TREELEAF PODCAST - SHINJINMEI SERIES

[Bion]

Hello, all

We are kicking off 2023 with a new series of podcasts based on our Monthly Zazenkai dharma talks, this time focusing on the Xinxinming (in Chinese) or the Shinjinmei (in Japanese), said to be written by the 3rd. Zen Ancestor in China, Jianzhi Sengcan (鑑智僧璨; Kanchi Sōsan in Japanese).

The first episode in the series, from our January 2023 Zazenkai talk is now available HERE

Shinjinmei (I)

Today's Talk will 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 the Song of the Trusting Mind, Verses on the Faith Mind, Song of Faith in Mind, Faith Mind Inscription, and many more variations ...

... said to be written by the 3rd. Zen Ancestor in China, Jianzhi Sengcan (鑑智僧璨; Kanchi Sōsan in Japanese) ...

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... but probably not really by him, yet a marvelous Teaching nonetheless, cherished in the Soto Zen world.

The ways of encountering the world described therein are, I believe, a key to understanding the mind of Shikantaza Zazen.

We will dance with the Shinjinmei over the coming few months, during our long Zazenkai each month.

I will be using a lovely translation from the Soto Zen Text Project:

~~~

至道無難 The Great Way is not difficult
唯嫌揀擇 for those who hold no preferences.
但莫憎愛 When longing and aversion are both absent,
洞然明白 everything becomes clear and undisguised.
毫釐有差 Make the smallest distinction, however,
天地懸隔 and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
欲得現前 If you wish to see the truth
莫存順逆 then hold no opinion for or against.
違順相爭 The struggle of likes and dislikes
是爲心病 is the disease of the mind.
不識玄旨 When the deep meaning of things is not understood,
徒勞念靜 the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
圓同太虚 The Way is perfect like vast space,
無欠無餘 where nothing is lacking and nothing is extra.
良由取捨 Indeed, it is due to our choosing or rejecting
所以不如 that we do not see thus.
莫逐有縁 Live neither in entanglement with things,
勿住空忍 nor passively in emptiness.
一種平懷 Be serene without striving activity in the oneness of things,
泯然自盡 and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.
止動歸止 When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity,
止更彌動 your very effort fills you with activity.
唯滯兩邊 As long as you remain in one extreme or the other,
寧知一種 you will never know oneness.
一種不通 Those who do not live in the single Way
兩處失功 fail in both activity and passivity, assertion and denial.
遣有沒有 To deny the existence of things is to get stuck in existence;
從空背空 to assert the emptiness of things is to turn away from emptiness.

🙏🏼 Sat Today lah

[Risho]

Thank you! I mean I don’t really care either way :-p

gassho

risho
-stlah

[Bion]

NEW TREELEAF PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE

Hello, all

A new podcast episode, of the February 2023 monthly Zazenkai talk, from the ongoing series about the Shinjinmei, is now available
HERE

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.

🙏🏼 Sat Today lah

[Bion]

NEW PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE

Hello all,

A new episode of our Treeleaf Podcast, from the Shinjinmei Series, from our March monthly Zazenkai talk is now available HERE or on your podcasting platform of choice

Shinjinmei (III)

In Today's Talk, we dance with the 信心銘, the Xinxinming, Trust Mind in Song, in these days of sometime beauty and sometime hardship ...

Today's text:

不見精麁 If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine,
寧有偏黨 you will not give rise to prejudice.
大道體寛 To live in the Great Way
無易無難 is neither easy nor difficult,
小見狐疑 but those with limited views are fearful and doubting:
轉急轉遲 the faster they hurry, the slower they go.
執之失度 In attachment balance is lost,
必入邪路 and they surely enter the wrong path.
放之自然 Just let things be in their own way,
體無去住 and the whole will neither go nor abide.
任性合道 Accept your nature and accord with the Way,
逍遙絶惱 and you will walk freely and undisturbed.
繋念乖眞 When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden,
昏沈不好 for everything is murky and unclear,
不好勞神 and unclarity brings annoyance and weariness.
何用疏親 What’s the use of making distinctions and separations?
欲取一乘 If you wish to enter the One Vehicle,
勿惡六塵 do not disdain the six senses.
六塵不惡 The six senses not being disdained
還同正覺 is the same as true awakening.
智者無爲 The wise have nothing to do,
愚人自縛 but the foolish bind themselves.
法無異法 There is one Dharma, not many;
妄自愛著 it’s foolish to long for anything.
將心用心 To seek mind with mind
豈非大錯 is the greatest of all mistakes.
迷生寂亂 Rest and unrest derive from illusion;
悟無好惡 in enlightenment there is no good and bad.
一切二邊 All dualities come from
妄自斟酌 false deliberation;
