The "Hsin-Ming" Attributed to Niu-T'ou Fa-Jung

Abstract

In the thirtieth chapter of the celebrated Ch'an Buddhist collection “Chingte ch'uan‐teng”al one finds a number of short texts of the g'tha (chia‐t'a)b type2 composed by various Ch'an masters. Among these often highly abstruse “songs” (ke)c is included one called “Hsin‐ming”d (Mind Inscription),3 which is attributed to Fa‐junge (594–657),4 the First Patriarch of the early Ch'an Buddhist denomination commonly known as the Niu‐t'ou Schoolf after the name of the mountain where the master dwelt,5 Before going on to a discussion of the text and its contents let us first take a brief look at the author and his brand of Ch'an Buddhism.

One Is All

“…Compare Hsin-ming: "If one puts an end to the two extremes (of being and not being), than one will be both bright and clear". In this and many other lines we find similarities between the Hsin hsin ming and the Hsin mhg, which was commented and translated by Sorensen, 1986:lOl-120.…”