Heart-Mind · Internal Edition¶

I. Definition: The Space of Thinking¶

Heart-mind: the space of thinking — like a person's bedroom, like a factory's workshop.

Heart-mind-spirit (xīnlíng): the information that flows in and out of the space of thinking — like all the furnishings and the occupant of the bedroom, like the facilities, machinery, and staff of the factory.

Thinking: the process by which heart-mind-spirit analyzes, synthesizes, judges, reasons, and draws conclusions based on phenomena and concepts — like the occupant's habits and way of living, like the decisions and labor of the factory's management and workers.

Consciousness: a relatively stable, dynamic antimatter structure of the heart-mind-spirit; the result of thinking — like the overall lived state expressed by the bedroom, its furnishings, its occupant, and the occupant's life.

(Xuefeng Corpus · Spirit · Heart-Mind, Heart-Mind-Spirit, Thinking, Consciousness)

II. The Nature of Heart-Mind: Empty — Alive Only When Spirit Enters¶

Heart-mind is fashioned by heaven and earth. The entire physical body is heart-mind; the entire universe is heart-mind. At its core, heart-mind is empty. It comes alive only when spirit (líng) enters it. Its longevity depends on whether spirit continues to dwell within it. Its scope depends on the energy level of the spirit that enters:

When the spirit of the Greatest Creator dwells in heart-mind, heart-mind is the entire universe. When divine spirit dwells in it, heart-mind encompasses half of the Taiji. When Buddha spirit dwells in it, heart-mind occupies the entire antimatter world. When Immortal spirit dwells in it, heart-mind holds all the higher-life spaces. When a king or president's spirit dwells in it, heart-mind spans that nation's entire territory. When a sage's spirit dwells in it, heart-mind encompasses all observable phenomena on Earth. When an ordinary person's spirit dwells in it, heart-mind holds nation, ethnicity, religion, family, and friends. When a worldly person's spirit dwells in it, heart-mind is occupied by money, power, status, fame, resentment, and hatred. When a confused person's spirit dwells in it, heart-mind is driven only by the instincts of eating, clothing, shelter, and bodily needs…

(Xuefeng Corpus · Spirit · Heart-Mind, Heart-Mind-Spirit, Thinking, Consciousness)

III. Heart-Mind, Spirit, and Consciousness¶

Heart-mind and spirit are usually joined together. When spirit leaves heart-mind, a person becomes a vegetable. When the spirit dwelling in heart-mind is of a low level and small energy, the person tends to be rigid and inflexible.

The state of the heart-mind-spirit determines the essential content of a person's LIFE. This content expresses itself through a person's temperament, speech, and habits. The state of the heart-mind-spirit is determined by consciousness, and consciousness is primarily determined by thinking. In the end, LIFE's antimatter structure depends on thinking. Without thinking that reaches a certain level, the corresponding consciousness structure cannot form; without change in consciousness, LIFE's antimatter structure does not change at all.

(Xuefeng Corpus · Spirit · Heart-Mind, Heart-Mind-Spirit, Thinking, Consciousness)

IV. Heart-Mind Arises from Conditions — Inherently Without Substance¶

From the Chanyuan and Xuefeng Corpus we know: heart-mind does not originally exist — it appears in response to conditions; without conditions, there is no heart-mind. The Buddha is suchness — coming from nowhere, going nowhere, utterly still — which is nature (xìng). Strictly speaking, Buddha is nature, nature is Buddha; to say that Buddha is heart-mind is a stretch.

Shakyamuni Buddha said: "The past heart-mind cannot be grasped. The present heart-mind cannot be grasped. The future heart-mind cannot be grasped." Why cannot it be grasped? Because heart-mind arises with conditions, shifts with conditions, and ceases with conditions. Conditions are unreal and illusory; therefore heart-mind is also unreal and illusory — ungrasped.

Thus, Buddha is without heart-mind. Once heart-mind arises, it is no longer Buddha.

(Guide's Other Articles · 2009 · Buddha Has No Heart-Mind; Heart-Mind Has No Buddha)

V. Heart-Mind and Phenomena: Ten Thousand Forms Give Rise to Heart-Mind¶

Heart-mind is the reflection of the objective material world. Ten thousand forms give rise to heart-mind; heart-mind gives rise to ten thousand forms. Without the outer world, there is no heart-mind. Heart-mind changes as the world changes; it fades as the world fades.

"Heart-mind being moved by conditions" is the state of an ordinary person; "using heart-mind to move conditions" is the state of an Immortal — but even this is passive, futile, and not ultimately liberating. Conditions are endless: as one recedes, another rises. Heart-mind is fundamentally unreliable. Heart-mind is empty, heart-mind is nothing — how could it be relied upon?

Shakyamuni Buddha taught: "Do not let form give rise to heart-mind. Do not let sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas give rise to heart-mind. Let heart-mind arise without any fixed abode."

(Chanyuan Corpus · The Thirty-Six Trigram Formations · Heart-Mind Formation: The Fifth; Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation of Immortality · How to Live Out One's Own Nature)

VI. Heart-Mind and Nature: When Heart-Mind Stirs, Nature Is Obscured¶

Nature (xìng) is the characteristic of LIFE's structure. Whatever LIFE structure one has, such is one's nature. Nature is non-material, invisible, and unreachable by heart-mind. Nature is not stored in the Retained Information Space either — the brain has no access to it.

