The Inscription of Faith in Mind (Tin Tam Minh)
Abridged from the Xinxin Ming (信心銘), the Inscription of Faith in Mind, by THE THIRD PATRIARCH SENGCAN (TANG XAN)
(Recited before sitting in meditation)
Original text (transliteration) — Vietnamese rendering:
- Chi Dao vo nan, Duy hiem gian trach (discrimination). Dan mac tang ai, Dong nhien minh bach.
- Hao ly huu sai, Thien dia huyen cach. Duc dac hien tien, Mac ton thuan nghich.
- Vi thuan tuong tranh, Thi vi tam binh. Bat thuc huyen chi, Do lao niem tinh.
- Phong chi tu nhien, The vo khu tru. Nhiem tanh hiep Dao, Tieu dao tuyet nao.
- Nhut thiet bat luu, Vo kha ky uc. Tri gia vo vi, Ngu gia tu phuoc.
English rendering:
1. The Perfect Way is without difficulty,
Save that it avoids picking and choosing.
Only when you neither love nor hate,
Does it appear in complete openness.
2. A hair’s breadth of difference,
And heaven and earth are set apart.
If you wish to see it manifest,
Take no thought either for or against it.
3. To set what you like against what you dislike —
This is the disease of the mind.
When the deep meaning is not understood,
Peace of mind is disturbed to no purpose.
4. Let go and be spontaneous,
And the essence neither departs nor stays.
Follow your true nature and unite with the Way,
Wander freely, and be free of vexation (the ordinary mind is itself the Way — annotation by Nguyen Dinh Minh).
5. Do not hold on to anything,
Not even a trace of remembrance.
The wise take no action,
While the ignorant bind themselves.
COMMENTARY ON THE INSCRIPTION OF FAITH IN MIND
I. INTRODUCTION
The Xinxin Ming, composed by the Third Patriarch Sengcan, consists of 584 characters.
The version of the Xinxin Ming recited during meditation retreats at the Minh Ly Holy Assembly consists of 80 Chinese characters, selected and recorded by Venerable Minh Thien (who attained the rank of Bac Nha Thien Su, Prajna Meditation Master) and rendered into a Vietnamese chant of 5 stanzas totaling 140 words. Its title is: TIN TAM MINH (Inscription of Faith in Mind).
Minh means to engrave, to record. Tin Tam means Faith in Mind — its purpose is to reveal the “direct pointing” teaching of the Patriarchs, so that the practitioner may attain complete right faith and thereby break through all false attachments.
What does it mean to have faith?
It means believing that the vast substance of Mind is identical and equal in all Buddhas — a single, undivided Mind — as Zen Master Huangbo (Hoang-Bich) explained in his Essentials of Mind Transmission: “All Buddhas and all sentient beings share one and the same Mind, with nothing else besides. This Mind, from beginningless time, has never been born nor has it ever perished; it is neither blue nor yellow, has neither form nor shape, is neither existent nor non-existent, neither old nor new, neither short nor long, neither great nor small. This Mind transcends every category, every name and word, every trace and comparison. It is simply what it is — the moment you conceive of it, you have already erred. It is as vast as empty space, without boundary, immeasurable. This one, undivided Mind is the Buddha.“
This is also called the “Mind-seal” — something already inherently present within every person, needing no one to bestow it upon another, requiring no seizing, and never at risk of theft. Zen Master Vinitaruci (Ty-Ni-Da-Luu-Chi), the first patriarch of the Zen lineage in Vietnam (6th century), said to his first disciple, Zen Master Phap Hien: “The Mind-seal of all Buddhas is a real thing, complete and perfect as the great void — neither lacking nor excessive, neither coming nor going, neither gained nor lost, neither permanent nor severed, without any place of arising or ceasing, neither distant nor not-distant from anything — it is only called thus because of illusory, provisionally established conditions.” (Excerpted from the Thien Uyen Tap Anh, Anthology of the Zen Community.)
One must believe this of oneself directly, believe it at once, without relying on gradual cultivation and verification. Once one has entered this “position of faith,” there is certainly no turning back. The above is the definition of the three words “Tin Tam Minh” (Inscription of Faith in Mind).
II. THE TEXT OF THE INSCRIPTION OF FAITH IN MIND (as recited at the Minh Ly Holy Assembly)
1. The Perfect Way is not at all difficult,
Save that it avoids frowning and calculating.
Only refrain from love and hatred’s grasping,
And the heart, truly empty, sees clearly and shines forth.
2. Err by even the slightest hair’s breadth,
And heaven and earth are cleft entirely apart.
