Zen practitioners often talk about “Shin” and what is the
proper translation for “shin”. The
most common translation is heart-mind, though in the earlier days of
translation it was only translated as mind. The problem being that in the east the discriminative mind
resides in the heart and in the west, it resides in the mind. So if you noticed hand gestures,
eastern people point to the heart in speaking of mind and westerners point to
the brain. Interesting!
As Okumura Roshi explains, “Shin is neither heart or mind or
both and actually neither.”
Dogen writes a whole fascicle about the meaning of “shin”. In the Shobogenzo chapter titled
Sokushinzebutsu, Dogen works with
the koan from Baso (or Mazu). In a dialogue between Zen master Baso and the monk Daibai in Case 30 of the koan
collection, The Gateless Gate:
Daibai asked Baso, “What is buddha?”
Baso answered, “Mind
(shin) here and now is buddha.”
In this Shobogenzo chapter, Dogen rearranges the words to
show all the different sides and possibilities of this meaning. This is a beautiful example of Dogen’s
subtle changing of syntax to expound the deeper meaning of traditional Zen
phrases.
1.
Soku
shin ze butsu – “mind here and now is Buddha”
2.
Shin
soku butsu ze – “the mind which is Buddha is this”
3.
Butsu
soku ze shin –“Buddha actually is just the mind”
4.
Ze
butsu shin soku – “this Buddha-mind is now here”
5.
Soku
shin butsu ze – “Mind-and-buddha here and now is true”
6.
Ze
butsu soku shin - “concrete
Buddha is mind here and now”
In this chapter dogen expounds that the mind or heart or
shin is the one mind that means all dharmas in the entire network of
interdependent origination. And
this one mind is authentically transmitted by buddhas and ancestors. All dharmas are one mind. It is neither in our heart or our mind
but it is the total reality of all space and time inter-related. Okumura Roshi asks with a smile, “so how do
you translate that?”
Keizan’s also has a commentary on the meaning of Mind as
represented by the phrase, dropping off body and mind.
“What is body and what is mind?
Finally he said:
“What is this principle, would you like to hear it?
That bright and shiny realm has neither inside nor outside
How can there be any body and mind to drop off.”
This is a radical shift in our thinking about body and mind,
heart and mind, and what we think we are “trying to do.”
Each of these variation of syntax, help us to allow our
minds to enlarge, to soften, to not hold on to solidity or concreteness and to
live in the moment, dropping our conceptualization of what is happening. To drop off our conceptualization of
heart-mind and just to be in “suchness” is extremely important to understanding
practice-realization. We do not
hook or link what is expressing itself in the moment to our conceptual
projection or imputation of what we think
is happening. What we think is usually dualistic. Instead, we can sink down into the energetic experience of
this moment, right in the middle of the paradox of karma and immediacy, history
and universality. This is the
wholeness of the present moment where form and emptiness are dancing together
in one great melody –heart/mind or the One Mind, not divided or separated out
through language.
Labels: Dogen, Dropping off body and mind, heart-mind, Keizan, Okumura Roshi, One mind, Shin