Heart-mind and nature have no direct relationship. When a person's heart-mind is active, nature is blocked. This is the principle: when heart-mind stirs, nature is obscured; when heart-mind stills, nature is revealed. Likewise, brain and nature have no direct relationship. The more developed the brain, the more active the thinking, the further one is from nature.

Understanding the relationship between heart-mind, brain, and nature tells us how to live out one's nature: by living without relying on heart-mind or brain. That is living nature; that is living out one's own nature.

Patriarch Bodhidharma in the Treatise on Blood Streams tells us clearly: Buddha is nature, nature is Buddha; an Immortal is nature, nature is an Immortal. If a person fully lives without heart-mind and without brain, that person is an Immortal, is a Buddha — and may go to live in the heavens.

The final answer: living with neither heart-mind nor brain, yet still at ease, free and natural — that is living out one's nature.

(Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation of Immortality · How to Live Out One's Own Nature; Guide's Other Articles · 2009 · Buddha Has No Heart-Mind; Heart-Mind Has No Buddha)

VII. The Heart-Mind Formation: A Trigram Maze¶

In truth, heart-mind does not exist. People have no heart-mind by nature. Heart-mind is only a trigram formation. People are caught inside the trigram formation of heart-mind without realizing it — they think they have heart-mind, and as a result are bound by it.

Heart-mind belongs to human beings. If a person is without heart-mind, they become an Immortal or a Buddha. Heart-mind is a trigram maze. Escaping the heart-mind maze means escaping all of humanity's joys and sorrows, worries and troubles, and entering a bright and beautiful immortal realm.

How to escape?

The World-Honored Shakyamuni Buddha taught: "Give rise to heart-mind without fixed abode — do not give rise to heart-mind in response to form; do not give rise to heart-mind in response to sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas." In a word: discard heart-mind; become a person without heart-mind.

The Immortal Laozi told us: "The reason I have great troubles is that I have a self. If I had no self, what troubles would I have?" Extended to heart-mind: heartbreak and anguish exist because we have heart-mind. Without heart-mind, where would heartbreak come from?

Without heart-mind, how does one live? By living nature! Buddha is nature, nature is Buddha. To live nature is to live as a Buddha, to live as an Immortal.

(Chanyuan Corpus · The Thirty-Six Trigram Formations · Heart-Mind Formation: The Fifth)

VIII. Heart-Mind Obscures Nature — Do Not Rely on Heart-Mind¶

Heart-mind arises in response to all things and phenomena. Without the ten-thousand things, there is no heart-mind. When phenomena appear, heart-mind arises; when phenomena cease, heart-mind ceases. Heart-mind is moved by conditions. Heart-mind is a mirror — it only reflects objective reality; it is not objective reality itself. Therefore heart-mind is unreliable.

What is reliable is nature. Patriarch Bodhidharma stated clearly in the Treatise on Blood Streams: "To seek Buddha, you must see your nature. Seeing nature is Buddha. Without seeing nature, reciting sutras, sitting in meditation, and keeping precepts are all of no benefit."

The conclusion: do not chase profit, do not display cleverness, do not rely on heart-mind — let your original nature bloom.

(Chanyuan Corpus · Spreading the Way · Profit Blinds Wisdom, Wisdom Blinds Heart-Mind, Heart-Mind Blinds Nature)

IX. The Practitioner's Heart-Mind: Taking No-Heart-Mind as Heart-Mind¶

The practitioner's heart-mind takes the people's heart-mind as its own — always holding the people at heart, their joy my joy, their suffering my suffering.

The practitioner's heart-mind takes all things as its own — the universe has messages, all things have feelings; trees, flowers, insects, and birds all exist for me, all have the grace of nurturing me. When all things weep, my heart-mind cannot be still. My heart-mind dissolves into all things; all things live in my heart-mind.

The practitioner's heart-mind takes the universe as its own — the vast heavens know my heart-mind. The universe exists; I exist. The universe ceases; I cease. My heart-mind melts into the universe; the universe holds my heart-mind everywhere.

The practitioner's heart-mind takes the spirit of the divine and the Buddha as its own — our consciousness is one with the divine and the Buddha; our feelings merge with them. Clothed in Jesus's armor, holding Shakyamuni's staff, we are the embodiment of Jesus and the Buddha.

The practitioner's heart-mind takes compassion as its own — tender and delicate, like new buds on branches in early spring. Caring like a parent for a newborn, holding all living beings close.

The practitioner's heart-mind takes the Infinite as its own — beyond the bonds of life and death, finishing heart-mind so no new heart-mind arises, beyond glory and disgrace, beyond life and death, dissolving into the infinite horizon, living in eternal space.

The practitioner's heart-mind takes harmony as its own — let clouds roll and unfurl, let flowers bloom and fall. Observe the mystery in the having; observe the boundary in the having-not. The Tao moves on; the principle endures.

The practitioner's heart-mind takes no-heart-mind as its own — all conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows, dew, and lightning. Heart-mind is the source of all troubles; heart-mind gives rise to desire and demonic entanglement. The Greatest Creator is my spirit; the nature of the Tao is my heart-mind. At ease wherever I am; transformed by affinity; moved by nature; accomplished by timing.

(Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation Practice · The Practitioner's Heart-Mind)