To attain the lofty Way manifest before you,
Take no thought either for or against, leaning to neither side.
3. Set right against wrong, contending without end,
And the disease of a stubborn, clinging mind still remains.
If you do not grasp the deep meaning, the ultimate word,
Even quiet contemplation brings little benefit.
4. Let go completely, release without further entanglement,
The essence itself never truly shifts or moves.
Follow constant nature, and only then do you unite with the Way,
All vexation ends, and you move freely, at perfect ease.
5. Do not hold on to anything that remains,
Not letting the Mind retain even a trace of longing.
The wise, through non-action, accomplish their work,
While the ignorant resign themselves to their own bondage.
III. BRIEF COMMENTARY
Below is a brief commentary on the 5 stanzas of the Xinxin Ming as recorded by Venerable Minh Thien:
Stanza 1:
“The Perfect Way is without difficulty; only avoid picking and choosing.” In Vietnamese: The Perfect Way is not at all difficult, save that it avoids frowning and calculating.
These two lines form the essential summary of the entire text.
“The Perfect Way is not difficult, save that it avoids picking and choosing” — if we choose and discriminate, the Perfect Way becomes difficult. The Perfect Way is the ultimate, supreme, most subtle Way — the goal that every practitioner must reach. “Picking and choosing” means distinguishing good from bad, right from wrong, leaning toward one side while rejecting the other — so that the Mind is no longer pure as it was in the beginning, having become defiled by worldly dust, losing its nature of equality.
One should know: good is not inherently good — it becomes good only through the Mind; bad is not inherently bad — it becomes bad only through the Mind; and so it is with right and wrong, and all such things. Even existence and non-existence: apart from Mind, there is no non-existence; apart from Mind, there is no existence either. Ordinary sentient beings, by turning away from their own Mind, falsely perceive existence and non-existence, good and bad, right and wrong as different from one another, and then wish to pursue one and abandon the other — all of this is delusion. If existence is illusory, then non-existence is equally illusory; both existence and non-existence change according to conditions, and neither is fixed. To reject both together is called “departing from illusion.”
The Surangama Sutra says: “Illusion is spoken of only to reveal the true; yet illusion and truth are both illusory, and neither is truly real. There is illusion and there is truth only because there is a perceiving subject and a perceived object.“
Views number sixty-two kinds, as thoroughly enumerated in the numbered lists of the Dharma, yet none go beyond the two ruling forms of attachment: “annihilationism” and “eternalism.” “Annihilationism” holds that all things are utterly nonexistent, opposed to “eternalism,” which holds that all phenomena truly and substantially exist. To perceive existence as truly real is itself delusion, born of ignorance of the principle of dependent origination governing all things in this world: all phenomena are without inherent self-nature. Having recognized this error and turned back, to then claim that existence is nonexistence is merely seeking the true, seeking to subdue the mind from without. But this too has not yet fully dispelled delusion, and is not yet the true, for it remains caught within duality. Only by transcending duality, cutting off attachment, and cutting off clinging views — without needing to seek anything at all — does the whole become identical with the true. To seek the true is to fall into annihilationism; to follow illusion is to fall into eternalism. Only by departing from all “views and attachments” does the whole become the true, without any need for seeking. Hence, in the complete text of the Xinxin Ming, there is a line: “There is no need to seek the true; one need only put an end to views” (that is, there is no need to seek the true — one need only cease from clinging views). The practitioner should study this method with care.
Above, it was said that the nature of equality is lost — in truth, the equal, awakened Mind (Bodhi) has become a discriminating mind, a mind of differences, the very first thread giving rise to ignorance, which stands at the head of the chain of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination. Since all phenomena are transformations of Mind, given merely provisional names, why should one bother comparing and measuring the Mind at all? To cease “calculating,” born of illusory feeling toward the myriad things, is itself the illusory realm of Mind, and nothing else. Once the source of Mind ceases, the very substance of the Dharma-realm becomes equally tranquil — what further obstruction could there possibly be? To refrain from “picking and choosing” is to return to one’s original enlightenment.
Examine this carefully: is this the Bodhi realized upon attainment? Is this the ignorance present when sentient beings are deluded? Is this the original enlightenment spoken of in the scriptures? Are Bodhi, Original Enlightenment, and Ignorance not simply “illusory conditions” provisionally established, different names for one and the same Mind? Mixed together within form and emptiness, these two categories encompass all names and appearances; the myriad principles and countless particulars are never truly in conflict, and greater and lesser are never truly far apart — enlightenment and delusion both arise from this very source; all of it is set forth by Mind alone.