夢幻虚華 they are like dreams of flowers in the sky:
何勞把捉 why try to grasp them?

Dogen wrote, in Shobogenzo Kuge ... Flowers in the Sky ...

[F]oolish people think that the obscured eyes in the Tathagata’s statement “What is seen by clouded eyes are flowers in the sky” means the confused eyes of sentient beings. Because their sick eyes are already confused, they think that flowers in the sky are seen in pure space ... and think the Tathagata said that in original emptiness there are no flowers. ... After seeing the flowers in the sky, also see that the flowers disappear in the sky. [But] to think that the flowers in the sky stop existing once they disappear is a view in the Lesser Vehicle. ...

... Nirvana, and living-and-dying, are just flowers in the sky. "Nirvana" means the state of supreme, complete enlightenment. ... "Living-and-dying" is the real human body. This "nirvana and living-and-dying” are this reality, and at the same time they are just "flowers in the sky." The roots and stalks, twigs and leaves, flowers and fruit, and brightness and colors of flowers in space, are each the blooming of flowers in the sky.

... When this teaching is realized, flowers are beyond birth, beyond death; flowers are beyond flowers, the sky is beyond the sky. Do not be confused about the before and after of flowers. Do not get into a theoretical discussion of whether flowers exist or not.

Gassho, J

stlah

🙏🏼 Sat Today lah

[Bion]

NEW PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE

Hello, friends

A new Treeleaf Podcast episode, from our Shinjinmei series, recorded during April´s Monthly Zazenkai, is now available to listen to HERE. You can also find it on your usual podcasting platform (except Spotify, if I am not mistaken).

Shinjinmei (IV)

In Today's Talk, will find the Buddha's Ever-Birthday in the 信心銘, the Xinxinming, Trust Song in Mind,

Today's text:

得失是非 Gain and loss, right and wrong:
一時放卻 let them go at once.
眼若不睡 If the eye never sleeps,
諸夢自除 all dreams will naturally cease.
心若不異 If the mind makes no discriminations,
萬法一如 the myriad things are one suchness.
一如體玄 One suchness embodies the mystery,
兀爾忘虚 released from all entanglements.
萬法齊觀 When all things are seen equally,
歸復自然 they return to themselves.
泯其所以 In this causeless, relationless state
不可方比 no comparisons or analogies are possible.
止動無動 In rest or movement, nothing moves;
動止無止 in movement or rest, nothing rests.
兩既不成 When such dualities cease to exist,
一何有爾 oneness itself cannot exist.
究竟窮極 To this ultimate finality
不存軌則 no law or description applies.
契心平等 For the unified peaceful mind,
所作倶息 all self-centered striving ceases.
狐疑盡淨 Doubts completely vanish
正信調直 and a life of true trust is possible.
一切不留 With a single stroke we are freed from fixation;
無可記憶 nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.
虚明自照 All is empty, clear, and self-illuminating,
不勞心力 with no exertion of the mind's power.
非思量處 Here thought, feeling,
識情難測 knowledge, and imagination are of no value.

And Happy Birthday Shokai (AND EVERYONE) ... for Buddha's Birthday is ALL OUR BIRTHDAYS, and all things' ever rebirthday too!


Gassho, J

stlah

🙏🏼 Sat Today

[Bion]

NEW TREELEAF PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE

Hello, dear friends.
A new episode of our Treeleaf Podcast is now available (as of this month, we are also on Spotify). With this episode we close the series of talks on the Shinjinmei. You can find this new episode
HERE

Shinjinmei (V)

In Today's Talk, will close our dance with the 信心銘, the Xinxinming, Of Mind Song Trust Song,

眞如法界 In this world of suchness
無他無自 there is neither self nor other
要急相應 To come directly into harmony with this reality
唯言不二 just simply say, 'nondual.'
不二皆同 In this nonduality nothing is separate,
無不包容 nothing excluded.
十方智者 All wise ones everywhere
皆入此宗 enter this source,
宗非促延 and this source is beyond hurry or delay;
一念萬年 a single thought is ten thousand years.
無在不在 Here and not here do not apply;
十方目前 the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.
極小同大 Infinitely large and infinitely small; no difference,
忘絶境界 for definitions have vanished.
極大同小 Infinitely small and infinitely large;
不見邊表 no boundaries are seen.
有即是無 Being itself is non-being,
無即是有 and non-being is itself being.
若不如此 Don't waste time in doubts and arguments
必不相守 that have nothing to do with this.
一即一切 One is all,
一切即一 all is one, without distinction.
但能如是 To just be thus
何慮不畢 is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.
信心不二 The trusting mind is without duality,
不二信心 Nonduality is the trusting mind.
言語道斷 Here the way of words is cut,
非去來今 without past, future, or present.

And yet, there is past, present and future ...

🙏🏼 Sat Today lah