OneEssence

The Nondual Clarity of an Ancient Zen Poem.

Robert Wolfe on the Hsin Hsin Ming.
Karina Library Press, 2011
Ojai, California
Oo Eo.: T/ `ocool Clorit, f oo Jo.iot o Po.
print eoition, ISBN-13: 978-0-982!!91-7-2
ebook eoition, ISBN-13: 978-0-982!!91-8-9
Eoitor: Michael Lommel, michaelkarinalibrary.com
Library ol Congress Control Number: 201193301

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Book oesigneo inComputerModern Sans ,Donalo Knuth, ano
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Al so by Robert Wol l e
Li.io `ocoolit,:
Eoli/tooot To./io f Slf-Roliotio
T/ Cl f T/oo:
T/ Eoli/tooot To./io f )o
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Frelace ......................................................... 1
Introouction ................................................. 7
1. T/ Jo, .................................................. 11
!. Eoli/toc Jc.i. ...................................... 1
3. Cofli.t f Oit ................................... 19
!. Fr olo .............................................. 2
5. Eot, Mioc .............................................. 29
6. Silot Mioc ............................................... 3
7. Droo Jrlc ............................................. 39
8. `t to, or o ......................................... !3
. ` lf, o oioc ......................................... !7
10. `oolo ............................................. 3
11. Co o/ot oo, .......................................... 7
1!. Eoooioit, ............................................... o1
13. Uoci.icc ................................................. o
1!. Jll-o.ooio ........................................ 71
15. Tiol ................................................... 7
16. Eo. .................................................... 79
Aooenoa ..................................................... 83
In Death as in Lile .................................... 10
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Deoicateo to Jerry Jones.
The original face is limitless;
It cannot be probed by mind.
True enlightenment is not enlightenment,
Real emptiness is not empty.
Niu Tou (7th c.)
1
Prfo.
The lyric expressions ol enlightenment, over the eons, have
hao an innuential ellect on many persons, in many places
incluoing mysell. Some examples lollow.
Robert Wolle
Ojai, Calilornia
2
The presence that pervades the universe
is imperishable, unchanging
beyond both is and is not: how could it ever vanish?
Bhagavad Gita
3
His mind is empty.
He is not concerned with meditation,
or the absence of it,
or the struggle between good and evil.
Ashtavakra Gita
!
Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot;
seek the path that demands your whole being.
Leave that which is not, but appears to be;
seek that which is, but is not apparent.
Rumi

As long as I am this or that, or have this or that,

I am not all things and I have not all things.
(When) you neither are nor have this or that,
then you are omnipresent andbeing neither
this nor thatare all things.
Meister Eckhart
In order to arrive
at being everything,
desire to be nothing.
John of the Cross
7
Iotrco.tio
Hui Neng, the Sixth Chinese Fatriarch, is saio to have
been an illiterate wooocutter who was enlighteneo oelivering
wooo, upon hearing his customer chanting a sutra verse.
The enouring inspiration ol spiritual verse, though such a
prolouno occurrence may be rare, perhaps accounts lor its
perennial revivallike nowers among a scriptural lorest.
The unrhymeo, aphoristic couplets that comprise the Hsin
Hsin Ming have a time-honoreo niche in the transmission ol
the oharma. ,It is even the basis lor some ol the classic koan
riooles., Il you know ol a particular translateo version, you
might nno it benencial to reao it alongsioe the one given in
the lollowing pages. There are more than a oozen English
variants available, ano I have utilizeo the phrasing ol some
ol these alternates to oeepen the nuance ol a passage, when
possible. A lew ol the extant renoitions I have paraphraseo lor
brevity. Ano a common woro that is sometimes capitalizeo is
meant to inoicate that it is a oescriptive woro pointing to the
ultimate Reality.
In this oay, when the teachings ol nonouality are being
scrutinizeo by a growing public, the Hsin Hsin Ming again
casts its renective light on another generation privilegeo to
contemplate its clarity ano oirectness.
T/ Jo,
1.
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above.
11
The Tao is self-evident
To those who live in choiceless awareness.
When you perceive everything objectively,
Your path is clear and unobstructed.
T
0=;*-/1 6<0->-:;-;7.<0-0;1 60;1 651 6/ Or, at
least, thus begins this version ol the translation ol it.
*
Like
the Dao oe jing ,known in previous years as the Tao te Ching,,

this classic spiritual scripture has unoergone many translations
over the centuries. Consequently, the interpretation ol its
original woroing has varieo in each renoition.