“Only avoid love and hatred, and it appears in open clarity.” In Vietnamese: Only refrain from love and hatred’s grasping, and the heart, truly empty, sees clearly and shines forth.
Everyone understands the two words “love and hatred” in the ordinary sense. But for a practitioner, one who has undertaken cultivation, the understanding must extend further, in the direction of study and practice, along the path of the Way. We may readily agree that being weary of birth and death while longing for Nirvana is itself a form of love and hatred; that renouncing affliction while inclining toward Bodhi is likewise love and hatred. And to speak of love and hatred is to speak of “picking and choosing,” which entails discrimination between self and other. Therefore, to “avoid love and hatred,” to “refrain from love and hatred’s grasping,” one must resolutely follow the Buddha in denying the self, and put into practice the teaching of no-self. The self is an empty thing, a name provisionally imposed for convenience only. In this way, once one is no longer attached to feelings of preference or aversion, this Mind naturally becomes clear and bright.
Let there be no more confusion over right and wrong, good and bad, praise and blame, honor and disgrace. One must train the heart to remain always calm, impartial, and tranquil. When we hear someone say something, we habitually tend to criticize, to judge good or bad, right or wrong, to condemn or to justify. Chuang Tzu (Trang Tu) advises us to employ the method of “using the mind like a mirror” — allowing one’s mind to receive things as a clear mirror receives images. Never express approval or opposition. Not only should nothing be spoken aloud, remaining calm and composed outwardly, but above all, deep within the heart, there should absolutely be no reaction whatsoever. One’s heart must be made as still and unrippled as the surface of an autumn lake. Set aside all personal likes and dislikes, all preconceptions and surrounding opinions, so as to view everything with the great, impartial, universal eye of Buddhism, the mysteriously unified eye of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, with the utmost sincerity: “Being sincere — that alone is already sagehood.”
Over time, having grown accustomed to this, we will lose track of the moment when the ego, laden with the past (preconceptions), dissolves, allowing us to enter fully into the hearts of others — thereby becoming able to “take the hearts of the hundred families as one’s own heart,” gradually arriving at the mental state of one mysteriously united with the entire universe and all things, feeling clearly that “my mind is itself the universe, and the universe is itself my mind.”
When our Mind is vast and equal, free of all picking and choosing, free of criticism, free of comparison and judgment, free of condemnation, free of self-justification, then the mind-spirit becomes clear and bright. Why is this so? Because it has been liberated from every scale of value belonging to every dualistic system.
Stanza 2:
“A hair’s breadth of difference, and heaven and earth are set apart.” In Vietnamese: Err by even the slightest hair’s breadth, and heaven and earth are cleft entirely apart.
Although the vast teachings handed down by the Patriarchs hold that enlightenment and delusion are not truly different, if the feeling of love and hatred, of picking and choosing, remains even by the breadth of half a strand of silk, not yet entirely eliminated, the resulting separation will be as vast as the distance between heaven and earth. This line further emphasizes: the separation will be as terrible and complete as heaven cleft from earth, should even the slightest trace of preference or aversion, of picking and choosing, remain.
“To attain it manifest before you, take no thought either for or against.” In Vietnamese: To attain the lofty Way manifest before you, take no thought either for or against, leaning to neither side.
The ancients said: true nature has nothing it does not penetrate; both forward and backward movement are but skillful means. This line further advises: “take no thought either for or against, leaning to neither side.” Does this not, then, still amount to picking and choosing? It is not so.
“Manifest before you” refers to the samadhi of the present instant. Within that single flash of present awareness, the path of Mind comes entirely to rest; self and possession vanish; past and future no longer appear. This is the method of sudden enlightenment, proceeding directly along a single path straight to the Pure Land, the tranquil realm. Being a single path, how could there be any question of for or against, of picking and choosing at all? The line “take no thought either for or against, leaning to neither side” is simply an exhortation: let the path of Mind come to rest.
Stanza 3:
“To contend between for and against — this is the disease of Mind.” In Vietnamese: To set right against wrong, contending without end, is itself the disease of a stubborn, clinging mind.
Birth, death, and impermanence are themselves a disease of Mind. Seeing, hearing, and understanding are a disease of Mind; meditating and studying the Way are a disease of Mind; becoming a Buddha or a Patriarch is a disease of Mind. In the case of one cultivating liberation, both must be forgotten entirely — both for and against must be equally abandoned. When all cares, whether of Sage or ordinary person, are entirely cut off, and the single Way remains empty and still, there is no need for countless other miraculous remedies. Once this is achieved, this disease of Mind, having nothing left to depend upon, will naturally cease of itself.
