The Great Way and Mahayana Buddhism: Exploring Sengcan's Xinxin Ming

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

How to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.

How to know deep meaning of things is not understood the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

What are the perfect way is perfect like vast space where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess. Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things. Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves?

1.  When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity your very effort fills you with activity. As long as you remain in one extreme or the other, you will never know Oneness.

2. Those who do not live in the single Way fail in both activity and passivity, assertion and denial. To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality; to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality.

3. The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you wander from the truth. Stop talking and thinking and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

4. To return to the root is to find the meaning, but to pursue appearances is to miss the source. At the moment of inner enlightenment, there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness. The changes that appear to occur in the empty world we call real only because of our ignorance.

5. Do not search for the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.

6. Do not remain in the dualistic state; avoid such pursuits carefully. If there is even a trace of this and that, of right and wrong, the Mind -essence will be lost in confusion. Although all dualities come from the One, do not be attached even to this One.

7. When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, nothing in the world can offend, and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way. 12. When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist. When thought objects vanish, the thinking -subject vanishes, and when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.

The attached reading is a translation of the Xinxin Ming, reputedly written by Jianzhi Sengcan (Ch’ien–chih Seng-ts’an), the Third Patriarch of Chan Buddhism. It is a concise teaching of the essence of Buddhism from the Chan perspective. When read by those unfamiliar with Buddhism, it may appear to contain enigmatic statements, puzzling because they appear contradictory, or because they point to some subtle realization. The Great Way is, of course, the way of Mahayana Buddhism. Write your essay on this Chan text, selecting particular verses or phrases as illustrations of its Buddhist philosophical content. In particular, show ideas that resonate with Madhyamaka and Yogacara Buddhism, and even with Tantric philosophy. Connections to other aspects of Buddhism may be pointed out, but these are of secondary importance. Use references from the eBook, the lectures, and any of SBIP readings to substantiate your understanding of those Buddhist philosophies.

Madhyamaka Buddhism is identified with the Middle Way between extremes, with Emptiness, with equating samsaric reality with nirvana, with the two levels of Truth, and so on. Yogacara is associated with the alaya-vijnana, the three levels of perception, etc. Tantra with the value of desire, the non-denial of worldly existence, etc. Find verses and phrases in Sengcan’s text that suggest those and other ideas, and justify them as features of Mahayana Buddhist teachings by citing places in the lectures, eBook and SBIP readings that present those ideas. The more thorough your “scholarship” and demonstrated understanding, the better!

1. Do not go to outside sources for interpretations of this text. Any hint that your work does not represent your own words and thoughts will be penalized.

2. Do not begin or end your essay with lengthy preambles or broad generalizations about how wonderful Buddhism is, or even what Buddhism is all about. We also do not need a history of Mahayana, etc. In other words, do not waste your words on anything but analysis of the Buddhist ideas embedded in the Xinxin Ming, and references to back up your analysis. For example, you could get right into it by beginning: “The Xinxin Ming, attributed to the Third Chan Patriarch Sengcan, is a short tract that condenses the essential teachings of Mahayana Buddhism. For instance, it opens with the puzzling statement.