Shinjinmei (II)
In Today's Talk, we continue our dance with the 信心銘, called the Xinxinming in Chinese and the Shinjinmei in Japanese, and by a variety of names in English such as:
On Trust in the Heart
Inscribed on the Believing Mind
Verses on the Faith Mind
Inscription on Faith in Mind
Inscription on Trust in the Mind
Have Faith in Your Mind
The Mind of Absolute Trust
Trusting In Mind
Affirming Faith In Mind
Song of Trusting the Heart
Faith in Mind
Have Faith in Your Mind
Trust in Mind
Inscription on Faith in Mind
On Believing in Mind
Inscribed On the Believing Mind
Faith in heart-and-mind
Engraving Trust in the Heart
The Faith-Mind Maxim
True Heart/Mind
Poem on Faith in Mind
Song of the Trusting Mind
... AND MORE!
Which is correct, or the best? It is truly mind blowing!
Today's text:
多言多慮 The more you talk and think about it,
轉不相應 the further astray you wander from the truth.
絶言絶慮 Stop talking and thinking,
無處不通 and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
歸根得旨 To return to the root is to find the meaning,
隨照失宗 but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.
須臾返照 At the moment of turning the light of awareness around,
勝卻前空 there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
前空轉變 The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
皆由妄見 we call real only because of ignorance.
不用求眞 Do not search for the truth;
唯須息見 only cease to hold opinions.
二見不住 Dualistic constructs do not abide,
慎莫追尋 so take care not to pursue them.
纔有是非 If there is even a trace of this and that, right and wrong,
紛然失心 the mind will be lost in confusion.
二由一有 Although all dualities come from the one,
一亦莫守 do not be attached even to this one.
一心不生 When the one mind is unborn,
萬法無咎 nothing in the world can offend,
無咎無法 and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way.
不生不心 When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist.
能隨境滅 When thought objects vanish, the thinker vanishes,
境逐能沈 and when the thinker vanishes, objects vanish.
境由能境 Objects are objects because of the subject;
能由境能 The subject is subject because of objects.
欲知兩段 If you wish to understand these two,
元是一空 originally they are one emptiness.
一空同兩 In this one emptiness, the two are inseparable,
齊含萬象 equally containing myriad images.
Oh, and last time I misspoke. The version we are using is not by the Soto Zen Text Project, but appears to be a translation by Richard B. Clarke, revised by Kōkyō Henkel. My apologies for the misattribution. 

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