“Not understanding the deep meaning, one labors uselessly in cultivating stillness.” In Vietnamese: If one does not grasp the deep meaning, the ultimate word, even quiet contemplation brings little benefit.
“The deep meaning” (huyen chi) refers to the Perfect Way. Though the name differs, the essence remains the same. If this is not grasped, cultivating stillness becomes a wasted, fruitless effort. This means: even after countless eons as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, with myriad forms of cultivation and verification, if the Mind still runs about seeking the Dharma externally, it will only exhaust itself uselessly.
Stanza 4:
“Release it spontaneously; the essence neither departs nor abides.” In Vietnamese: Let go completely, release without further entanglement, the essence itself never truly shifts or moves.
Once attachment of Mind has been dispelled, one naturally moves freely and without constraint, bound by nothing at all — moving like drifting clouds, resting like a valley spirit. With no mind fixed upon this or that, how could there still be any division between departing and abiding?
The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment (Kinh Vien Giac) says: “At all times, do not give rise to false thoughts. Toward all false thoughts, do not seek to extinguish them either. Within the realm of illusory perception, do not add further discernment, yet do not fail to distinguish the true either.” The meaning here is similar to what has already been said. Once the sentiments of ordinary being and Sage alike are purified, the ever-true essence manifests; far removed from illusory conditions, one becomes like the Buddha, beyond the need for further discernment.
“Follow nature and unite with the Way; wander freely, beyond all affliction.” In Vietnamese: Follow constant nature, and only then do you unite with the Way, all vexation ends, and you move freely, at perfect ease.
Once the Mind is empty, Nature need not wait to be followed, for it follows of itself; the Way need not wait to be united with, for it unites of itself. Consider the example of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng (Hue-Nang). The reason the Fifth Patriarch transmitted the Dharma to Huineng rather than to Shenxiu (Than Tu) was that Huineng, in quiet stillness, was already in accord with the Way, silently comprehending the profound meaning of the Tathagata: “Walking is meditation, sitting is meditation; speaking, silence, movement, and stillness — all are at perfect peace.” He wandered freely as clouds emerging from mountain caves, utterly free of affliction, like the moon dwelling in the midst of the void. Within the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom (Dai Vien Canh Tri), what could possibly be otherwise?
Stanza 5:
“None of it remains; nothing need be remembered.” In Vietnamese: Do not hold on to anything that remains, not letting the mind retain even a trace of longing.
Where the activity of Mind ceases entirely — this is: “none of it remains.” Where the path of language comes to an end — this is: “nothing need be remembered.”
Without, there is no dharma left to abandon — this is: “none of it remains.” Within, there is no mind left to conceive — this is: “nothing need be remembered.” One clearly sees that there is not a single thing, nor any person, nor even any Buddha; the great world-systems of the ten directions are but a speck of foam in the ocean, and all Sages and Worthies are like flashes of lightning — this is what is meant by “none of it remains”: “Sitting quietly in the southern terrace before a single stick of incense, all day long, clear and radiant, forgetting the ten thousand cares.”
The Surangama Sutra teaches: “Ananda, if you wish to recognize clearly the innate ignorance that causes you to drift and revolve within birth and death, know that its root lies precisely in your six sense faculties, and nothing else. If you further wish to know the supreme Bodhi that will bring you swiftly to the attainment of peaceful liberation, tranquil and ever-subtle, know that this too lies precisely in your six sense faculties, and nothing else.“
Awaken to this Mind, and the six sense-objects become the One Vehicle; be deluded regarding this Mind, and the One Vehicle itself becomes merely the six sense-objects. To oppose this is to be an ordinary being; to follow it is to be a Sage. “It is not a matter of cutting off the mind to eliminate false thought, but simply that there is nothing left worth pondering or worrying over” — this is what is meant by “nothing need be remembered.”
In the present moment, holding on to nothing at all — this follows the Buddha’s teaching to the Brahmin with the black fingernails, who approached the Buddha and was told: “Put it down.” To “put down” means to release the six sense faculties, the six sense objects, and the six forms of consciousness. Once everything has been released, with nothing left to release, this is the moment of liberation from all the bonds of birth, death, and rebirth. This is also called the mind that abides nowhere — the technical term is “mind of non-abiding” (Sanskrit: apratishthita-citta). Speaking of “non-abiding” may sound somewhat passive, as though aimed only at freeing wisdom and feeling from their bonds — yet the sense it truly conveys is deeply active, and its ultimate purpose is achieved only when mind and wisdom are restored to their original, functioning substance. “Put it down” — this is the refrain that has echoed through the ages within the teachings of Buddhism.
