
Jianzhi Sengcan, woodblock print
One of the earliest and most influential Chan texts is the Xinxin Ming. In the original Chinese the 146 lines of four-characters to a line of the Xinxin Ming occupy only two-thirds of a page in the over 100,000 pages of the Taisho Tripitaka. It speaks concisely and clearly of the practice of realization: of aligning ourselves with the inherent luminosity of the space of experiencing instead of falling into the struggle and strategies that arise from the fragmenting of experience into dualities.
Its well-known opening lines are:The Vast Way is without difficulty:The Great Master Zhaozhou Congshen referred to these lines many times and there are a number of koan in the Blue Cliff Records, the Biyanlu or Hekiganroku that involve Zhaozhou and these words. You can hear the Xinxin Ming in Eihei Dogen zenji's Fukanzazengi or How Everyone Can Sit, one of our foundational texts and throughout the Eihei Koroku. Keizan Jokin zenji presented a commentary on it. Many Masters and students have been deeply influenced by the Xinxin Ming and it has been published throughout the centuries and translated into many languages. But its origins have been lost. Traditionally, the text is attributed to Jianzhi Sengcan who is known as the Third Ancestor of Chan, the Dharma-heir of Dazu Huike, the Second Ancestor, who in turn was the Dharma-heir of the First Ancestor Bodhidharma. The legends of the early Ancestors are not really history at all but they are not really just fictional either. The legends and hagiography convey to us Teachings about our own practice. While we are not primarily concerned with the history of the text it is important to acknowledge what scholars have concluded for decades now and that Sengcan, if he existed, if he lived the life he is said to have lived, had nothing to do with the Xinxin Ming. Sengcan is said to have died in 606. There are no references to the Xinxin Ming until much much later. Zhaozhou for example lived from 778 to 897.
just don't accept or reject.
There is a text called the Xin Ming or Words on Mind which is attributed to Niutou Farong who lived from 594 to 657, who was a Dharma-heir of the Fourth Ancestor Daoxin. The similarities between the Xin Ming and the Xinxin Ming have caused some scholars to believe that the Xinxin Ming was actually written after the time of the Sixth Ancestor Huineng, who lived from 638 to 713, as a condensed version of the Xin Ming. Some scholars think that the Fourth Ancestor Daoxin might have composed the Xinxin Ming and that the Xin Ming was an expansion on it. Some others propose that Daoxin wrote down a verse that Sengcan had presented orally.
As well, the earliest biography of Sengcan appears in the "Record of the Teachers and Disciples of the Lanka", "Lengqie shizi zi", compiled by Jingjue; who lived around 683-750 but the text was only discovered in the Dunhuang caves in 1926. There it says that, "He did not put any writings into circulation. He only taught intimately those who came close and did not publically Transmit the Dharma. He had only one known disciple, the Venerable Daoxin, who attended to him for twelve years."
So, in the end, we do not really know who the author was or even when it was composed, although dozens of generations have believed it to be Sengcan. And so, it seems reasonable to still refer to it as being attributed to the Third Ancestor.
- Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, continuing teisho 1: "It Wasn't Sengcan" in the series "Without Difficulty: Commentaries on Jianzhi Sengcan's Xinxin Ming:Words on Trusting Awareness," Saturday, January 14, 2006
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