But the central,

emphatic message remains consistently clear throughout its
text: the importance ano value ol comprehenoing the nonoual
perspective.
The woro To ,or Do, basically means Way, in the sense
ol a oirection, or passage, or opening. We might say that to
pass through the transcenoental opening is to embrace the
Tao, to nno one`s unencumbereo way in this lile on earth.
*
This version was provioeo to me by a corresponoent, who baseo its composition
on existing versions he hao stuoieo.

The Do c io is thought to have been composeo circa o00 B.C., in China,

reputeoly by Lao tzu.

An example ol the nexibility in translating Chinese characters: C/o to can be

renoereo experience ol enlightenment or proving the Way.
12
In Buoohism, this path is saio to leao us to encounter the
gateless gate, the point at which the oisciple experiences no
obstructions.
*
Most olten, in the translations ol this Zen text,

the opening
woros are given as the Great Way, or Supreme or Ferlect Way,
in the sense ol ultimate, or transcenoent or Absolute. An
alternate usage lor Way or Tao is Mino ,or Buooha Mino,,
again a relerence to the universal or absolute Fresence which
knows no limitation.
Hsin, in the poem`s title, inoicates ,in one sense ol its usage,
Mino, as a lormless Fresence which is the source ol all being. As
useo in a secono sense, Hsin also relers to an awareness ol this
ubiquitous Fresence, to the extent ol realizing one`s ioentity
with it, thus generating a complete trust in the omnipresent
Mino. In the trust ol this Mino, there is no separation lrom it,
no oissimilarity: Hsin Hsin.
Ming is a treatise, a teaching, in this case, in a versineo
lormat similar to the Dao oe jing or the Sermon on the
Mount. So the title ol the Hsin Hsin Ming has been translateo
variously as ,lor instance, Alnrming the Buooha-Mino, or The
Mino ol Absolute Trust.
Let`s look at the secono stanza, consioer the origin ol the
poem, ano then explore these initial aomonitions in greater
oepth.
*
What Suzuki Roshi saio ol a similar Zen poem, written by the Eighth Chinese
Fatriarch, applies to the Hsin Hsin Ming: When a Buoohist reaos it, it is a
Buoohist text, ano when a Daoist reaos it, it is a Daoist text.

o is the Japanese name lor what was originally calleo C/`oo in China. Ano S/io
)io Mi is the Japanese name lor the Hsin Hsin Ming.
Eoli/toc Jc.i.
!.
When you deviate from it,
You fall into duality.
If you want to comprehend the Tao,
Remain impartial.
1
%
the authorship ol the Hsin
Hsin Ming to Chien-chih Seng Ts`an ,also calleo, by the
Japanese, Kanchi Sosan, or Sosan Zenji,. He is consioereo to
be the thiro successive Chinese patriarch,
*
or oharma heir,
ano the 30th successor in a lineage tracing itsell back to the
Buooha ,who illumineo Inoia in the perioo arouno 0 B.C.,.
Not all Buoohist scholars agree with the attribution ol this
text to Seng Ts`an. Some leel it may have been written alter
o0o A.D., the year when the Thiro Fatriarch oieo.
Fart ol the problem with attributing the Hsin Hsin Ming
to Seng Ts`an is that so little is known about him. When we
set asioe the mythical tales which typically attach to venerable
spiritual ngures, all we can reliably say is that Seng Ts`an was
consioereo, like Buooha, to have been enlighteneo. Ano so,
we can say ol the author ol the Hsin Hsin Ming only that
he ,assuming it was not a she, is pointing to a neeole`s eye
through which he himsell evioently has passeo. Regaroless
ol its authorship, enlightenment teachers throughout the past
centuries have citeo the poem as a touchstone, right up to the
present oay.

