized mind at one with the Way all self-centered striving ceases. Doubts and irresolutions vanish and the Truth is confirmed in you. With a single stroke you are freed from bondage; nothing clings to you and you hold to nothing. All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no need to exert the mind. Here, thinking, feeling, understanding, and imagination are of no value. In this world “as it really is” there is neither self nor other-than-self. To know this Reality directly is possible only through practicing non-duality. When you live this non-separation, all things manifest the One, and nothing is excluded. Whoever comes to enlightenment, no matter when or where, Realizes personally this fundamental Source. This Dharma-truth has nothing to do with big or small, with time and space. Here a single thought is as ten thousand years. Not here, not there— but everywhere always right before your eyes. Infinitely large and infinitely small: no difference, for definitions are irrelevant and no boundaries can be discerned. So likewise with “existence” and “non-existence.”

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THE ONE & BEYOND

Don’t waste your time in arguments and discussion attempting to grasp the ungraspable. Each thing reveals the One, the One manifests as all things. To live in this Realization is not to worry about perfection or non-perfection. To put your trust in the Heart-Mind is to live without separation, and in this non-duality you are one with your Life-Source. Words! Words! The Way is beyond language, for in it there is no yesterday, no tomorrow no today.