“The wise practice non-action; the ignorant bind themselves.” In Vietnamese: The wise, through non-action, accomplish their work, while the ignorant resign themselves to their own bondage.
To attain the One Vehicle, the Mind must not become steeped in the six sense-objects. There is no need to close one’s eyes and stop one’s ears — it is enough that the Mind remains free of discrimination and does not bend to follow after them, meaning that it remains unstained by the myriad things. When the Mind is free of false feeling, wrongful thought, and private attachment to opinion and habit, it becomes like the clear, settled waters of autumn — pure, still, and undisturbed — and only then may one be called a practitioner of the Way, also called a person free of concern. Clearly, then, the wise take no deliberate action (non-action, non-doing), while the ignorant become entangled and bound of their own accord.
Wisdom is not itself inherently wise — it is precisely through awakening that wisdom appears. Ignorance is not itself inherently the fault of the ignorant person — it is precisely through delusion that ignorance arises. The wise person awakens their own Mind, and an awakened Mind is naturally non-active. The ignorant person, too, is simply deluded in their own Mind, and a deluded Mind turns back and binds itself.
Wisdom and ignorance are both transformations of Mind — no external thing can ever command us.
Concluding the Xinxin Ming, let us together reaffirm: in the end, it all comes down to our own Mind alone: The wise liberate themselves; the ignorant bind themselves. It is the very same Mind, yet: awakened, it wanders freely and is at ease; deluded, it remains entangled and bound.
IV. CONCLUSION
Gathering together everything from the first line to the last, we find but a single idea explained from many angles: have firm faith that your own Mind is the Buddha’s Mind, the True Mind.
The True Mind is equal, without discrimination. Being without discrimination, how could there be any picking and choosing? Being without picking and choosing, no feeling of love or hatred arises. Without love or hatred arising, the Mind remains as it truly is, absolutely without the slightest deviation. For even the slightest error, by a single hair’s breadth, results in a separation as vast as the space between heaven and earth. The equal Mind exists only in the present: here and now. It does not regret what has passed, does not fantasize about the present, and does not long for what is yet to come. There is only the present moment and the equal Mind. Being equal, what room remains for “for” or “against”? In accord with whom, in opposition to whom? Only when the True Mind is lost does the unrestrained ordinary mind give rise to contention between right and wrong. And this is itself the disease of Mind, the stubborn affliction of the deluded. Being already deluded, what benefit is there in merely cultivating stillness? It is no different from someone, still trapped within their own error, claiming to have transcended to the true principle — how could this be possible? One must first thoroughly grasp the deep meaning. What is the Perfect Way? Without knowing what the Perfect Way truly is, to simply close one’s eyes and sit in meditation is wasted effort, no different from locking a thief inside one’s own house.
To sit in meditation is to release and let go, holding on to nothing. Why is this so? The Perfect Way is as though it neither goes nor stays. One must become utterly empty, absolutely without giving rise to false thought. Only after a long time practiced in this way does one come to see one’s own Nature. Seeing one’s Nature without doing anything in order to see it, without cutting off or extinguishing false mind, without adding further discernment to false thoughts, without seeking to clearly distinguish the true — being neither ordinary being nor Sage, the ever-true substance naturally reveals itself, free of the slightest affliction, wandering freely and at perfect ease. Without, there is no dharma left to abandon; within, there is no mind left to conceive. Is this not itself liberation? Empty, formless, without deliberate action, entirely non-active — utterly unlike the ordinary being who, with this very same Mind, binds themselves through false thought, through discrimination between self and other, through contention between right and wrong; who, with this very same Mind, sends it outward chasing after external circumstances through grasping and releasing, holding on, fear and anxiety, searching for the true principle, hearing that one should sit in meditation and so sitting in meditation just as others do — yet without ever examining their own mind, without knowing how to seek the release of the mind, simply because they do not yet truly believe, have not yet truly come to believe, that their own mind is the Buddha’s mind.
One must therefore engrave this deeply in the heart and act accordingly, following the Patriarchs and Teachers, so that the path of liberation need not be wearisome, and one may indeed reach the final destination.
With utmost sincerity of heart
KHAI SAC
(Venerable Khai Sac: former Secretary-General and Head of the Doctrine Department of the Minh Ly Holy Assembly; attained the rank of Dieu Quan Chon Nhon.)