*
The Iirst Fatriarch is saio to be Boohioharma, allegeo to have brought the
essence ol Zen precepts to Taoist China circa 20 A.D.

Two commentaries within the past 20 years, in English: T/ E, `.r Sl, by

Dennis Genpo Merzel, a successor ol Zen master Maezumi Roshi, ano Foit/ io
Mioc by Chinese Zen master Sheng Yen. Both contain commentaries. The olt-
citeo translation ol Richaro B. Clarke ,aoopteo by Merzel,, himsell a oharma
teacher, is available as an 8-page booklet also. Clarke`s appraisal ol the poem:
The essence ol Zen. This is all you neeo.
1o
While the path is clear ano unobstructeo, there is an
essential reason why it may not seems so. Ior that reason, the
poem`s author wrote 1!o ,lour-character, lines, comprising
about 30 verses. The theme is repetitive throughout: impartial,
choiceless perception. Ano the contrary perception is clear
throughout: to lall into ouality.
Let us aoo the next two verses, then consioer all the nrst
lour, lrom the beginning.
Cofli.t f Oit
3.
Not accepting things as they are
Leads to mental imbalance.
When you fail to accord with the Tao,
Peace of mind is lost.
The Tao is limitless as space
With nothing missing, nothing superfluous.
If you do not accept things as they are,
You will fail to comprehend the nature of things.
19
7
ol the very nrst verse ,Chapter 1,
are warning us, at the start, to be wary ol attachment to
prelerences, to be aware ol our conoitioneo tenoency to juoge
all things on a spectrum that ranges lrom positive to negative.
This means to take notice ol the things which we like ano
which we oislike, ano ol our impulse to either accept or
reject what appears belore us moment by moment. Such
prelerential choices are at the root ol both love ano hate,
at the root ol ambition as well as greeo, at the root ol the
exclusiveness known as selnshness.
The issue here is not simply to live in awareness ol what
presents itsell to you oaily, but in objective, nonjuogmental
awareness. In such perceptive awareness, connict ceases to
arise, your path is unobstructeo, clear.
The next lour lines that lollow the beginning verse ,Chapter
2, warn us ol the consequence when we oeviate lrom awareness
that has been emptieo ol choice: the Way is obstructeo by
ouality.
Irom your oays as an inlant, you have been conoitioneo
to oistinguish everything you encounter by ioentilying each
object with a separate name. Each ol these names limits an
object to a particular conceiveo lorm, creating a sell-imposeo
bounoarybounoaries in a reality which, in the absence ol
such oivisive, oennitional names, is simply One.
This is best saio by one ol the alternate translations:

Cling to a hairbreadth of distinction
and heaven and earth are set apart.
20
In other woros, the inseparable ano seamless One is now
broken into Goo ano man. Ano the Being which is
common to us all is now oivioeo as you ano I.
When we are bouno up in the oualistic perspective, the
oistinctions we make between gooo ano bao, right ano
wrong ano better or worse can leao only to oppositional
ano connicting choices. This is to lail to compreheno the
transcenoental Way. As a translation puts it:
To perceive Reality as it is,
live with an open mind.
Fut another way, Truth is not a matter ol opinion, Reality is
not oepenoent on whether we`re lor or against it. So only
when you eno your contentious minoset can peace ol mino
prevail, ano both internal ano external turmoil subsioe. Or, as
one ol the translations says:
Not to see the Ways deep truth
disturbs the minds essential peace.
Ano this also applies to social peace, as inoicateo by an
aooitional translation:
Misunderstanding the great Mystery,
people labor in vain for peace.
Through accoro with the One, you remove sell-limitation
ano sell-centereoness, ano you open to the unloloing ol a
Totality which can`t be revealeo by grasping lor it. In the
woros ol a translation:
Fix your mind on part of it
and you will miss the whole of it.
21
What can we say ol this Totalityano ol our being in
accoro with it? Ano how oo the poem`s phrases voio ano
emptiness relate to this One?